Made famous by Bill Gates, the phrase ‘content is king’ is much celebrated in marketing circles and translates well to publicity too.
Ensuring the content of your media release is carefully considered to achieve your business goals, attract the enthusiasm of a journalist and, ultimately, their readers – your target audience – is vital.
But if content is king, having the perfect pitch is its queen. Quite simply, the two go hand-in-hand.
A well-crafted media release pitched to the wrong journalist at the wrong time will likely go nowhere.
So how do you ensure your pitch hits the mark? Below we break down the key steps:
Write for your audience
Before you even type a word, make sure you’ve considered what publications and journalists you’ll be pitching to. How you write a media release to target one publication, or even a journalist working for a particular section within the same organisation, may be completely different.
Consider what facts and information are important to them, what types of stories they cover and what angles are of interest.
An effective media release is always one that balances the goals of your organisation, the messages it wants to deliver to its audience and what a journalist will consider newsworthy. If your release doesn’t spark the journalist’s interest, it won’t get past the first phase.
Understand who to pitch to
Pitching your media release to the relevant person within the media outlet is critical to its success. Many media have ‘rounds’ people covering different areas of interest or editors and journalists who undertake specific tasks. Knowing who is the right person to reach out to will ensure your message gets through, rather than heading straight to the ‘deleted items’ or ‘unread emails’ box.
Know when to reach out
Knowing the deadlines of individual media and journalists so you can time your pitch correctly is also a must. Some work to hourly or daily deadlines, others to weekly or monthly, and each require an understanding of the most effective time to reach out for maximum results.
For example, if you’re pitching a media release based around an upcoming event, you’ll need to ensure you have it to a monthly publication well ahead of time, while pitching too far in advance could also be counterproductive.
Develop strong relationships
The key to achieving ongoing success is developing strong relationships with the journalists covering your area of interest. This is achieved through demonstrating an understanding of all the above steps and consistently delivering what is required within tight timeframes, such as images to support the story or interviews with key spokespeople to add colour to your piece.
Getting all these steps right comes down to experience. For advice on how to get your message across, contact the Promedia team on 07 5593 2011 or hello@promedia.com.au.