Sucking up
I’m with Mike Arrington and Om Malik on this one.. the way to a blogger’s heart is not through ‘sucking up.’
Let’s all say this together - the idea of ‘pitching’ anyone the way they teach it in the big agencies is dead.
My most successful pitches, such as they are, were no more than two sentences long, i.e., ‘Hey there, I’ve got a story here I thought you might be interested in. If you aren’t the right person, sorry, please pass this along to whomever in your publication might be interested…. blah blah blah.’
Sucking up, like the five paragraph long pitch letters my former overlords used to insist that I write, get you nowhere. Getting to the point quickly, and getting the reporter what they need, gets your client coverage and makes you look good.
And isn’t looking good what it’s all about?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Ha! I minimized this page and then scrolled over the icon for IE. The pop-up text box reads:
“Sucking up at Marketing Begins at Home”.
So I guess we know where sucking up begins…
You have no idea how wonderful it is for me when I find comments such as this one from such experienced PR professionals. I am a student with very little experience in the field. And with graduation creeping nearer and nearer, I take every opportunity to soak up as much knowledge from the “real world” as I possibly can. In my classes we are given the impression that each pitch requires a lot of fanfare and explanation. It is recommended that we be prepared to go into great detail about our plan and really push it on the people we are presenting to. Now, it is pretty well known, even for a naive college student such as myself, that college is about as much like the “real world” as the media’s representation of college is like the actual college world. So it is really no surprise to me that we should rely on our classes for the basics, but our real knowledge comes when we actually enter the field and get our feet wet. But, for the time being, it is always good to hear from experienced people that have been out there for a while and will give you the facts as they are and not just the textbook version.
Awesome. I can totally do two sentence pitches! And I would love to write two sentence blogs comments as well! It seems I can get my point across easier that way. Mine are always shorter than the 250 words they are supposed to be, (according to our teacher.) As for us students, we are learning, and most of us know that a pitch shouldn’t be as embellished as we make them in the classroom, we embellish in the classroom for good grades, also to look good.
I can’t wait until I enter the “real world,” as its deemed to be, and to learn everything first hand. I guess all of the “professionals” had to learn from “real world” experience at one point. Thats why blogging is cool. We are “real world” learning.
I agree with you 100 percent. Short and sweet is key when pitching a story. Last Friday, I attended Real World PR 2005 in Atlanta, Ga. I had the chance to get preferences, pet peeves, tips and examples from a media panel composed of newspaper and news station editors.
The media panel had some great advice for me and the 200 other PR students regarding what makes a good pitch. They prefer receiving pitches that get to the point in the first couple of sentences, stating why they should care and how you can assist them with a story.
Before writing a pitch, it is important to understand the audience of the publication you’re pitching to. If you custom the pitch to each individual outlet, you (and your organization) will appear more credible.
The media panel also suggested pitching stories that contain a personal element, show emotion and involve “real” people.
The most valuable advice I got from these editors is what you have evidently learned from your experience with the media…Shorter is always better!