Published October 29, 2024

The million-dollar question on every PR pro's mind when they don’t hear back from reporters?

“What was wrong with my perfect pitch?”

It’s easy to start traveling down the “what-if?” road wondering what you need to do to get someone to listen to your signal.

But what if you could hear media pitching tips from the reporters themselves?

We were recently joined by Tech Target’s Senior News Writer (and vinyl aficionado) Don Fluckinger during our Carved Out Conversations LinkedIn Live sessions. Don has 30+ years of B2B tech journalism experience. Today he covers digital experience management, user-end computing, and more.

Don has received his fair share of what he coins “near misses” – those pitches that almost succeeded but didn’t quite hit the mark. He shared near miss pitching examples, along with advice on building media relationships the right way.

Let’s dig into some of his advice.

Baseline Media Pitching Tips

Both communication professionals and journalists have the same goals at heart – sharing meaningful stories and offering clarity on topics of interest to target audiences. Given this, why are so many baseline “good” PR practices overlooked?

Here are Don’s top reporter tips for creating and nurturing reporter relationships.

1. The precision of your media list is important. Nothing rubs a reporter the wrong way more than an off-topic pitch. If they cover customer experience and content management like Don, they aren’t interested in your hair care products or healthcare funding announcement.

It’s worse if you’re consistently off-topic. If a reporter gets back to you about a pitch being irrelevant or asks to be removed from a list, take care of it immediately. Per Don: “Show interest in what the journalist covers by keeping your communications appropriately topical versus shotgun email blasts.”

2. Switch your mindset from “pitching” to engaging with the media. It should never feel like the reporter you’re targeting is one of many on a list. Instead, find ways to connect with potential target reporters before you pitch them. You can ask them what they’re working on or what relevant angles and opportunities they may have coming up. Make an effort to intentionally check in – relationships are a two-way street.

3. Use IRL whenever you can. If you have media in your neck of the woods, ask them to grab coffee/lunch to catch up on what they’re working on and ways you could collaborate. It goes without saying to offer it up virtually, too!

Conferences, marketing offsites, and customer events local to the reporter are all fair game. Some reporters are able to accept trips and others aren’t. Keep that in mind as you offer, but there’s nothing wrong with asking to be sure.

4. When reporters come to you with a request, try everything you can to fulfill it. Whether it’s fact-checking, or sending images, customer testimonials, or statistics – being as much of a resource as possible helps a reporter on deadline see the light at the end of the tunnel. Don said it best: “There's a special place in heaven reserved for people who help out a journalist on deadline.”

5. Add keywords to your pitches to make them easier to find in crowded inboxes. If you’re responding to a HARO/Qwoted query or an ask from a journalist’s social feed, use words from their initial request in your pitch. This helps the pitch stand out in inboxes and makes it easily searchable down the line. In the case of B2C pitching, including terms like “review,” “sample,” “holiday,” or “holiday gift guide/HGG” will help a journalist track down your pitch quicker during busier times. Be sure you always include the category you’re pitching as many reporters may filter their search through that lens.

If the pitch is proactive, check to see what terms/phrases the reporter or outlet uses that are relevant to what you’re pitching. For example, use SEO tools like Keywords Everywhere, Google Search Console, or SEMRush (these are just a few, there are PLENTY out there) to conduct research to see which phrases are trending or resonate best with your audience and the publication you're pitching.

6. Curate a list of PR pros you admire and learn from them. Follow these pros on LinkedIn/X, and subscribe to their newsletters. This way you’ll learn from people who are already successful whether it’s breaking down the nuances of a basic topic or figuring out how to take advantage of next gen media opportunities.

Take note of the tactics they use to help them land coverage and build awareness. Don’s tip: “Embargoes, exclusives, customer interviews, and analysts who have been briefed are good tools.

Media Pitching Tips for Avoiding PR Near Misses

Maybe you’ve been trying all of the above media relations tips and are still left wondering why you can’t get a reply – or even an open.

Remember those “near misses” we mentioned?

While a near miss isn’t a complete fail (or a send to spam), with a few tweaks they would’ve landed coverage. Let’s look through three real pitching examples that were so very close and extrapolate on the big takeaways.

Near Miss Pitching Example #1: No New Angle to an “Old” Story

You did your reporter research and found a story that you can use as a jumping-off point when reaching out. But when you do reach out, you don’t add anything new – just a rehash of what’s already been covered.

In this pitching example, Don had recently covered Google’s decision to not deprecate cookies. And a PR pro reached out saying they had seen the story, and wondering if there was going to be more coverage on it.

If you are late to the original breaking news, come back with what’s left unsaid or unexplored (AKA a second-day angle). Pitch those topics, keeping their readers in mind. “Give me something I can use and maybe I’ll pick it up because it’s still fresh on everybody’s mind,” Don said.

Don offered some good second-day angles to the example above:

How will Google’s move influence the marketing mix?
How does this move affect different audiences?
What is the community saying? Do they agree/disagree?

PRO TIP: Get to the point ASAP – don’t make the journalist search high and low for the reason you’re reaching out to them. “If the main topic isn’t in the subject line or in the first sentence, chances are it's going to be on my marked red list before I get to the good stuff,” Don said.

Near Miss Pitching Example #2: The Already Published Resource

Most journalists don’t want to write what’s already been published somewhere else. This happens often with case studies.

However, say you’ve been refreshing a case study that’s been collecting dust. Reaching out to the right reporter, sharing that there’s going to be an update, and offering an exclusive first look is worth their while.

To make the pitch more compelling, go deeper:

Is the customer willing to go on the record and share their story?
Can you connect it to something broader happening in the industry? Is it seasonal?
Were there any unexpected outcomes or new technology or product features used since the first round case study published?

We’ve had success with pitching case studies that haven’t been written yet, especially when it’s tied to customer conferences and webinars where they are sharing their story publicly for the first time. You might even offer a reporter a chance to be the one to interview the customer on stage, like in this Advertising Week example we secured with Forbes contributor Cathy Applefels Olson.

Near Miss Pitching Example #3: The Newsworthiness was Overlooked

What is big news in your brand’s world might not translate the same for non-stakeholders – especially reporters. Have a very honest view of where your announcement falls on the newsworthiness scale. This is one of the main reasons why having an agency keeps brands honest – you keep an unbiased, external view close.

For example, a CEO announcement at a start-up may not make the cut. But if you can wrap the news in a broader story, like the new CEO’s hot take on a controversial topic, or the out-of-the-box way they made their Series A funding a success – that’s a more interesting story to tell.

“I like CEO announcements. I like this startup, but it's too small of a company to write about personnel comings and goings. I did interview them for a regulatory piece, though. If they had said ‘new CEO wants to talk about [something I'm writing about topically], I might bite.”

In the case of product announcements, make sure you can support your claims. Do you have statistics about how your product or service drove change for a customer? Any strong quotes that can be layered into marketing materials? What about a strong spokesperson who is available for interviews?

If you can’t confidently answer any of the above, chances are reporters won’t say yes.

As for determining the newsworthiness of industry awards and events, follow a similar thought process. It’s typically better to use these wins as supporting pieces to build your credibility versus trying to get it into the headlines.

Take the PR Advice from Reporters to Heart

Taking the time to hear journalists out is the ultimate way toward nailing more opportunities. Sometimes it’s the tiniest things that make or break your chances. Don’t let these near-misses keep you from driving your narrative and prioritize making the time to get to know your reporters authentically.

Media Pitching Tips: Avoiding PR “Near Misses”