In the world of media pitching, it can be pretty difficult to give a voice to your content inside a single email. But with the right copy and a bit of practice, you can craft emails that will hook journalists and send your stories to the next step.
Here’s some good advice from the media relations team at 4media group:
Think about your email (especially the subject line).
There’s nothing more likely to get your email ignored than a bad subject line.
Don’t fill your subject full of superlatives about your story. You’re approaching expert journalists who, unfortunately, will be the judge of quality.
Also steer away from talking about how ‘exclusive’ your research is. That’s assumed in the fact you’re sending it over. If it’s not exclusive, ask yourself why you are talking about it or why the press would want to cover it.
The truth is that while you may have worked hard on your story and may be proud of it, after years working in the industry journalists have trained themselves to spot a good subject line.
Should your subject line pass the test, you need to make sure the rest of your email stacks up. Try the following:
- Subject heading
- Opening paragraph of the story
- Bullet points of the key facts
- The rest of the copy
There should be no attachment. For busy journalists attachments are just one more unnecessary job. Copy should always be in the body of the email.
Remember to make your copy as blank as possible; you’re sending it to expert reporters who will editorialize the copy themselves.
At the end of the day, your pitch is as good as you make it, and it’s up to you to deliver a piece that hooks journalists but also leaves them wanting to discover more.