What's a PR pitch?

A PR pitch is a short, snappy, personalised message that outlines the value of a story to a journalist. It should be engaging and timely while ensuring key information is covered.

Here’s our five tips on how to craft a winning media pitch:

Research, research, research

The first step of creating a strong pitch is to research and identify publications and journalists that are most likely to be interested in your story. The easiest way to find journalists covering your industry interests is to use a media database to seek in-depth information and contact details.

Use the database as your starting point, but ensure you do your own research to make sure the contacts you’ve found are still active and cover what you and your clients want to talk about. You could do this by searching for them on social media, looking at recent coverage from the publication or doing a simple Google search.

So, what do you do once you’ve identified your target? You’ll need to look at the stories your selected journalists typically cover and you’ll get a feel for the topics and trends that seem to resonate with their audience.

Keep it short and sweet

No one wants to read a 3,000-word pitch, so keep it short, sweet and relevant.

Pitches need to be brief, engaging and get straight to the point. You only have a few seconds to catch a journalist’s attention once they’ve opened your email, so you need to ensure your pitch captures the most newsworthy part of your story and covers the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when and why).

Personalise your pitch

Once you’ve drafted killer copy for your perfect PR pitch, you’ll want to personalise it. Personalised pitches show journalists that you've considered their interests and prove that you’ve researched them and their area of expertise. You could mention a journalist’s past stories or segments - perhaps they’ve covered one of your stories before and so you could highlight this.

In your pitch, tell the reporter you enjoyed their article and mention the specific points that caught your eye, and ensure your email is individually sent to each journalist.

Then package it

Package your pitch to make it easy for a journalist to share your story. Include a distinctive subject line that will entice the reporter and incorporate all necessary media elements such as images, videos and quotes into your pitch.

Share any images or videos by using a file transfer service to avoid email overload, and be sure to include your contact details at the end of your pitch so the journalist can reach out to you if they have any questions.

Want to go that one step further? You could even include UTM links to your pitch which enable you to track each click and where it comes from.

Ping a follow-up

Finally, don’t forget to follow-up.

If you haven’t received a response from a journalist, share a concise, polite email to check-in and see if they received your pitch and if they require further information. Ensure your follow-up adds value and explain why the story is ideal for them to cover. You can even share new, additional images or quotes to accompany the story.

Craft a winning pitch and follow-up and you’re guaranteed to score winning coverage.