The Do’s and Don’ts of Pitching for Media

There are certain ways to pitch for media that make journalists far more likely to feature you.

There are also certain ways to pitch that almost guarantee they won’t.

In today’s episode of Dauntless PR Unfiltered, we spill all.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Pitching for Media. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Dauntless PR Unfiltered. What we're going to talk about today are the do's and don'ts of pitching for media. So, Catherine, you've been a journalist for over 26 years, and you've been on the receiving end of I couldn't even take a guess at how many pitches. So tell me what comes to mind. So I think I'm gonna be, I'm gonna start with a do.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Let's be positive and start with a do. So I think one of the biggest things is do think outside the box a little bit. So do think about the things that you can share with journalists in pictures that make you stand out. So, and I'm not talking, oh, I have coined this very unusual phrase to do what I'm doing. Like, great, but that's not appealing in its own right. Calling something something slightly different isn't gonna grab a journalist's attention, but telling them things that surprise them, that they genuinely don't know about your expertise, or sharing a personal story that's really, you know, gonna get them going, tell me more. Like I want to know about that. So don't get caught up in having a very fixed idea of what you want to pitch, but think about all the different things you can say. So great things to start with are, you know, what do you tell people as an expert that other people in your field aren't aren't saying? What are you saying that's a bit different? What are the myths that you're busting? So, whatever your expertise is, you can bet there are some misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths that exist that you know that the general public or even people maybe within your field just don't get it, that they are barking up the wrong tree, they are doing something perhaps. Say you were uh fit, your expertise was fitness. Maybe you're constantly seeing people making mistakes and you're thinking, if they only did this, their results would be better, or this would be better. Or, you know, it applies to any kind of expertise. There will be people making silly mistakes that you know as an expert and that you'll be helping your clients with, but sharing those kind of messages on a wider scale will appeal to journalists. So the stuff that people want to know but also need to know. And don't be shy about sharing your personal story. So the big do is think about your own life. So a lot of people will, their initial reaction will be, but why would anyone want to hear about me? Like, I'm just in this to teach people X, Y, and Z or help them do this. Why would they want to know about me? People do, people do want to know about you, people do want to hear your stories. A lot of the time, your story as well will relate to what you do because you being you is part of why you do what it is you do. So I've had numerous people tell me, oh, my personal story isn't relevant, and then they tell me their personal story, and I'm like, okay, but this sounds very much like this was probably the turning point that made you start your business, and they'll be like, Yes, it absolutely was. Like this experience or this thing that happened or this obstacle I overcame gave me this fire in my belly to do what I do now, and so sharing that kind of story is really interesting to journalists because essentially the kind of people that become journalists are like myself, the nosiest and most curious people you could imagine. We want to know everything, we want to know what kind of washing detergent you're using, we want to know everything, we want to go through your bins. The only reason we don't do that is to be polite, you know. We want to know everything. So you can bet they want to hear your shocking story or the time you did something really bizarre and it all worked out really well, or it didn't work out, but you overcame it anyway. They want to know it all. So just have a really the do is have an open mind about what it is you're gonna be pitching and just have a think about all the things that you might say, you know, in that two truths and a lie, what would be the things that you would pick as your two truths? They're usually a really good starting point for pitches.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

