The Public Relations Blog

These elements can make your pitch soar if used correctly

Pitching a story to the media is a key public relations component. It is almost a specialty onto its own, filled with various pitfalls that can make your pitches fall flat the moment you first start the pitch — that is, if you do them incorrectly.

Although many consider the content of a pitch when developing one, what gets overlooked is time and pitching. Both the time you make a pitch at and how long it takes to make your pitch are vital to a successful pitch. These two factors are some of the key ingredients that can make or break a pitch’s success. 

Use the three tips below to make sure you’re pitching at the right time and have the right length.

Pitches must be newsworthy and succinct for outlets to pick them up 

Whether it’s your first time pitching to the media, your 100th time, or your 5,000th time, you need to make sure there are things you consider and keep in mind. When you're getting ready to pitch to the media, you need to be clear on this: what's the actual story you're pitching? 

Public relations software is one of the many important tools for earning media coverage

Every week a prospective client, PR agency peer, or another PR professional asks us:
“what's the best solution for a U.S. news media contact database?”

It’s not an easy answer. It’s like asking “what’s the best automobile?” 

At Axia, we've tried them all. And the simple answer is each has their pros and cons.

Commercial newswire services charge companies to distribute their news. 

The big players in this space – at least in the United States – are Business Wire, Cision PR Newswire, Cision PR Web, GlobeNewswire, etc.

These are often confused with newswire services, also known as news agencies.

Sending a perfect media pitch can feel like a balancing act. Structure and timing are everything. To avoid becoming a mere drop in an ocean of emails, here are nine media pitching tips directly from journalists, according to PR software Muck Rack’s research.

Tell stories instead of just stating facts.

Imagine you’ve finally got a good pitch ready to send to the media. You’re well prepared, and now it’s time to get that phone call done. Despite hitting it off with the media contact, your contact ultimately declines to run the story. What happened? You did everything right; you had the main point and some facts to go with it to give context.

When it comes time to give the breakdown of a story in writing, news releases are usually sent. Long and filled with information, they’re viewed as the best ways to get a story to the media. But are they really the best way? Your legal team and, most importantly, reporters don’t like them when they’re for medium or smaller stories. Reporters prefer having information to base their own writing off of instead of simply publishing a news release. If the people actually working with your news releases don’t like them, then what should you do?

Use three points to make a pitch that a media professional would love

Pitching stories is one of the key parts to a successful public relations plan. Those that want their stories pitched have the story. However, they need one other key ingredient for success: what the reporters are interested in.

There’s more than one way to release company news. If you’re starting out in the public relations industry or you work for a company that wants to earn media coverage, it’s important to know the best way to share news. Here, Axia Public Relations describes the difference between distributing news and pitching it.

Journalists want evergreen content; pitch stories that stay relevant

Evergreen is a term in journalism and public relations that means the content isn’t time sensitive. It’s news your company shares that doesn’t have a shelf life and won’t go stale. Evergreen stories are perpetually relevant and always interesting to readers. It’s not breaking news or specific to a season or holiday.