How to SELL Writers On Your Client vs. Just Telling Us They Exist
For each pitch you send, we receive 25+ just like it ... it's your job to prove why your client is THE best source!
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This week we’re going to talk about the fine art of SELLING writers on how amazing your clients are vs. merely sharing that they exist and are available to comment.
This topic stems from a real-word example Jill experienced earlier this week, when she put a call for pitches on her personal Substack looking for a chef to weigh in on how to cook yellow squash. Here’s exactly how she framed it:
Looking for a chef to share a handful of different ways to cook yellow squash, including some simple recipes.
Please send credentials, not commentary. I’ll send you specific questions to answer.
Jill was serving up editorial coverage in a top-tier cooking magazine (she listed which magazine in her Substack, so it wasn’t a secret) on a silver platter … yet the pitches she received were surprisingly lackluster. The ask seemed simple and straight-forward, but Jill quickly realized that many publicists forget to put on their “sales hats” when pitching their clients and therefore miss out on great opportunities as a result.
She received more than 30 responses and only ONE of them even mentioned the client’s love of squash and cooking with seasonal vegetables.
The rest were filled with:
Incredibly long bios that outlined the chefs’ education, experience and collaborations — yet said NOTHING about the topic at hand
One-sentence pitches that simply listed the chef’s name and the restaurant they work for/own —this is unhelpful, as it tells us nothing
Fragmented pitches that said, “I rep So and So and he/she’d be perfect” with no additional info or links (and these were not well-known chefs) — again, a writer can’t make a decision based on this lack of information
Pitches about the chef’s latest cookbook (in all cases having nothing to do with cooking seasonal foods or plant-forward dishes) they are promoting — an on-topic cookbook tie in would be great, otherwise, it’s not relevant
Guess who Jill decided to move forward with? Yes, the only pitch that was on topic and demonstrated a clear understanding of the angle/assignment!
The chef (or any client!) you rep is probably amazing and talented, but if you haven’t sold the writer on WHY they are perfect for this particular angle/article, then you’re unlikely to land the coverage.
Remember: For every email you send to a writer’s specific call for pitches, they are getting 25-100+ just like it. You’re in serious competition for this opportunity, and that means you need to SELL the journalist on WHY they are the perfect fit!
Here are some tactics that help make a journalist want to say yes:
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