I love that, I love that, and especially if there are things that people like personal stories and things like that, absolutely brilliant because they're yours, like nobody else can take that exact experience, like that belongs to you. Where something that's happening a lot at the minute, isn't it, Catherine, is that a lot of people are going to Chat GPT or who's telling them that their idea that's all over the place is absolutely unique. So then everybody in the same niche is going and pitching the exact same angles. So, like if you think about something that other people aren't saying genuinely, not what chat GPT is telling you that other people aren't aren't talking about, but genuinely something that belongs to you, like that's a lived experience, or something that you've experienced through through teaching or from your own journey and doing into what you do, whether other people the people like it's not as easy for ChatGPC to come up with it, or for somebody else or Google, like those ones are always going to do better at the minute, aren't they? Because of the sheer volume of the AI pictures that are out there.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Yeah, and that really neatly segues into a very clear don't, which is don't rely on AI for your pictures. So that's not to say you can't ever use it as a time-saving tool, but the problem with AI is it's just scraping the ideas that already exist. So it's never going to come up with something as good as your brain for your expertise and what you do. So use it very much. If you have to use it, I would say use it with caution, use it sparingly, and humanize it completely afterwards. So what I am seeing more and more and more is conversations between journalists saying that the second that they think something is AI, they're deleting it. So you are actually doing yourself a disservice. So what tends to happen is people think, oh, I don't really know how to do this, but AI must know because you know it's this clever thing. So they give it to AI. AI does it in a very, very easy to spot way. So journalists then go, oh, this is AI, I'm not interested in this, and they delete it and they don't read it. So actually, your raw pitch would be better than an AI one because it would actually read it. Even better, you know, come and work with us, we'll we'll teach you how to do pictures. But what you do is always going to be more appealing, particularly if you are you have any kind of guidance about how to write the right pitch. So one of the big things that I do with Dauntless is I teach people how to write their pictures, I help them, I give them feedback, but I always say to them, I can spot when people send me a pitch to look at and it's AI, I can always spot it. Sometimes, unfortunately, it isn't AI, but they use a turn of phrase that AI now uses. So it almost doesn't matter if it's AI or not, if you're doing it in the way that AI does it. So things like the M-dash. I used to love the M-dash, but AI's kind of killed that for people. It's so annoying. I used to say he isn't thing all the time, and now I can't say it. And there's just turns of phrase, particularly Chat GPT, that I'm I'm not as familiar with how all of the different AIs do, but chat GPT in particular has very certain ways that it says things, it hypes things up a lot, so it'll be like, this is the most revolutionary idea ever. And it goes way too over the top, and journalists just immediately go, oh no, this has got to be AI. So a do would be give, make sure what you're sending out is very human, is very relevant and authentic to you. Do use your own words and do kind of, I'd say play a straight back. Like, don't go into it trying to convince them that you have like, you know, the wheel or something, like something really, you know, just go into it with this is what I've got to say and this is why it's important, without trying to hype yourself up. So again, making massive generalizations, obviously, journalists are all different people, but as a general rule, I would say anyone who has been in the media a lot, we're quite hard to shock, but we're also quite hard to impress. If you say, like, this is the best thing that's ever happened in the history of the world, people's gut reaction is, well, that's silly. No, of course it's not. Whereas if you just tell them it's straight, then they can make their own conclusions and go, actually, that is really interesting. So don't use salesy language. That's I've ended up morphing into a new don't. But if you're trying to sell to the journalist, then you're pitching them in the wrong way. They're not your customer, they are not your audience, might be sometimes as well. Remember, say like you were pitching Forbes and you are trying to go for people who own seven-figure businesses and above. That journalist isn't someone who owns a business of seven figures or above. They're a journalist working in a staff job for Forbes. They're not your target market. They write about your target market, they write for your target market, they know the topics that your target market care about. So remember that you are presenting them an angle, a topic, a story, and you they have to decide whether that is interesting for their audience. You're not trying to get them to listen to your podcast, read your book, buy your program, sign up for your email newsletter. That's not what your pitch is doing. You are presenting them with an idea and you're hoping that they're gonna say, that's really interesting. I'd like to write a piece about that, or I'd like to invite you onto my radio show or whatever thing they're pitching. You're not trying to convert that individual person. You know, sometimes they you might have someone who's writing for a parenting magazine, they don't have any kids. You know, they're not always gonna even fit what they they do. They might be writing for a women's magazine and they're a man. You know, they're not necessarily who you are going for. So think about the audience of the outlet when you're pitching. You don't have to avidly read it, but take a look at it before you pitch, like have a no, have a bit of a knowledge about who's going to be reading this, who's gonna be listening to this, who's gonna be watching this, what kind of things do they cover. Doesn't mean you have to take out two-year subscription before you pitch, but just have a bit of an idea so that you are not sending them something wildly unsuitable. So you're not sending a story all about dogs to cats monthly, you know, make sure that you are kind of getting getting the right kind of ideas to the right outlets.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

