3 Tips To Avoid Pitiful Pitches

As a public relations professional, many long office days (and some long nights as well) will be spent researching for and crafting the perfect pitch. Every client wants to be featured somewhere, but it is your job as the professional to find the perfect fit for them. While your client may have ambitions of being featured on the glossy pages of infamous magazines, it is also your job to introduce them to a world of publications they may never have considered before. Before drafting your next pitch, consider these tips to avoid sending a pitiful pitch:

1. Know your client's niche: Do you know what sets your client apart from other brands or companies in the same market? If you don't know what makes your client original, no one else will either. Create a brand identify for your client that sets them apart from others, even if there are similar brands on the market. Remember - it is not your clients ability to BE different, but rather your ability to represent and brand them differently.

2. Take the time to research: Don't waste your tip pitching your client to someone who has no interest in what they do. Keep a log about which journalist, bloggers, writers, and editors are covering which stories. Keep a running list and update it often, including links to stories you can reference while pitching. Nothing makes a writer more eager to cover your story than to know that you have been following them.

3. Excite and engage: If you aren't excited about what you're pitching, you will likely be shot down for a story. Your pitch should show that you are passionate about what you're saying. Do not approach the pitch like a professional trying to cross an item off a 'to-do' list. Instead, sit in the seat of a consumer sharing exciting news about a product or idea to another consumer. Getting your reader excited will always yield better results than boring them with stats and factoids.

Every pitch you write should be different, unique, and tell a different story depending on who you are pitching. Which elements do you find create the most effective pitches? Let us know!