The Dos & Donts of Pitching (for Publicists)

Pitching isn’t the most fun task and can even be downright nerve wrecking at times. Knowing what not to do is half the battle but it’s an important one because one tiny error can make or break whether your pitch gets read or immediately deleted.

A guest post by C.C. Chapman on PR-Squared.com covers some dos and donts of pitching. We thought we’d pass along the info to our fellow publicists out there. For the full post, click on the link at the bottom.

Here are a few things not to do:

Dear _______
It doesn’t matter what it says after that. NO ONE but people pitching things start e-mail with something like that. If you want to make it personal then use my name and move on. Think about it. When was the last time you started an e-mail to anyone like that? For bonus points, put the wrong name in there or forget how to use mail merge and leave some variation of <first_name>.

100% Form Letter
I understand that we’ve all got boiler plate copy to use, but don’t make the entire e-mail one big piece of boiled crap. Take at least a the first introduction to show me that you are writing this to ME. You’d be amazed what 15 minutes on a bloggers site, Facebook profile or Twitter stream will do to allow you to get to know them a little bit better.

Send it more then once
gMail is my main e-mail program and it does a great job of threading messages with the same subject line from the same people. If I see 3 new messages from the same person grouped together I don’t even open the e-mail since it is obvious a sloppy pitch.

Pretend the pitch isn’t a pitch
Don’t you dare send me a note talking about “this amazing link I found online that I thought you’d like” acting as if you are nothing more then a reader and trying to show me something cool. Thankfully these types have become rare, but I had it happen just last week so I know some of you are still doing it.

I could probably rant forever on this topic, but I want this to be a learning experience for everyone, so let me give you a few tips that will improve your pitches and thus lead to more coverage for your clients.

Show that you’ve taken the time to at least get to know each person a little. This means after you’ve put together your target list that you go out to each of their sites and online profiles and let them know why you are reaching out to them. Did they blog about a competitor? Do they write about your industry on a regular basis? Whatever the reason, let them know.

Choose your words carefully. Try to avoid using things like Miss & Mrs. as some people don’t appreciate them. If you are reaching out to parents be sure to use that word. Too often these days I am getting pitched as a mom, but I’m a Dad. When in doubt go overly general.

Get to the point as soon as possible because if I don’t know you then I’m going to scan and decide what action to take very quickly. Whenever possible put a link to what you want me to look at, review or interact with as up front as possible.

Don’t be afraid to be overly direct in what you would like to get out of me, but always remain courteous. Consider saying something along the lines of “If you liked what you saw/heard/read please consider sharing this with your community.”

If you are going to send an item for review, go the extra mile and upfront say that you will expect the blogger to disclose this when they post their review. This shows that you and your client has a certain level of integrity and goes a long way. Personally I’m big fan of using Cmp.ly for my disclosures.

Each one of us fights the demons of staying on top of our inbox daily and when it comes down to choosing between a pitch from a stranger and a note from a friend, the pitch will always lose.

Take my advice to heart the next time you begin telling the world about your client and I guarantee you that more people will read it then before. I promise you that I will. Feel free to e-mail me the next time I’m a match for one of your pitches.