I remember a journalist saying something telling me about a pitch that they'd received, and it was something about it was a story about fruits that looked like genitals. And this journalist was like, Do you know what? I quite liked it, but I I write about fashion. It wasn't fashion, but it was something completely different.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

I still get loads of pictures. I don't know what list I'm on to get these pictures. I get loads of gardening-related pictures. I am gardening. Ever written about gardening? I have either been in news, I've written about parenting, I've had nothing to do with gardening. If you saw my back garden at the moment, it's like the Amazon rainforest. Like, you would know I am not the person to be interested in a gardening angle. And yet, somewhere I have obviously ended up being falsely recommended on a list somewhere, and I get loads of them. So even just having a little bit of knowledge about like, okay, who is it that I'm sending this to, or you know, where is it if it's an outlet? Like, is that going to be something that they would be interested in? Because I'm never going to say yes to that gardening idea, even if they sent me the most amazing gardening-related pitch ever. It's not what I care about, it's not what I write about. I don't have anybody that I could write an article about gardening for. I wouldn't even know how to go about because I've I've shown so little interest in gardening. I can't even imagine just rocking up to some gardening magazine and being like, hi, I'm someone who doesn't know how to garden, but been sent this great pitch, you know, so wildly unsuitable. And it makes me think, well, if I'm getting them, then every journalist is getting them.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

I'm not sure. Well, I wonder. I wonder if AI is recommending, because my my first thought was, oh, like, is ChatGPT giving that or something? Because here's another thing don't rely on ChatGPT for contacts either. They are absolutely terrible. Like they will give you the worst contacts, the most irrelevant people, or you know, one of your peers who wrote an article five years ago or something like that, you know, like not the actual right you want to be pitching.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

And it will come out, it will, it will do great holding accountability. So I have asked it numerous times, not because I need it to find the contacts, but just to test test the process and see what people are are getting when they use it. And I it has come up with people who have died and told me that they are working for places. It's come up because the thing with Chat GPT where it seems to struggle at the moment, and it may it may resolve in the future, it sees a byline in a particular publication, and it doesn't seem able to distinguish between, okay, that's the current person who is doing that, and that's a person who has written about that at some point in their lives. So, like you say, people might have done a guest article as a one-off, and it'll have them down as that, as that person. And then you you hold it accountable and you say, Chat GPT, this person is dead or something, and it will go, oh, sorry, yes, you're completely right. But then it'll throw something else completely crazy. It's it's fantastic at apologizing after it's very much an ask forgiveness rather than permission as GPT. It's like, oh, sorry, I gave you all that absolutely terrible advice. Um here's something different. Would you like to know this? And it'll offer you things because it does so with such confidence that you will believe it, it will tell you that that is true with the absolute confidence of someone who doesn't know what they're doing. It's like I it's the opposite of imposter syndrome, isn't it? They need a new thing of like this. It's like this person is absolutely the editor of this newspaper, and then you'll be like, they've never even written for it, and it'll be like, Yes, you are completely right, they are not the editor. I almost admire it.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I'm like, you you just you've got unshakable confidence, even though you're we should all, we should all have the absolute audacity of chat GPT, we'd go far.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

