Ooops! Top 7 Pitching Bloopers to Avoid
Plus: RSVP for the upcoming Holiday Gift Guide Workshop
Hi Top Tier Consulting Community.
This week, we’re talking bloopers … you know, those pesky things you might not even realize you’re doing that make journalists cringe!
But first, a quick announcement:
It’s officially Holiday Gift Guide Pitching season! And on that note, if you want the latest and greatest advice on how to ROCK it this year, join us for an upcoming workshop on all things HGG.
Join Us For Our Upcoming: TTC’s 2024 Rock Your Holiday Gift Guide Workshop
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 16 at 11 am PST/2pm EST
Note: If you can’t make it live, no worries. We’ll record it and get it out to you to watch on your own time. And you’ll even have a chance to submit a Q&A ahead of time to make sure you get your questions answered
During this one-hour session designed to help you improve the ROI on your 2024 holiday pitches, we’ll give a presentation (plus field a Q&A at the end) covering:
HGG best practices pitching tips from 2 journalists who write holiday gift guides for top-tier publications all season long (and have for years!)
Examples of sample subject lines that were SO good, we opened those emails (and we receive 500-1,000 pitches a day)!
A checklist of everything you should include in your HGG pitches
Advice for how to make YOUR pitch stand out in a writer’s crowded inbox
Tips for getting your SOURCES included in holiday gift guides (great for clients who don’t have products!)
A discussion of what’s trending this year and what we’re seeing in terms of themes for holiday gift guides
Examples of HGG pitches we’ve received that hit the mark — use these as your inspiration for format, content, etc.
In the spirit of the holidays, we’re making this one more affordable!
Rate: $29 Paid TTC Substack Subscribers; $49 Free TTC Subscribers
(you can always upgrade for the discount AND it’ll give you access to our weekly paid posts and monthly Top Tier Talks, too)
Ready to sign up? Send an email to info@toptierconsulting.NET and we’ll collect payment and send you the link for the Zoom session.
Questions about the session? Shoot us an email and we’ll answer them!
Now back to this week’s topic: Bloopers, Bloopers, Bloopers!
This week we’re talking about some pitching faux pas we’ve seen in our inboxes in recent weeks. We’re not sharing to poke fun and are of course keeping things completely anonymous for the publicist who sent these emails. But we’re sharing merely for the purpose of sharing some examples of things that you may be inadvertently doing that are hurting your choices of getting coverage — and possibly driving journalists crazy in the process.
Here are some of the bloopers we’ve seen in recent weeks.
1. Being weird about follow-up quotes
This one has been happening lately and for the life of us we cannot figure it out. One of us did an email interview and then asked the publicist if we could connect with the expert on the phone this week for a few more follow-up quotes and they said: “Why?” and pushed back rather hard, per their client.
The answer is:
because we loved their quotes so much that we wanted to grab a few more to more prominently feature them in the article.
or we liked their quotes but wanted a few clarifications to ensure that we have all the information needed to make sure they make it into the article.
or because our editors asked for more information during the editing phase
Please don’t get frustrated when ask for additional quotes … it’s always a GOOD thing and it’s how you can ensure your client makes it into the story. It’s part of the process, so please educate your clients about this very real possibility upfront.
Shoot, there’s a paywall and 6 more tips detailing our best advice lives beyond it! Not a paying member? Here’s what you’re missing out on:
Full access to our weekly newsletters
Access to our extensive archive of paid posts on every PR topic under the sun
The ability to attend/participate in our monthly Zoom Top Tier Talks
Discounts on all our most popular group workshops (like our upcoming Pitch Perfecting Workshop)
*Note: Our consulting sessions, workshops, Zooms and Substack newsletters are strictly educational. Signing up for anything has no bearing on landing coverage in any of our outlets. Our role is to fine-tune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching other journalists.