Getting featured on credible blogs & cold pitching businesses: increasing your chances of success
Rosemary Richings
Professional writer, editor, and published author specialising in neurodiversity & disability. Occasional public speaker. Neurodivergent dyspraxic.
As someone with a blog, and a podcast I’ve got so many emails (“pitches”) from people interested in being guests on my podcast, or contributors to my blog.
And as much of a privilege as it is to get emails from people from all over the world, the pitches that are bad are extremely bad.
With this episode, I hope to not only decrease the number of bad pitches that show up in my inbox but give listeners a quick intro to what makes a pitch “good”.
This episode will be useful for anyone that wants to get press attention through being featured on everything from podcasts to blogs and magazines. The key takeaways can also be used to cold pitch potential customers, and actually get a response.
A portion of this episode was originally a Facebook Live I did on my Facebook Page: (https://facebook.com/rosemaryrichings). If you’re on Facebook, feel free to like my page. Because you never know. I might do more lives just like this in the future!
What this episode covers:
- What made me interested in doing a live on this topic?
- An example of how bad some of the pitches I get can be (includes an actual example).
- Why I said “no” to the person who pitched me even though they were willing to pay to get their work published.
- The value of forming a relationship with the person you want to pitch before pitching them.
- The different ways you can form relationships with the person you want to pitch.
- Why I recommend a combination of all of the methods of forming a relationship with the person you want to pitch.
- What the person you’re sending a pitch to needs to know, and why it’s so important.
- Why reassuring people that you don’t need a lot of hand-holding to write or make a guest appearance in the way they’re looking for is so important.
- Why the commonplace reality of the teams being very small for blogs and podcasts means that they can’t afford to hold your hand every step of the way.
- The reality that another guy or girl has likely pitched something similar at some point, and some advice on finding a unique spin on the topic.
- How taking the time to get to know the person you reach out to, and the work they do can really pay off. Plus…what examples are the most appropriate for your pitch.
- Why…if your goal is to pitch a product or service offering it’s primarily about convincing them you have a solution, and how to spin that in the right way.
- Why this approach can also work with blog or podcast pitches, but the goal instead needs to be to convince them you can produce a relevant result/ there’s something in it for them.
- How to demonstrate credibility in your pitch, or as I like to call it “you’re not just someone copying and pasting things in your basement.”
- An example of how I do this, when pitching places like content marketing departments and agencies.
- Why personal experiences that are relevant can make a huge difference if you don’t have relevant professional experiences/ haven’t been published on major websites.
- How to address people you’re pitching, and why I don’t recommend some of the most common ways of being addressed that all my bad pitches start with.
- Why personalization is also about mentioning what you have in common, and examples of how you can spin that.
- Recommended tools for finding out what you have in common.
- Finding common ground is an important part of proving you’ve been paying attention, and the payoff of that.
- Why just saying “I’m interested in being on your blog or podcast” isn’t enough, and why you shouldn’t expect the person you’re reaching out to decide what topic you should cover.
- What you need to assume about the person you’re reaching out to (because it’s often true), and how to work around it.
- The key takeaway: do your research, and do not make the people you’re reaching out to choose for you and have to do a ton of digging to even know who you are.
- Pitching is about being specific and saying exactly why you can help. And how the research you did beforehand will increase your chances of getting accepted.
- Why I get you might still need a bit of help and guidance, even after hearing this episode.
- A summarized version of what the resource/ blog post I want you to check out after listening to this episode covers. Here’s where you can read the resource I recommended in this episode.
About Me:
Rosemary Richings is a specialist in blog content promotion and audience outreach strategy.
She offers straight up content creation for websites and blogs. She writes content to her clients’ specs and fully bundled with social media posts and blurbs for their newsletter and all the places they hang out. She helps e-commerce and retail business owners, who are actively improving the lives of their community.
Since starting her own business in 2014, some of her most notable accomplishments have been the following; her work has been featured sites such as Buffer and Search Engine Journal. She has also worked with clients such as Yellowpages Canada and E-Bay.
Check out Rosemary’s latest in her e-book, Blog on, a blogging starter kit for entrepreneurs.
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The show notes for this episode were originally published on rosemaryrichings.com.