Why Resorting to Tricks to Get Writers to Open Your Pitches/Respond Could Backfire

Plus: You can still purchase the Christmas in July affiliate marketing workshop recording!

Happy Hump Day, TTC subscribers!

If you missed last week’s Christmas in July Affiliate Marketing Workshop, have no fear!

~~~~~Workshop Testimonials That Made Us Blush~~~~

“This was one of the best and most informative webinars I've ever watched. There are so many takeaways I will be applying for holiday pitching and beyond! Thank you so much for setting this up.” — Monica McShaffrey, Senior Account Executive, Uproar PR

“We all know the media landscape is shifting, and understanding how affiliate platforms operate is essential to helping our brands land continuous coverage. TTC's 'Christmas in July' workshop is a must-attend for PR professionals wanting to up their affiliate marketing game and get ahead of the ever-so-competitive gift guide season. Jill and Nicole took the time to explain how gift guide assignment works, which offered great insight to help with pitch development, and answered everyone's questions thoughtfully and thoroughly. Sarah's deep dive into affiliate marketing was exceptional, easy to understand, and offered a new perspective I am eager to incorporate into my business strategy and share with my clients." 
— Dana Lewis, CEO/Founder Dana Lewis Public Relations

We’re selling the whole package so you can watch it on your own time.

You’ll receive:

• Sarah’s affiliate marketing presentation deck

• A helpful checklist on what to include about your client’s affiliate program in an email pitch to a writer/editor

• Examples of affiliate pitches that are done well

• The Zoom recording

• Links to pertinent Top Tier Substack posts you may have missed

For more information on what we covered in the session, check out this post.

Cost: $49 Paid TTC Substack Subscribers; $99 Free TTC Subscribers
(but you can always upgrade for the discount AND it’ll give you access to our weekly paid posts and monthly Top Tier Talks, too)’

Shoot us an email (info@toptierconsulting.NET) and we’ll get you a copy of the recording, deck and pitches … plus some helpful links, too!

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This week’s topic: Why You NEVER Want to Resort to Tricks to Catch a Writer’s Attention

In today’s fast-paced, overcrowded, and ever-changing media landscape, it may feel like your standard media outreach approaches aren’t working the way they used to — between staff turnover, decreased content budgets, fewer outlets, and a huge focus on SEO/trends, it’s harder than ever to land editorial coverage.

As such, some publicists are turning to new ways to catch a writer’s attention. And while these publicists may think they’re being “clever” or “resourceful,” the reporters on the receiving end often feel that these tactics are spammy, disingenuous, awkward, and even borderline unethical.

We’ve gathered some of the most common tactics we’ve been seeing lately, in hopes of dissuading you from using them.

Why?

Aside from turning a writer off and missing out on landing coverage, these games actually train writers to ignore ALL your future pitches/emails because we expect we’ll get more of the same from you. Your goal of standing out from the crowd will backfire, and you may permanently damage relationships you’ve spent years cultivating.

Instead, rely on the strength of your relationships and writing skills to clearly articulate why a pitch is important to that reporter (and, ultimately, their audience) — well-crafted pitches that employ all the best practices stand on their own merit.

Speaking of best practices, start by brushing up on the following topics:

• The ONE trick to improving your pitch follow-up strategy

• A real-life example of a pitch that writers will ignore

• Here’s how to nail your subject line

• How to prove to a journalist that your client’s product is trending

• How to give new life to an old pitch

• How to make your product stand out from all the other pitches in a writer’s inbox

Now, let’s dig into 5 examples of tactics that are actually harming your PR efforts:

Not a paid subscriber? Upgrade your membership today to keep reading + to receive access to our extensive archive of content AND the ability to join our monthly Top Tier Talks where both of us are on a Zoom with you to answer any questions that came up during the month. We also bring in experts to talk about all your burning subjects like affiliate marketing and beyond.