Do Your Research Before Pitching Journalists

You’ve heard me grumble about media mutts who deliver public relations pitches that have nothing to do whatsoever with the media outlet they’re pitching it to.

For a perfect example of what I’m talking about, check out this poorly written pitch I received this week from Travel Features Inc., complete with errors:

“Kindly find a 900 word travel article on visit to Gir National Park and Sanctuary along with high resolution photographs in jpg format clicked with Olympus 5 mega-pixels digital camera, about trekking on foot through Gir, with close-up photographs of the shy spotted deer, one lion with lioness and cubs for publishing in your travel magazine.”

Why did they send this to me? Probably because I publish a public relations newsletter and my name is one of several thousand listed in a media directory they used.

I don’t care about shy spotted dear or lion families. The only animal I care about is a Hound–the two-legged kind.

If you pitch a story idea and you haven’t held the magazine in your hands, or visited the media outlet’s website, or watched the TV show, or listened to the radio show, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Your public relations pitch will scream, “I have no idea who you are, but I’m bothering you anyway.

Smart marketers research media outlets before they pitch so the journalist on the receiving end thinks “They know who I am, what I cover and what I need. I’ll read this one.”

– Joan