But it just means basically use Google, straight Google, not its AI thing, is far more effective for things like that than ChatGPT. So actually looking, my biggest top tip if you're trying to go alone with finding contact is actually go onto the outlet and look at the bylines of the current articles of the topic that you are wanting to pitch on, because you know that person is written recently because they're there, their name's there, and then Google that person. You know, that would be if you're trying to do it by yourself, you know, and you haven't got people like us who've got a big bulging contacts book to help you, then that is far more effective than asking chat GBT. It takes a bit longer, so I can see the appeal of trying to outsource it to AI, but actually, does it take less time if it's giving you all the wrong ones? You know, what's the point in sending out loads of emails to someone who, you know, like me and my gardening pictures? I'm just like, well, why are they telling me this? Like they've not saved any time sending that to me because it's the wrong person. Yeah. But I think do as well ask, don't yeah, do ask for help and don't assume that writing pictures is the same as writing for other things. So one of the things I would say is I always sort of say, I'm gonna completely tell you to unlearn everything you learn in like your English at school. So, like you might write very descriptively for social media, and that might work really well. And I'm not telling you that that's wrong, by the way, that's brilliant. But for pictures, you just want to go short, direct, con you know, very concise, very play it straight, does what it says on the tin. You don't need to set the scene, you don't need a kind of a 400 words getting some sort of atmosphere about what the situation was. What they want to know is, okay, what are you trying to tell me? Because the big thing to know with pitching is that journalists are very time poor, they get a lot of emails, they don't have time to read them all in detail, to sit and think about them, they're gonna be skim reading it at best. So if somebody is very quickly skim reading your pitch, are they gonna know what you're talking about? And what tends to happen is the more people try to write well, the more confusing what they write is. It's this kind of confusing because we're being brainwashed into thinking writing well means using complicated words, using lots of adjectives, using something you need a thesaurus to come up with, and actually using simple language, getting rid of the jargon, making sure that you are getting the point across very concisely, and you don't need to go into all the detail. You know, you're giving them enough that they know what it is you've got to talk about. Then the idea is that you fill in the blanks in an interview. So do think simple. I think that would be the biggest do is keep it direct, keep it simple. Not simple in idea, because like I've said, you know, you want to be coming up with things that not everybody is saying, but simple in delivery. So you are presenting your idea in a simple way so that if they have to do any work at all, they have to like get out addiction wheel, Google what it is you're talking about, they're not gonna do that. They are not gonna do any extra work. If you send them a pitch and say, okay, I uh this person, I have explained all this in a TED talk, watch my TED talk to find out what I'm pitching you about, they're not going to do that. You could always send them a pitch explaining if you're pitching on the idea that your TED talk was on, send them a pitch with that idea and then say, if you want to know more, you can watch my TED talk and put the link, give them the option, but don't make extra work like a defining thing in your pitch because chances are they'll be like, I have got hundreds of these emails. I'm not gonna sit and watch a 10-minute video. I'm certainly not gonna read a book or even an ebook or even a little PDF thing, or I'm not gonna go and look all these complicated terms up to work out what it is you mean. I'm just gonna pass over this because it's not hit me in the face with this is suitable for you and your audience. So I'm just gonna move on. And that's the thought process. And people have over the years come and said, Oh, but that makes journalists sound really rude. And it's like that might be true. You might think that's really rude that they're not gonna sit and spend half an hour looking into all your things. But actually, most people work what, like an eight hour working day, they get hundreds of emails. It's not sustainable for them to spend ages. What they want is find the ideas that work for them, and then they want to spend their time speaking to people, writing those things. They don't want to spend their entire day searching through pictures for something that works, they want to spend their time. Interviewing people writing the pieces. So they want the things that jump out at them as being suitable. And they're the things that they're going to go for.

