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To Phone or not to Phone (pitch) The Media

Guest post by: Anthony Mora

Article Overview: You’ve come up with your story ideas and pitch angles, you’ve written your press release, you’ve sent out the email pitches and you’ve placed your release on one of the paid wire services and… nothing! Not a single editor or producer has called to interview you or write a feature on you. You’ve done everything right and everything’s gone wrong. What now? How about picking up the phone? There’s a start!

To Phone or not to Phone (pitch) The Media

You’ve come up with your story ideas and pitch angles, you’ve written your press release, you’ve sent out the email pitches and you’ve placed your release on one of the paid wire services and… nothing! Not one editor or producer has called to interview you or write a feature on you. You’ve done everything right and everything’s gone wrong. What now?

Time to turn to that small hand-held device that blinks and buzzes and rings (in an endless variety of tones). Yep, the phone. While, you could pick it up and see if that editor or producer ever read your emailed press release, I can already tell you that chances are 99.9% that your release was never read. Don’t be discouraged, however. Instead pick up the phone and interest the media in your story, not to try and sell your product or service, but to offer the media a compelling story idea that appeals to them. There’s an idea.

An effective phone pitch is rarely jazzy or funny (although it can be both) but one that is real and genuine. Your objective is to briefly and succinctly let the media know how and why this story idea will work for them and their viewers or readers. It’s not the time to try to sell. Be you when you present the story. It’s best to pretend as though you are not calling someone who’s in the media when presenting this pitch. It’s important that your enthusiasm is evident in both your voice and your delivery. You don’t want to sound like a salesperson but like someone who is truly interested in the topic and wants to share it with others.

Review your press release and break it down into the most important bullet points. When you’re doing the phone pitch you won’t have time to pitch the full release and you definitely don’t want to read a pitch verbatim from your release. You’ll sound like a robot, which will make you less believable. But do use your bullet points from the release as an aid. Have them in front of you and let them guide what you want to say. Don’t insist on sticking to a scripted approach. It’s a conversation and as with any conversation it will ebb and flow and have its own rhythm.

Come up with the most compelling aspects of the story and lead with those. Introduce yourself and let the producers or editors know that you’d like to give them a story idea. Be polite and respectful. Before starting your pitch, ask them whether or not it is a convenient time for them to talk. If they say it’s not a good time, thank them and ask if you can email a release and call at a later date. Find out when would be a good time, thank them and get off the phone.

If the answer is yes, start your pitch and keep it concise. Remember you don’t have to tell your whole story. You want to hit the highlights, the points that make it interesting. And you want to illustrate why this story is a great fit for the particular media outlet you’re pitching. When to make your pitch, how to pitch national versus local and how to leave a voice mail pitch will be covered in my next article.

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Article Tags: building relationships, calling the media, calls, communications, editors, effective pr, effective pr phone pitch, effective public relations campaigns, followup calls, Marketing, Media, media consultant, Media Coverage, media interview, media outlets, media pitch, media pitches, Media Relations, media story ideas, nation media vs local media, news shows, newsworthy story, phone pitch, pitch angles, pitch talking points, pitching journalists, pitching media outlets, pitching the media, PR, PR Campaign, press coverage, press release, Press releases, Public Relations, radio, reporters, story highlights, story ideas, studying media outlets, tv, voice mail pitch, writing stories



Related Forum Posts
How do i answer the phone? - I learned this technique from a successful businessman who earns over a million dollars a year. He just uses his name like this... Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." It kind of throws people off who have a preplanned script and gets right into it. Phone rings... " This is Dwayne..." No Hello, no good morning/afternoon/evening Phone rings... "This is Dwayne..."
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - [quote="mbrand2222":3738chdj]I can definitely read their mood by how they speak on the phone. You can usually also tell by the way they respond to the things you are saying. Phone sales aren't as easy as when you see them in person, but I still believe their tone can tell a lot.[/quote:3738chdj] Hi Mary, Would you have a specific example you could share with us on how you cab turn an unfriendly tone (from a client) into a positive one or even a sale?
Men and women working together - Go for the mix Julie. The guy will be able to bring a different perspective and can help connect with your customers in a different way. I would often tag team with my female partner and if it's a male customer she does the pitch, if it's a female I do the pitch and it's worked out well for us.
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.


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