Research shows that for every journalist, there are six PR professionals. I couldn’t find the source of this information, but I remember the ratio clearly. You can imagine the amount of pitches and emails these journalists receive every day. According to a Muck Rack survey, most journalists publish under five stories a week, and only less than 25% of stories come from PR pitches. The rest of their time is spent researching, writing, and building relationships. This shows that getting your story covered is not an easy job.
Sometimes, even if journalists are interested in your pitch or story, they don’t have time to get back to you. But if your story is truly valuable to the media’s readers, if there is an opening, or if you’re lucky, they could fill it in.
As journalists are pressed for time, your pitch and follow-up emails must have everything they could possibly need to get the story out quickly. They don’t have time to chase you for a high-resolution photo, or a quote from your client.
What do you need to include in an effective pitch? The following should be the key elements of your email:
- Who, what, where, when, and why
- Press release
- Website links
- Quote(s) from your client
- High resolution photos of the spokesperson (both landscape and portrait)
- High resolution press-friendly images or videos from your client
Put the pieces above into individual folders, and add a Dropbox link in your email that includes everything the journalist could possibly need.
I have benefited greatly using this modus operandi. It decreases the back-and-forth of emails and increases both parties’ productivity. Next time, remember to respect journalists’ time and give them everything they need.