SPEAKER_00 22:09

And they don't need to because there's so many other pictures there. I think that's something that people don't really grasp sometimes, is the sheer volume of pitches that are coming in. And you know, it does mean that you everything needs to be clear, simple, and easy, doesn't it? Like, I think a really, really big point is make the journalist's life as easy as possible. People love you for it. Like, you know, have your image, like have your images put it picked out ready. Don't make them go through like folders and folders of images or tell them to look online. Don't expect them to read your book for information or to watch your TED Talk or any of that. Just give them what they need. And then after the interview, like and I know I'm skipping ahead a little bit now and talking about interviews, but something I've always found that's just really powerful is just a simple comment at the end. If you need anything else, just let me know. And to be responsive then when they do.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Absolutely, because we're all we all have the same objectives, whatever our job is, we want to do it as well as we can, as simply as possible. Like if you think of any task you do, you're not going to pick the most complicated and convoluted way of doing it. You're going to do it just the simplest, easiest, most effective way. And journalists are exactly the same. You know, they're not going to want to do a lot of homework based on people. You know, maybe they might do if somebody is a really, really, really a-list star, then yeah, they probably will read their book before they interview them. But if you are somebody who is coming to a journalist, you are building your visibility, you are really wanting this media for yourself, then make it as easy as possible. And think about it when you're applying for a job. So if you were applying for a job and you know that there's going to be a lot of competition for this job because it's awesome. You really want it. You wouldn't send, you'd follow the steps, wouldn't you? You'd fill in the application form, send your CV, whatever it is that they've asked you to do. What you wouldn't do is just send them a quick online email going, I would be amazing for this job. Have a look at my website, read my book, go on here. You can download my CV if you sign up to my email newsletter. You would not give them a load of hurdles to go through because you want that thing. So if you're wanting them to feature you in their outlet, give them what they need on a plate as easily as possible. Don't make them work for it because just as a sheer numbers game, they're going to skip past that to the really easy, simply laid-out pitch, and they're going to go for that because they don't have any shortage of people wanting to be interviewed, particularly the big, the big hitters. So, say places like Oprah Daily, Forbes, Vogue, those kind of places, they've got people queuing up wanting to be featured. They certainly don't need to convince anybody to be featured. So you don't you need to convince them rather than the other way around.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yes. And I had to, you know, when you were saying that people think it's rude that a journalist wouldn't sit there and like, you know, read everything in detail and go to all that effort. Do you know what came to my head then was how many people go through and read all of the cold emails that they read that they receive, you know, like sales emails and stuff like that. Like, do you read thoroughly and respond to every single one? Because I know I don't. I know I don't. You know, if it doesn't interest me, then I don't even open it. And I expect it's the same for a journalist.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Yeah, that's a really great analogy, actually. A really great one. Because to them it's a work-related version of what you probably have in your own email where you're getting all this stuff that you've not asked for. And sometimes, in amongst that, you go, Oh my gosh, I actually really need that product. I am going to look. And it's the same thing for a journalist. In amongst those ideas, they might suddenly be like, actually, yes, I do need that kind of expert for a piece that I'm working on. Or that's a really great topic that would work really well. I'll I'll apply. But not everything they get is going to be a fit. Just like not every marketing email you get is going to be the thing that you need right that moment. You know, I imagine marketing emails are, you know, I'm in the UK at the moment, it's been very hot. Like if someone had sent me a really great, like, fan portable air conditioning system yesterday, I would have probably been like, absolutely. But if they'd sent that in December, they wouldn't have done. So it's about kind of thinking, what's going to appeal to them? Is it going to appeal to them right now? Is it kind of the right sort of timing for this? But also not taking it personally as well. That's a really big one to get in just before we go. Is don't take pitching personally. They are not rejecting you as a person. They are simply not taking you up on your offer to be featured because you're offering an idea. And if they say yes or they say, Oh, maybe tell me some more, then they are sort of interested in your offer. If it's not right for them, it doesn't mean that that pitch wouldn't work for somebody else. It doesn't mean it wouldn't work for that publication at a different time either. It just means at that particular moment it wasn't quite what they were looking for, and there were other things that appealed to them more. So definitely the biggest thing is don't overthink it, don't take it personally, recognize that you're not always going to get yeses, but you are sometimes going to get no's. You're going to often just get no sort of response at all because they're busy and they've just it's just not been it's not been what they want. But you have to be in it to win it. You have to send the pictures for them to know you exist. So, you know, it's it can be off-putting when people go, oh, but I I only want to send pictures if I'm gonna receive a response. That's often people's mindset. Well, I don't want to send something if they're gonna ignore it. But that's that's the reality we live in. That is the thing. You don't know, do you? So you don't know unless you try. They only know you exist if you're pitching them. If you can think of somebody in your niche that has been in the media a lot, they might now be approached directly by the journalist. But at some point they were pitching, they were putting themselves forward to get to know known by the media. At some point, everybody was putting the effort in. It's like even the most A-list actress who's getting millions per film at one point was going to a load of auditions. It's that kind of thing. At one point, they were putting that work in to get known. And so not pitching, the only way that you're guaranteed failure in media is just to not do it at all. So as soon as you start pitching, then the opportunities open up to you and the possibilities are there. But if you don't, because you think, oh, that sounds too much, I don't want to, that's you are making a conscious choice then that you're not going to be in the media. So just getting started and having that kind of I'm just gonna go for it mentality is such an important part of pitching.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

Yes, and that is a perfect point to finish on. Send the pitch.

unknown 30:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Any questions? Any questions, comments, email us, hello at dauntlesspr.com, and we'll see you next time.