Why Your PR Pitch Isn't Working

If you're trying to get big media coverage and it isn't working, reading through this exchange I just had with someone via LinkedIn might shine a light on which tactics work, and which don't work. In fact, I'll just give you the answers here at the beginning.

The reason why your PR pitch isn't working:

1. You haven't created any relationships with journalists.
2. You aren't utilizing relationships you have with people who have relationships with journalists.
3. You're pitching journalists based on what you want, rather than on what they want.

Now, read on if you want to see how this plays out in real life. I've changed the fellow's name to protect his identity.

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Josh,

I recently joined an early-stage startup with a cool new way to eliminate expense reports and employee reimbursement for businesses (think Venmo meets Mint for business). I'm wondering if you have 15 minutes or so where I could get some thoughts on how we might be able to effectively get the word out through tech influencers like yourself. Let me know if you are able to help.

Thanks,

Bob

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Hi Bob, I've packed most of what I know into this blog post at https://www.joshsteimle.com/marketing/how-to-get-me-to-write-an-article-about-your-company.html. If you're looking to DIY it, those tips will help for pitching anyone, not just me.

Of course you can also go the fast/expensive route, which is to hire my marketing agency or a PR firm to get placements for you.

Thanks!

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Josh - thank you for the info. And the blog post was perfect info. Honestly I don't think what we are looking for works with becoming an influencer or thought leader. Maybe there is a way to "spin" it but that may be disingenuous. Do you know of a like-minded individual that focuses on writing about early-stage tech companies that are doing something no one else is doing? (and I know you've probably heard the "no one else is doing" statement a million times - but in our case it's really true - it's not just a pitch). If so, please let me know.

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Hi Bob, here are some more links that may be helpful:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2014/02/05/how-to-get-free-press-for-your-business/#3fe667e148bc

https://www.cision.com/us/2015/02/how-to-find-the-right-journalist-to-pitch/

The bottom line is you need to find the right journalist and give them what they want. No journalist is interested in "writing about early-stage tech companies that are doing something no one else is doing," so I wouldn't recommend pitching your story that way. As Alex says in https://www.groovehq.com/blog/friday-qa-february-05-2016, "No journalist’s goal is to write a love letter to your business, or to give you coverage. That’s your goal. Most journalists have goals that are very different."

I would start by figuring out what you want from this coverage. If you got a journalist to write about you, what would that do for you or your business?

Second, which publication do you want to get into? Which will help you achieve your goal?

Third, which writer at that publication is an ideal fit? This will require some research. If you simply email 20 writers at that publication you'll end up with zero press. Target one journalist, and only one journalist.

In order to target your journalist you need to figure out what it would do for the journalist if they wrote about you. What benefit do they get? No journalist is sitting around desperately waiting for someone to pitch him a good story. Typically journalists are frantically writing, trying to get through a backlog of 50 great stories they're already behind on. If you want your story to get in, you have to convince a writer that he should dump a story he's already working on, because your story is so much better, and will give him what he wants as a writer more than any of the other stories he has.

And you're right, every writer has heard the "no one else is doing" pitch a million times, along with the pitches that include words like:

• Revolutionary
• Innovative
• Disruptive

etc. Everyone says the same thing, so these words don't mean anything anymore. Don't use them. Instead, state facts.

• "We just raised $20M in funding."
• "We just landed contracts with Tesla, Facebook, and Google."

Or pitch a story that doesn't directly feature your business (these tend to not get much attention anyway), but pitch a topic or trend that you have exclusive information about. Journalists like stats, because they prove something is happening.

If you don't have stats about a trend, and you don't have proof that your business is interesting (like funding or big contracts), then don't expect to get coverage, because there's nothing to set you apart from the other 100 pitches a writer might receive today. The writer wants to cover businesses that are hot and are going to be successful. But he doesn't have time to vet 100 companies today and figure out which ones will be successful and which won't. That's why companies receiving lots of funding get coverage--the funding is proof that someone else has already vetted the company and has decided it's different than all the others and is willing to commit their cash to it.

There is one way to get around all this mess--develop relationships with journalists. The catch here is that it takes time. I wrote about how someone got press coverage in Bloomberg through me the other day at https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-getting-pr-actually-works-josh-steimle. It didn't take long for that person to get the coverage once they contacted me, but that's because they had already spent a lot of time developing a relationship with the person who had already spent a lot of time developing a relationship with me, and because I had already spent a lot of time developing a relationship with the journalist I pitched. It might seem like it was a fast process, because part of it was, but three parts of it took real time.

Hope this helps!

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If you want your PR pitch to work, build relationships. Build them with journalists, or with people who know journalists. If you don't build them yourself, then you'll have to pay for them. This is what PR firms are selling--relationships they've spent the time to build. It's not that good PR firms have a secret sauce and know how to craft the perfect press release (I never read press releases) or that they have developed pitching expertise (virtually all pitches from PR firms--the same ones you're paying big money for--are terrible). Good PR firms have good relationships, so that Cheryl at the PR firm is able to shoot Sally at the NYT an email and say "Hey Sally, I've got a new client, would you mind taking a look at this story I've written up about them?" Sally will listen to Cheryl, because she knows Cheryl and trusts her. Sally will ignore the other 100 pitches she received today from people she doesn't know in favor of the one pitch from the person she does know. If you don't know journalists, or you're getting help from people who don't know journalists, then your chances of getting media coverage are slim.

Want to learn more about how to develop real relationships with journalists? Better yet, want to join a group where real journalists are hanging out, and asking people like you to contribute to their articles? Then join the Influencer Inc Facebook group.