Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about media pitches, what are they and how to land a successful media pitch. Now I'm Jay Feldman, one of the co-founders of Otter PR, we send out about 100 pitches a day so I've got my fair share of experience on the receiving end as well as the sending end of these pitches. Let's talk about what a media pitch is and if you hang out with me until the end of this video I'm going to tell you the secret word that is going to get your pitch picked up by that journalist or reporter and get you coverage. I'm also going to share some examples of really successful pitches that we've done that are going to, you can actually use to replicate success for yourself. So a media pitch is essentially a concise email or LinkedIn message to a reporter or journalist telling them why they should be interested in covering your story. It's going to come with a subject line, a hook and the value and a media pitch can happen on any platform, you know typically and historically it's been via email but now you can pitch someone on Twitter, you can pitch someone on LinkedIn so it is not restricted to the email platform alone. Now you know what a pitch is, how do you actually be successful with your media pitch? Journalists and reporters and let me tell you are used to getting hit with media pitches all day every day from different angles and I talk to them all the time about this and how disappointed and frustrated and annoyed they are by some of the low quality pitches and unpersonalized pitches that come through their inbox. So if you watch this video you're going to know not only how to stand out but how to get excitement from these journalists and reporters and make them your long term partner because you don't just want to pitch them once, you want to make them your partner for life, you want to pitch them all of your new stories that come through and you want them to see your name and respond. Alright so step one for a successful pitch is, and this is the hardest thing to do so take this with a grain of salt, is to actually build a relationship with that reporter or journalist beforehand. The most successful pitches in the world go to people who already know your name and this is actually easier than ever than it ever has been historically to build these relationships with journalists because we have a tool that has never been available to our parents and grandparents which is social media. It's very easy to find these media professionals on Twitter and LinkedIn, I actually suggest using LinkedIn because a lot of this, it's easier to search for them, it's really easy to share their material, it's really easy to like and comment and engage and that's what I prefer to do. So if you want a successful pitch every time, spend that time networking, share their material, follow them, connect with them, tell them that you like their recent articles and reports and I promise it's going to go a long way to getting your pitch opened and responded to and taken a little bit more seriously. If you put in that background work, your pitch is going to go over a lot better. Number two, and this is the other most important factor I think, is offer actual value in your pitch. If you're pitching something that you know as a PR professional is not an interesting story and is not going to be interesting, you're just doing it on behalf of your client or you're sending them a press release that you did for a company, chances are you're not going to get a good response from a journalist or a reporter. If it's not an interesting story and you're not offering them any specific value, what incentive do they have to cover your story? Now if you have a company with a renowned CEO and you're going to offer that journalist or reporter an exclusive interview, either a phone interview or a Zoom interview with that CEO, that's value. If you're going to offer them a trial product so they can test out your new technologically advanced product before they report on it, that's value. And if you're offering them to report on somebody with a large social reach, tell them that you're going to bring that social reach to their article. All of those things are just some examples of value that you can actually offer to your reporter or journalist to increase your chances of getting coverage and getting opens. Step three, and I can't overstate this enough, is personalization. A lot of PR professionals, agencies, firms are in the common practice of sending blast pitches out to thousands of different media professionals, some of which aren't even relevant to the topic that you're presenting. And it's not personalized. Even if it has their first name, they can see right through it. The best pitches are done one by one and with something relevant that can only be relevant to that single reporter or journalist. For example, you read some of their past work and you want to offer a specific comment on a title that they recently put out. If you put that in the subject line, the chances of them opening that email or that LinkedIn message are going to be 100x because you actually took the time to dive into their work and send them a specific pitch that makes it seem like, at least, that your offer in that email is going to be targeted for them and not for the masses. So spend the extra time, personalize your email, get to know the journalists and reporters that you're pitching, and it's going to go over a whole lot better. Next one, number four, and this is also very important, is keep your contacts short and sweet, especially if this is a pitch. Make sure that your subject line is concise and make sure that the body of your email is readable. Start with the hook. Don't make them read through a long press release to figure out what the value add is. As soon as they open that email, they should see, boom, hello, here's the hook, here's the ask. The days of sending a long press release with 500 to 1,000 words in an email are over. There's no way those journalists and reporters who are getting hundreds of emails a week are going to read through your long press release to figure out if this is a story or not. You have about 100 words to let them know if you have something of value for them to actually respond to and get that pitch noticed and taken to the press. And the final piece of advice that I have for you when sending out your pitch is make sure that it's targeted. If you are going to be pitching either in mass or directly, make sure that what they're actually writing about, what that journalist or reporter is interested in, is relevant to the story that you're presenting. If you send out a pitch to 1,000 people, 500 of which is relevant, 500 of which it's maybe relevant or probably not, not only are you going to get marked as spam, but you're going to blackball yourself from all of these reporters and journalists. So really take the time, again, to know your reporters and journalists. Know what they write about. Know what they report about. Know what they're interested in. And that way, if you send them that pitch, it's a much more targeted pitch, they're going to receive it a whole lot better, and they're going to be more receptive to your pitches in the future. If you send a journalist who is writing about technology something about healthcare two or three times or even once, and then they see their next pitch, they're probably just going to delete your email without even opening it. So please take your time to get to know them, send them relevant pitches, follow the advice that I stated in step one through five, and I guarantee your pitch is going to go over smoothly, get picked up and get published, and you're going to do a great job for your client and your company and yourself. Now that you hung out with me through my five tips, I'm going to give you the secret hook word that I want you to use in your every single email and LinkedIn message that is going to create a long-term relationship with that journalist. It's going to get that pitch noticed, and it's going to hopefully make a friend for you. And that word is partner. So the journalists want more than just a PR professional sending them stories. They want a partnership with you. They want, they need this information, they need stories. So please use this word, and then you want to create a partner. You want to create a long-term relationship with them that is going to last well beyond this one pitch. Now for some example pitches, here's how I want you to access them. In the description, in the caption, you're going to click on the link and go to our website, otterpr.com. We wrote an awesome blog post to go along with this video. And you're going to have some example pitches that we've used that have worked very, very well. So you can look them over and use some of those examples for yourself in your own pitches. And I wish you the best pitching. If you follow this advice, I guarantee success. And if you want to talk to a PR firm about maybe outsourcing some of your pitching, working with publicists who have those deep Rolodexes of media contacts that make this pitching a lot easier, give us a call. The link to schedule a free consultation with our firm is in the description, and we look forward to meeting with you. Thank you. Bye.