Part 1: A Few Things Publicists Are Doing That Could be Hurting Their Chances of Client Coverage + Tiny Tweaks That Take Seconds

Nicole shares some examples of things she's seeing on her end that could really help boost a pitch or source submission's chance of success

Hi Top Tier Community!

Hope everyone’s December is going well. This week, we’re diving into some real life examples of things we’ve been seeing recently that with just a few tiny tweaks, could help the PR/writer relationship run much much smoother.

But first, a quick reminder that we do have two more spots open this month for consulting sessions and we’re also booking into 2025.

Here’s a reminder of the sessions we offer, both to agencies and solo/freelance publicists:

All Your Questions Answered Session

Have a bunch of questions you’ve been dying to ask two top-tier journalists? Here’s your chance to learn about what goes on behind the scenes. Book a panel with us and prepare your list. You’ll walk away with all of your questions answered, plus we’ll sprinkle in our best practices throughout the session to help give you (and your clients!) an edge in this highly competitive media landscape.

Pitch Perfecting Strategy Session

Ready to take your pitches to the next level? Or are you wondering why certain pitches aren’t getting much response? Learn how to take your emails from, “Here’s a client I represent,” to “Here’s a story idea you can’t possibly turn down.” Between the two of us, we receive thousands of pitches per week, so we have many tips — and examples — of what works and what doesn’t. From coming up with the perfect email subject line to improve your open rates to sealing the deal with your closing remarks, your word choices matter throughout the entire pitch. We’ll help you perfect them … and we’ll workshop some of your actual pitches too!

Become a Journalist’s BFF: Networking and Relationship Management Session

Some publicists seem to have a transactional “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” approach to their work, but highly successful publicists know that building long-term relationships with journalists is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Learn how to meet new journalists, and discover best practices for staying in touch, following up, and creating meaningful relationships. You’ll also discover how to become a writer’s go-to source, how to stand out when answering a writer’s call for sources (whether that’s on HARO, a FB group, Twitter, or Substack), how to avoid common writer pet peeves and more.

Press Package 101 Session

Looking to mail out samples of your clients’ products in hopes of landing coverage? Great, but there’s a list of things you should know before dropping them off at the post office — things like planning, packaging, and communications will make all the difference in your ROI. We’ll help you make your packages more enticing, while actually saving your clients money in the process. And we’ll discuss how to target the right audiences, how to handle post-delivery follow-ups, and more.

Press Trips Invites and Itineraries Session

The two most important aspects of pulling off a successful press trip are nailing your invites and itineraries. First, we’ll dive into journalist targeting and invitation etiquette do’s and don’ts. Then, you’ll learn how to build a press trip itinerary that will actually land you coverage. We’ll focus on striking the perfect blend between offering media the chance to experience a destination, while zeroing in on quality and unique experiences that can lead to coverage — and help you find that elusive balance between keeping writers entertained vs. not overbooking them.

Hosting the Perfect Virtual and/or In-Person Media Event Session

Events are efficient ways to connect with a lot of media in one setting. During these sessions, you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to create a media event that journalists will A) Want to attend B) Will stay engaged at C) Will work into coverage. We’ll teach you how to target the ideal attendees who are there for article ideas and not just the free swag. We’ll talk venues, guest lists, and what to say in your presentation, plus how to coach your clients to interact with media at events in the most beneficial way.

Your Custom Session

The above options are just a sample of topics, based on questions we get asked about most frequently. But if you have something you’d love to discuss that you don’t see on the list, we’re happy to create a custom session around it. Let’s dive deeper!

Interested in learning more or booking a November/December session? Email us at info@toptierconsulting.NET.

Now back to this week’s topic!

As writers, we couldn’t do what we do without this fabulous community of publicists who graciously pitch us story ideas and submit clients as potential sources when we are in the middle of panic mode trying to get interviews lined up for articles (and trust us, it’s very often panic mode haha).

As we say at Top Tier Consulting again and again, in the media world, the PR/writer relationship is so so important. We’re all about helping you to really cement those relationships so that your clients can land in top tier publications and so they can become go to sources for writers.

On that note, there are things that publicists inadvertently do that can make landing coverage harder on their ends. To illustrate this, Nicole and Jill have been keeping notes on things that they’ve seen lately that could be done a bit smoother to make the writer/publicist transaction easier, swifter, faster, more efficient, and so on. We decided we’d each take a turn sharing a few of these real life examples that we’ve experienced as of late to help illustrate this.

So here goes. This week is Nicole’s turn.

Here are her 10 recent examples of tiny tweaks publicists can make to help things move faster/smoother/better when working with a writer:

Writers are also getting more emails right now than they ever get all year due to all the seasonal pitches. Long story short, things are moving FAST. Right now, writers are in the middle of wrapping up stories so they can hopefully take some time off for the holidays. They are juggling everything from last minute gift guides to cover stories to listicles and service pieces and beyond.

The name of the game right now is making things quick and easy. If a writer has to request additional information or clarify something, it can sometimes make them move onto another source who has all the information handy in the email. It doesn’t mean we’re lazy, it just means we are juggling so so so so much (In my case, it’s a very energetic toddler about to start waking any day + a broken toe + no sleep from teething which means everything is taking longer than ever + tons of articles + seriously up to 1k emails a day right now).

Here are some things I’m seeing lately that could be done a tad differently to really make working with a writer run much smoother:

1. If you suggest a time for a phone interview, please tell us the time zone. I am sourcing for so much right now and setting up phoner left and right. I have my calendar open all day and am trying to constantly slot interviews in. When people email and say “So and so can do 3:00,” I have no idea what time zone that is. I’ll email back and ask but then new emails pop up and the original email gets buried and we could have scheduled in the moment but then that gets pushed.

   If you’re east coast, I probably won’t get back to you now till later in the day, which means you may not see it until the next day. And by then one of our schedules could have filled up for that moment. If you tell me the time zone, I can instantly say yes or no and we can get that interview scheduled while we are both right on top of our inbox and check that task off our lists.

2. If you offer a client as a source, please don’t assume we know what the company does. This happens time and time and time again. I will get a source submitted to me and the publicist will say, “I have Dr. so and so of so and so company.” Unless the doctor works for something like Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic, I likely don’t know what the company is. Is it a clinic, a brand, a product?

   Different publications have different rules about what types of sources I can use and I can’t vet your source properly and tell you if it’s a yes or no if I don’t know what the company is that their title is attached to. Please give writers a little line describing what it is or include a little bio at the bottom of the email.

*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.