When A Brilliant Pitch Lands...

Photo by AbsolutVision

Hi everyone

I hope everyone is well and has avoided THE COLD (I've been hit by three colds and a chest infection over the past two months...woe me!) and Covid so far this autumn.

Earlier this month I received an interesting, unique pitch from a PR which caught my attention. I can't always respond to emails very quickly due to the sheer number that fly in, but I'd met this PR at one of my workshops a couple of years back from which we'd always had a friendly email correspondence. Her email was sat in my flagged emails for a couple of weeks at least but when I had a quiet moment last week I was able to respond.

Due to being a newsletter subscriber too she was able to inject a personal and friendly slant to the email. But the pitch itself caught my eye as it was unique and different (and not directly about her client's business) - I personally hadn't seen a piece about the subject matter in the titles I write for. Straight away I could see myself pitching a few publications on the back of it. There was a strong headline accompanying it, which was in the subject line too. Catching my attention I told the PR I really liked the idea and that I'd try pitching a certain title, which I did shortly afterwards - using a similar headline to the PR and adding my own take on the angle too. And then moments later the editor commissioned me. Voila!

I just wanted to highlight how a strong headline and a personalised and a distinctive pitch (which I know a lot of you do already) rather than press releases (which form the bulk of my inbox) can land to coverage. I'll flag up the pitch in my workshops.

Enjoy the rest of the week.

Thanks
Susie

Why You Shouldn't Pretend To Be A Journalist's Biggest Fan

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

I bet nearly every journalist has received an email saying something along the lines of “Hi [name of journalist], I'm such a big fan of your work. I loved your article on X [includes title and link to journalist's most recent article]" before going straight in for the kill: "Today we are releasing a line of new cosmetics and we'd love for you to cover it.”

Look, I can understand that some people think flattery may brighten up our inbox and I certainly agree that it's good to be a nice and kind human being. But you don't have to be a jaded and cynical journalist like myself to see right through the above. If you're such a big fan, why haven't you been in touch before? Why have you never dropped me a line to say how much you appreciated my naked yoga article (yes, I did go the full commando - for my sins) or how my piece on volunteering resonated with you? Telling us you're a "big fan" and then promptly going in for the sell tells me you're not such a big fan. If you admire a journalist so much, they might have seen you like their tweets before or comment on a post on LinkedIn. I'm not saying you need to start asking a journalist for a selfie before emailing them. Rather, just don't say it all.

I totally get that you might wish to engage with a journalist but unless you're going to impart something honest, don't say it for the sake of it in some strange attempt to win us over. It won't. 

 Enjoy the rest of the week,

Susie

ps I know most of you would never dream of doing the above.

Why I'm Not Going To Be Covering Your Press Release

Every day my inbox is teeming with press releases. News of a new launch. A new product. A merger. A new campaign. Some of the news I might have written in my old life as a reporter, whereas the title might indicate, my job was to cover news in my industry. During that time, strong interesting stories pinging in my inbox were gratefully received.

But not now. Today, like many freelancers, I write features. So those press releases dropping in my inbox are often a waste of time for everyone. As well as most not concerning the sectors I write about (that's another newsletter), the simple fact is I don't write news stories so I'm not going to be reporting on your press release. I no longer sit on a news desk writing about new launches so the hard truth is that unless you're able to come up with a solid feature idea (something I talk about a lot in my webinars and online course) related to the press release, it can be just a waste of an email.

Also, it's worth pointing out that if the news is going to get picked up, it will be covered by an in-house journalist so if we pitched the idea to an editor – it's already out there. And they're not going to pay us to write up a news release. As much as I wish during these challenging times.