How to Make Your Media Pitch a Success

Anyone who has read a sales book or attended a sales course is aware that, on average, it takes between three and ten contacts before a sale is made. Although sales and PR are quite different beasts, the same logic applies when selling a release or story idea to the media.

Each week, media outlets get hundreds, if not thousands, of media pitches due to the Internet and email. Therefore, it is more crucial than ever to ensure that your publication is noticed. This does not imply pitching to additional media outlets, but rather that your publicist or PR staff should take the time to pitch several times to your unique media market.

Whether you pitched the release yourself or engaged a third party to do so, did the release generate contact? It certainly arrived, but is it the release that the editor needs for that day, story, or issue? Hopefully, but in most instances, this is not the case.

Therefore, the release is either stored aside for future use (ideally) or, more likely, discarded, destroyed, or erased. The releases/pitches that are utilized are those that are in fact newsworthy, media-friendly, and timed appropriately. As you might expect, a combination of these three factors increases your chances of receiving media coverage and publicity.

Using a release distribution provider results in a SINGLE release pitch. Nevertheless, the most successful campaigns are those that are sustained and/or re-pitched with calculated frequency. The majority of media outlets cannot or do not reply to your initial press release or pitch.

According to my professional expertise as a PR/Publicity Specialist, media placements occur as follows:

33 % occur between the first and second month of pitching.
50% occur between the third and fourth month of pitching.
17 percent occur in the fifth month or later of pitching.

Most of the time, a good placement occurs when a release reaches an editor at the optimal time and location. Sure, you may have pitched that media contact three times over the past few weeks, but perhaps that reporter/editor/producer lacked the time or space to place your press release. With rigorous media follow-ups and re-pitches, your chances of placements will…

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