PR DICTIONARY: PR PITCH

What is a PR pitch? How do I create one? Is it the same thing as a press release? Does it need to be visual?

A pitch is, in essence, just an email. It is an email from you, the PR pro ;), to a journalist, telling them about your amazing story, news or product launch. It is often a short email that gives an introduction to your offering and enough information for the journalist to then follow up with you if it is of interest.

Now, when it comes to finding the angle or hook for your pitch email, take a look at this blog post for some guidance, but if you are already decided on what you want your pitch email to say, what is it going to look like?

Well, first we need to understand the media and the journalist that we are wanting to pitch to. Say you have a handful of magazines that you want to pitch to, don’t start the process of pitching without working through the following research:

• What the magazine likes to write about and what content they like to cover

• What issues and themes the specific journalist writes about

• What type of ‘page’ the journalist writes - is it largely product? Do they do interviews? Do they do case study features?

• You need to establish where and how you fit into your target media to ensure that you are choosing the right journalist and publication to target.

If you don’t do this, it is a waste of your time and a waste of theirs and it risks your working relationship with the journalist before it has even really begun.

How do you write one? Stay tuned and I will share all in my next post…