Uh Oh! 8 Pitching Bloopers You'll Want to Avoid in 2024
Plus: Sign up for this week's Top Tier Talk + book a strategy session to start the year off right
Happy Wednesday TTC Community!
It’s still so crazy to think that it’s 2024. Who has accidentally written 2023 instead this month? We’ve already done it several times. Also heard something on the radio the other day that said, “When do we officially stop saying Happy New Year? How far into the year?” We figured that 1/10 was still fair game so Happy New Year to all. Hope you month and year are off to a great start!
Today we wanted to touch on a few bloopers we’ve been seeing lately in pitches. There is by no means any such thing as a perfect pitch BUT there are definitely do’s and don’ts that could make or break your pitch to journalists. We talk about this in-depth in our most popular agency workshop: Pitch Perfecting Strategy Session. If you haven’t taken it yet, definitely add it to your list. We do an hour long presentation on our greatest pitching tips plus workshop some of your current pitches live so that you walk away with helpful tips that you can implement into your entire pitching strategy going forward.
Before we dive into this week’s topic, here are a few fun announcements/reminders:
Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Top Tier Talk: Friday, January 12th at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. EST
This will be an open forum where you can ask anything. We can discuss pitching, the outlets we contribute to, seasonal gift guides, sources/experts, best practices, writer pet peeves, interviews, products, deadlines, affiliate programs and more!
All we request is that you RSVP and include at least one question in the Google doc linked below, so that we can ensure we can prepare and use our time most efficiently!
As a reminder, our Top Tier Talks are an extra perk for paid subscribers … once you upgrade your subscription, you’ll also have access to ALL of our monthly Talks and paid content moving forward (and you’ll have access to the archives, and there’s a ton of topics we’ve done deep dives on), plus discounts on our group workshops.
Haven’t Taken a 1:1 Session with Jill & Nicole Yet?
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.
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 hearing more? Email us at info@toptierconsulting.NET.
Now onto this week’s topic: A Few Pitching Bloopers We’ve Been Seeing Lately
Between the two of us, we receive about 1,000 pitches per day. And even though we can’t respond to all of them, we read or at least scan through them all. There have been a few repeat themes we've been seeing lately that we wanted to point out, as they are things that publicists are doing that may be reducing their chances of landing a story for their clients. This week, we’re doing a deep dive into those.
We are are by no means poking fun at anyone’s pitches here, just pointing out 8 areas of opportunity in the hopes that they can help you out.
The first one is below, and you’ll find the other 7 beyond the paywall …
Subject lines that don’t align with a pitch
A good email subject line intrigues a journalist enough to want to click on your email pitch and read it. The best ones give a journalist an idea of what they can expect in the body of the email pitch plus give us an idea of why it’s timely to talk about your product or talk to your client now. i.e.
Valentine’s Day gifts for the woman who has everything
BIPOC Therapist to weigh in on XYZ trend
Celebrity Name. New Book. Interview Opp.
If you pitch us something with a subject line that doesn’t align with the email pitch — something that’s too clever and takes it in a weird direction or doesn’t convey what you’re pitching — then there is a good chance a writer will delete it and move on to the next email. A lot of times this happens when publicists try to get too creative like: “What do a tree, an apple, and a bobcat have in common?” and then you open the email and it’s about a teeth-whitening product. #fail
Required reading: A Subject Line is Your Pitch's 1st Impression—Here's How to Nail It!
*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 help you fine-tune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching to other journalists.
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