Should a Publicist Call a Journalist?
We're weighing in with our thoughts on a hot topic that's been circulating around some of the PR forums.
Happy Tuesday Top Tier Consulting Community!
Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and is staying cool. The heat out there seems to be super intense no matter what part of the country you’re in.
Speaking of heat, we’re hopping in on a hot debate this week.
There’s been some chatter on Facebook in recent weeks in some of the publicist/writer forums about whether or not publicists should pick up the phone to call a journalist. There was a lot of back and forth in the comments with professionals having very staunch opinions on one extreme or the other. We actually get asked this quite a bit at Top Tier Consulting ourselves so we’re chiming in with our thoughts.
But first, a quick reminder that it’s almost time to start pitching for those holiday gift guides. To help get you ready, we’re teaming up with our affiliate guru Sarah Karger again to bring you a 1-hour workshop in August.
We’ve updated the presentation for 2024 (there are definitely some nuances that you’ll need to get up to speed on for this year if you want the best chance at landing coverage!) and will address the latest and greatest in the world of affiliate marketing such as:
The latest platforms and which ones editors care about the most these days
What editors are focusing on this holiday season
How to mention that a client is on an affiliate platform in a pitch: What essential information to include and how to position it
How to get affiliate links in the hands of influencers this holiday season
Is it a deal breaker if my client isn’t signed up with an affiliate program?
It’s 2024: Can we pitch products that aren’t on affiliates? If so, what are the exceptions?
How do I contact e-commerce writers/editors to get my clients into these gift guides?
When it comes to commission percentages, what gets an editor/writer’s attention?
We’ll address all that and more in this hourlong session. Plus, it will also give you a chance to learn from colleagues and hear answers to questions they bring up that you may not have thought of. You’ll walk away with ALL of your affiliate questions answered plus hear best practices on getting your clients on affiliate programs, pitching clients on affiliates, finding the right platforms, and more.
Here are the details you’ve been waiting for:
NEW Date: Wednesday August 14th at 11 am PT/1 pm ET (session will last one hour)
Can’t make it live? We’ll be sending the link out afterward for people who pay to register to watch on their own time.
Rate: $49 for Paid TTC Substack Subscribers; $99 for Free TTC Subscribers
(Hint: you can upgrade today to get 50% off this workshop and a discount on a future workshops … plus you’ll get access to all our paywalled content and archives, too!)
Ready to sign up? Send an email to info@toptierconsulting.NET and we’ll collect payment to hold your spot and send you the Google doc to share your question(s) for the session!
Questions about the session? Shoot us an email and we’ll answer them: info@toptierconsulting.NET
We look forward to seeing you there,
Jill & Nicole (and Sarah!)
Now back to this week’s topic: Calling a journalist … yay or nay?
If you’ve attended one of our workshops or booked a private session with us where this has come up, you’ll definitely recall that our answer to this is almost always a hard and fast no. Here are the main reasons why:
Journalists don’t like to answer their phones in the middle of the workdays: At any given moment we’re simultaneously pitching, writing, sourcing, invoicing, tracking down outstanding payments, going through our email inboxes, networking, sourcing, writing our own Substack posts, posting our recently published stories on social media — and trying to make time to eat something somewhat healthy and stay hydrated. A phone call from a publicist, even intended to be short, can derail our entire game plan for the day.
Your call will probably go to voicemail: And we probably won’t check this voicemail. While writing this I (Nicole) just looked at my own phone and I have 407 unlistened-to voicemails. I guarantee you most of them are from publicists. It’s not an intentional snub, we just don’t have time to keep up on everything. Something has to give!
A call is not generally the best bang for your buck — an email pitch is!
A writer’s inbox is their bible. It’s where all their story ideas from publicists come from. It’s where they email to arrange sources. We writers all have little filing systems and navigation tricks and tools that we use to keep things organized. If your pitch lands in there, we’re going to see it. It’s not going to get by us. And if you feel that it truly has, follow up with another email.Once a pitch gets sent our way, we read it and then decide how to move forward. A lot of times this involves putting it in a maybe pile or leaving it in our inboxes to think about it more. We can’d do any of that with a phone call.
REQUIRED READING:
PART 1: A Look INSIDE the Process of How Writers Handle an Inbox Full of PR Pitches
PART 2: A Look INSIDE the Process of How Writers Handle an Inbox Full of PR Pitches
A phone call puts a writer on the spot: We can’t tell you how many times we are in the middle of something and get a call from a publicist and it’s one of those times that we do pick up (which is usually because we’re expecting a call from someone like a doctor’s office). This is how those conversations usually go down:
Publicist: “Did you get my pitch?”
Writer (while deleting emails and tackling their inbox): “What pitch?”
Publicist: “About the water bottle.”
Writer (while sending an invoice): “Which water bottle?”
Publicist: Rambles off tons of features about a water bottle and why it’s a cool product.
Writer: “Can you send it to my inbox so I can take a look that way?”
Publicist: “Sure.”
There hasn’t ever been a time that Jill or Nicole can think of where one of these calls has turned into “Oh yes, I’m into this pitch idea” on the spot on the phone.
NOTE: All of this advice also includes texting or social media messaging a writer. Stick to email (in our books at least!)
Now, here comes the BUT…. But there are some instances where this opinion can be overruled.
You are in the middle of a current article with a writer: If a writer has reached out to you about having one of our sources be included in an article and the ball is rolling on that, THEN there may be an occasional reason to call. This could be when…
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