I’ve been pitched countless times working\u00a0as both a writer and an editor in tech journalism. Through a bit of reverse-engineering, this role has led me to acutely understand\u00a0errors companies often make while searching for coverage.<\/p>\n
Below, I’ve summarized many of the most important factors companies should consider while \u00a0working with the press. Avoid them at your own risk:<\/p>\n
If you already know somebody<\/em>, then by all means carry on. If you don’t, however, you should know that cold calls aren’t very effective. Trusted sources drive the modern writer’s coverage, which is why warm intros and real connections are so important. Without them, your email blasts will have trouble standing out from the pack.<\/p>\n The only way for writers to survive an avalanche of pitches is to rapidly scan through them, inevitably missing a few good ones in the process.\u00a0Every tip and pitch is important, and although our job is to serve readers (not a company’s bottom line), relationships still matter. In fact, they’re key aspects of our jobs.<\/p>\n If we don’t reply to you, give it a second try (note: not hundreds of tries), or ask around for an intro.\u00a0Just because the first pitch doesn’t hit home doesn’t mean a later one won’t be perfect for coverage.<\/p>\n In most cases, writers are far more interested in founders and CEOs than their respective marketing or public relations department. Thats not to say CEOs should spend their time pitching press, but your PR firm should make these people feel easily accessible.<\/p>\n Great companies make for great stories and good PR firms help bring those stories to light. Attaching yourself onto current events and tragedies, on the other hand, likely won’t work.<\/p>\n More on tragedies: Saying you’ve grown 1000% without a reference number is essentially meaningless. Saying you’ve seen 100 billion interactions also doesn’t mean a thing.<\/p>\n There’s a funny middleground between not doing your research and stalking a writer’s social media accounts to no end. Before targeting a specific writer, it helps to get to know their beat. You don’t, however, need to keep tabs on their personal relationships (yes, that happens).<\/p>\n Some publications care far more about hires and fund raising stories than others. Reading where you pitch should help on that front.<\/p>\n These thoughts are just the tip of the iceberg and are, by no means, intended to trivialize the way public relations professionals work \u2014 the above is simply a short-list of lessons indirectly learned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve been pitched countless times working\u00a0as both a writer and an editor in tech journalism. Through a bit of reverse-engineering, this role has led me to acutely understand\u00a0errors companies often make while searching for coverage. Below, I’ve summarized many of the most important factors companies should consider while \u00a0working with the press. Avoid them at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":886,"featured_media":34054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43902],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-development"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPersistence\u00a0is precious<\/h3>\n
Founders first<\/h3>\n
On tragedies<\/h3>\n
Find a balance when targeting journalists<\/h3>\n