5 Easy steps to being pitch perfect
The feeling is gut wrenching.
You have this brilliant story that you know the world needs to hear. After hours, sometimes days of crafting what seems to you the perfect media release, you send it out and nothing.
Make some calls to journalists and producers and nothing. No returned calls and even when you do reach someone they seem to have no idea what you are talking about or simply say “we will pass.”
It can be a very deflating and after a few trips on this merry-go-round you will eventually toss in the towel and say “media are not interested in me or my topic”.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth and I am yet to meet a producer or journalist who is not interested in a great yarn and they do not care who sends it to them, if it’s right for their audience.
Right there is the clue “if it’s right for their audience” and in all those hours spent crafting the perfect release, did you think at any stage of the audience of a program? Who they are? What their interested in? What they think?
Did you watch the show you are targeting? Did you craft your message around why this may suit their audience? What impact it will have for them?
Or, did you make it all about you?
See when it comes to dealing with media, it’s not about you at all. Not your business, not your products, not your brand, not your book, not even your opinion.
It’s all about the audience and the question “is the story you are bringing me of interest to my audience” fail that test and that’s that.
It’s the most common mistake I see, with the story all about us, who we are and what we do. Nothing about who want to talk to and why it would be of interest to them.
So how can you take your cracking story and turn that into the perfect pitch?
- Identify who the audience is you want to communicate with
- Ask yourself, what is the most important factor in this story for them?
- Where does this audience source it’s media from?
- Get to the know this media, understand the beat of its content
- Then, bring it all together by creating an individual pitch built uniquely for each program
Remember the media do want to hear from you, but only when you are showing them and their audience the respect they believe they deserve.
If you would like advice on how to create the perfect pitch to media, then book a consultation with Randal today.
