Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
By Amanda Drum
I don’t need to make a shortlist of current events for you to recall how the last year dominated the news cycle. For publicists in charge of trade press for their clients, even beat journalists segued to covering topics of the hour they wouldn’t, in culture, politics and entertainment. When your story has to compete with the latest #WFH update, COVID-19, DEI initiatives and another CEO canceling themselves on Twitter, your upward battle gets steeper.
Telling a captivating story won’t make a publicist’s job easier, but it will increase the odds of securing coverage despite the last year’s setbacks. While the below tips and tricks help in the worst of times, they also spell out writing touchpoints for any PR professional looking to deliver value to journalists, and in turn, their readers:
1. To write a resonant story…know which topics resonate
You walked right into that one. It’s true, but getting to the heart of topics journalists care about may not always hinge on current events, as stated above. Some overlap like the impact of social justice initiatives in any given industry. That said, each industry has its own daily shifts, updates and (sometimes) dramas. Keep an ear to the ground for news your clients can speak to, which makes their story more newsworthy. Timeliness is godliness to journalists. Once you prop the door open with a timely hook, expand on your pitch with the below storytelling facets.
2. Keep the 5W’s, but don’t stop there
As with a press release, keep your ask and the details of your topic close to the top. Make sure the journalist knows the story’s “what” before it’s “why.” That said, the “why” is crucial. Understand the journalist you’re pitching and the topics they consider important. Acknowledge those topics and pair them with the reason your story means something. Are you pitching an initiative that is personal to your client? Let them know, then let them know why it’s so personal. Journalists are human beings with empathetic instincts. While they may not always have time to cover your story, they appreciate facts and a dose of honesty. Treat journalists like the people with career aspirations they are–not as an end-goal.
If your story lacks this empathetic “why,” or an emotional draw to cover your pitch…you should go back to the drawing board and find it.
3. Less is more
How is a publicist supposed to keep all the info in their pitch “close to the top” of a stack of paragraphs? It seems like everything deserves to be “first,” right? True, the first lines of an email are the ones that should grab the journalist, because they don’t have time to read paragraphs. The trick is: make the pitch short. If the pitch is brief–two short paragraphs at most, making your points clearly–then a reporter can skim your information in the seconds it takes them to open your “PITCH: Please Read This” email. When there’s less text, everything is “close to the top.”
But what if your client wants to add quotes, and backstories, and a bunch of other information that could be useful, but a recipient likely won’t read? It’s important to communicate pitching roadblocks to your client and set their expectations first. Explain that journalists don’t check too many emails at a stretch when they have deadlines to meet. Attach auxiliary information in a document to the email if you must. That way, if the journalist likes your idea and wants more details, they have it at the ready without having to request it themselves.
4. Quality beats quantity, in style and execution
Like the above, be on the lookout for too many sentences in your pitch that say the same thing. Look for opportunities to combine ideas. I assume writing is your strong suit, being in the PR industry, but there are plenty of web plugins and resources to keep your clarity in check. Free options include Grammarly and Hemingway. Both simplify and condense your stories, picking the right words and sentence structures to help you get to the point.
Let’s revisit tip #1. Now, pitch journalists who care about this topic. If you picked the right topic for your pitch, they should already write for outlets your client wants to be in, anyway.
Publicists walk a tightrope from Monday to Friday. Between clients who are a little green on the process, and journalists stretched thinner with job responsibilities each year, securing a great story relies on relationships, writing finesse, and more than a small percentage of luck. Making sure the bones of your story stand up in the first place can help you turn over results tenfold.