Media Relations tips (from the other side)
I get a lot of pitches from media relations folks. Most of them, I’m sorry to report, end up in the trash. I thought I’d do a short series of blog postings explaining why some pitches end up in the trash.Here’s what I received this morning:
Good morning,Today [camera maker] announces it has added significantly to its [brand name] line with six new cameras, including the [model] (replacing the [model]) and the new [model].Other cameras include [model] and more of the popular A-series cameras.
For your convenience I have included links to each of the releases below, but please feel free to contact me for the original documents or for more product information.
Best, [name]
Okay, this one has two primary problems with it:
- It’s clearly a “blasted” pitch, which means the exact same email has been sent to other reporters, without any thought to their beat or anything. Even a simple “Hi Tod” at the start would help me think even a bit of thought was put into it. But really, the pitches that grab my attention quickly have a bit of personalization. For instance: “Hi Tod, I know you’ve done a few stories on digital cameras recently, so I thought you’d appreciate this.”
- There’s no compelling story here. You’ve added new models. Big deal. Companies add products every hour. Tell me about something REVOLUTIONARY in the product. Does one camera have something really cool that no other digital camera on the market has? Is it the first digital camera that can also make coffee? If there’s no compelling story (sorry, but going from 10 megapixels to 12 megapixels is not a story) then don’t send me the pitch at all.
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