What Publishers Want From PR Pitches

How you construct your PR pitch is as important as what you are pitching. You may have the best product on the market or a revolutionary service, if you can’t pitch it right, it won’t get published. So let’s make sure you put all the right elements in your pitch and let’s get you published in your favorite magazines. 

First, you have to understand one thing that is really important: 

Journalists and publishers receive hundreds of pitches every day and they have very little time to go through all those. In other words, your pitch needs to stand out in a matter of seconds, or it will quickly be forgotten. 

Do Your Research

Before contacting any journalist, make sure to do your research on them. Read their previous work and really understand the angle they tend to go for. This will help you to better get their style, what they are passionate about, what they believe is important. 

Do they like to include scientific research and quotes, do they like to look at it from a societal point of view, do they have a more humoristic style or a more data-driven style? 

This information is gold and will really help to make every pitch more unique to that specific journalist. 

By doing this, you won’t have to actually tell them you read their work, as this may sound too pushy. Instead, you will show them that you know them and what they are looking for. 

Your PR Pitch Structure + Key Elements to Include

Your PR Pitch needs to have the following structure to increase your chance of being read and noticed: 

A catchy subject line including your keyword at the beginning. A strong and powerful subject that tells enough about what you are saying while increasing curiosity. 

A strong introduction make sure to include the first name of the journalist and avoid a “Hi” or “Hi there” that will drive you straight to their trash bin. 

Avoid making small talk. Be nice but by all means, go to-the-point. The first line of your email must already talk about what your pitch is about and how this is important to the publisher’s audience. 

Make your pitch newsworthy. Why should we talk about you NOW? Back up your pitch with a recent research for example.

A concise story that helps the reader to create an image in their mind about what you are talking about and will evoke emotions while staying to-the-point.

Focus on the why of your product/service. By launching this offer, which needs are you solving and how is it relevant to the audience of that specific magazine? 

A conclusion on how to download pictures, find additional information, and how they can easily reach out to you. 

Make sure to include everything they will need to publish the story and avoid as many back-and-forths as possible. Add high-quality pictures of the product/project as well as a headshot of the CEO or the person being quoted and the logo of the company (keep it at max 5Mb per image and if you need to send a bigger file share it through Google Drive or Dropbox for example). Infographics are also a great add-on if they support your case.

All that while keeping your pitch under 200 words.
Whenever you are reaching out to someone, in order for your communication to be effective, you want to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. And this works as well when sending your pitch to the press. Put yourself in a publisher’s shoes receiving hundreds of pitches every day and honestly ask yourself if your pitch can make the cut. 

Do you need help achieving that results? We have years of experience and have built strong relationships with publishers in different industries to help our clients get their story out and finally see their name in their favorite magazines. Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation.