Anatomy of the Perfect PR Pitch

A good PR strategy, the way we define it, has layers. 

Start with a strong personal brand foundation. With this, you’ve defined yourself and given yourself a platform that showcases who exactly you are and speaks directly to your ideal audience. This is the perfect place to send people from a media hit. 

Add an external outreach strategy that meets your target audience where they are. No opportunity is too small, if it gets directly in front of your people. Quality far outweighs quantity. 

Finish with an expert approach to crafting a PR pitch. 

This is the crucial last step. You can have the perfect personal brand and you can identify all the places your audience lives, but if your pitch doesn’t land, it could all be for nothing.

So let’s talk about what goes into the perfect PR pitch. 

An email by any other name. 

At the end of the day, a PR pitch is really just intentional and strategic emailing. It’s all about the magic of the inbox and eliciting a response. 

53% of public relations professionals actually say that receiving responses from journalists is the biggest challenge in their line of work (Muck Rack). So thinking strategically before you hit send could be the difference between a press hit and a press miss.

Start with when. 

When you send an email is just as important as what’s in the email itself, and this is just as true with a PR pitch as a marketing email. Make sure you’re considering the industry, time zones, or if there are seasonal themes or events at play. 

Then, apply these basic rules:

• Daytime is best. First thing in the morning or early afternoon.
• Avoid Mondays and Fridays. People just got back from their weekend on Mondays and are checked out on Fridays. (Why are we like this?)
• Consider timelines and deadlines—if the pitch is time sensitive, give the outlet enough time to respond.
• If you don’t hear back, email again. Pitching requires patience, but also tenacity. People rarely respond to the first email, so it’s all about the follow up. Don’t be shy—if you want something, you have to ask for it.

No matter what, craft your PR pitch with respect and remember: whoever is reading it on the other side is a human, just like you.

Keep on working.

You can, and you should, have a stretch goal in mind in the PR process. Identifying your dream media hit (we’re talking a big, hairy, audacious PR dream) allows you to work your way backwards to identify what other kinds of opportunities will help you get there.

This helps you play the long game and figure out a path that will get you the exposure to warrant that dream hit becoming a reality. 

That means putting in the work. 

That means researching your target audience. 

That means continuous research of external outreach opportunities. 

That means networking.

And that means pitching, again and again and again. 

An underrated piece of this work is relationship building. Use your pitch emails and social media as opportunities to  connect with reporters and outlets. Go to events and conferences and panels and meet as many people in your industry as you can to create a network of reciprocal relationships. In other words, plant the seeds now that may bloom into incredible opportunities for your business and brand in the future. 

If you can do this authentically and genuinely, you’ll have an established community with key connections that will give you and every PR pitch you send a leg up on your competition. 

Build a PR pitch like a pro.

There are some basic pieces that should be in any PR pitch. These are necessary to make your pitch a pitch that lands.

• Personalization: think about who you’re pitching to specifically and tailor the message to that individual. 
• Timeliness: demonstrate your knowledge of the current landscape of your industry and how that might affect the specific outlet you’re pitching. 
• Credibility: highlight why the outlet should care about you or your perspective. Showcase your expertise.
• Exclusivity: make the outlet feel special, like they’re getting a sneak peek or something no one else has. 
• A unique hook: highlight what makes your story different from everyone else’s. Why should that journalist choose YOU?
• A clear call to action & strong sign off: don’t leave them hanging. Give them tangible next steps to learn more about you, your brand, or your expertise.
  
  And, above all…

• Authenticity: allow yourself to be vulnerable, generous, and genuine when summarizing your story. There’s a human on the other end of the email and your goal is to connect to them. 

If you’re interested in learning more about building your unique PR strategy in today’s market: