Pitch Perfect: Our Tips For A Great Email Pitch

When it comes to gaining awareness about your business, you cannot beat earned media coverage. A lot of the time getting your business in the press comes down to your contacts, or being in the right place at the right time. However, crafting a great pitch and sending it to the right people can greatly improve your chances of a feature. 

A reputable PR agency is the ideal partner for getting your brand message out to the people who need to hear it, but you may be a solopreneur or a business who isn’t in a position to hire a PR agency just yet. If that’s you, here are a few tips on how to write the perfect email pitch so you can score some earned media coverage all on your own!

Do Your Research

Seriously - doing your research is so important as you need to make sure you’re targeting the right people because blind pitching to anyone and everyone will get you nowhere fast. Find out who writes about your industry, and what media publications would be a fit. If you have a food business, you wouldn’t pitch to a beauty magazine, would you?

Once you know which journalists write about your industry, first of all, take the time to read their articles, especially the ones that could be relevant to your brand, for example, a top 10 roundup piece. You can use this information when reaching out to make the pitch personal, and to show that you actually care what goes out in the media about your industry because you do your research!

Pick the Perfect Subject Line

Never, and we cannot stress this enough -  NEVER use phrases like ‘Story Idea’, ‘Press Release’ or ‘Immediate Release’ in your subject line. Journalists get hundreds, if not thousands of emails a day and we can almost guarantee that a boring subject line that doesn’t even hint at what your exciting news is a sure-fire way to make sure that your email goes straight to the trash bin.

Use that precious space to pique interest and keep it concise. How can you condense your exciting news into one line, and grab attention immediately? For example, ‘New Restaurant In Palm Beach Revolutionizes Food Delivery Service’ sounds better than ‘Restaurant in Palm Beach Now Offers Home Delivery’, right?

Tell A Story

When sharing news about their brand, many companies feel like they have to be very corporate and business-like in their communications, and so they write the copy in a formal and (let's be honest) boring tone. This results in a bog-standard email that may be totally overlooked unless it's something really newsworthy.

Our advice when it comes to sharing news about your company is to use a 'customer-first' approach. Think about what it is about your news that will benefit customers, and based on what they’ve written in the past, what the journalist would be most likely to write about. In short - tell them a great story!

We also highly recommend keeping your email concise, and straight to the point - remember that people don’t have a lot of time! And don’t forget that research you did earlier! Make reference to a related article that that journalist has written in the past and something that you loved about it.

Stay In Touch

After sending a pitch, we definitely recommend that you follow up, but by following up, we don’t mean that you should send relentless ‘Did you see my pitch..?’ emails. You need to get a little bit creative here. Our top tip is to follow the journalist on social media, and take the time to engage with them so they get to know you and your brand, and with any luck, want to find out more! You can gain their attention by commenting on their posts, sharing their articles and starting conversations. This works before you send your pitch too, because taking the time to build a little bit of a relationship first will mean that when you do reach out via email, they will not only be intrigued by your great subject line, but recognize your name.

Do you need some help gaining press coverage for your business! We can help! We’re a multi-faceted agency with a great track record of scoring high-level coverage for our clients. Contact us today for a free consultation.