Dear PR pros: The problem is you

This article first appeared on PR Daily in August of 2017.

A bad pitch won’t do you any favors.

Inspired (or depressed) by subpar media relations efforts, we’re publishing a regular article geared toward making journalists’ inboxes a better place and PR pros’ efforts more effective. Welcome to “The Pitch Project.”

To kick things off, here’s an excerpt from an email I recently received:

Who would I need to contact to share our real estate story with. [sic] No automated inboxes please.

I often send automated responses to those who pitch me stories that no journalist cares to read and that we don’t accept for PR Daily and Ragan.com. Apparently fed up with this response, this communicator further inquired about how to get this story in print—with a polite request to refrain from my previous email response.

Here’s how I answered:

You’d need to contact an editor at a publication in which your news would be a fit. PR Daily is a PR publication, and we also publish marketing, writing and social media stories. In my auto response, I outlined the stories we don’t take, along with a publishing guide for guest post submissions. That should help you in the future!

Because you probably won’t receive a reply like this from the journalist you incorrectly pitched, here are five bad behaviors that PR pros should end right now:

1. Link me.

Have you ever been guilty of this offense?

Perhaps our guide is worth linking to along with your other resources?

Is there any chance you'd be willing to post a link to this article on your site?

… [I]f you happen to know anyone who can make good use of this story, please feel free to forward them this link:

In today’s search-focused world where Google reigns supreme, nabbing links to your website can be a powerful way to boost your credibility and gain more traffic.

Please understand, however, that journalists and editors do not exist to peddle your links.

If you’re asking for a link to your product, resource or web page on an article that’s already run, you’re too late. This becomes even more noticeable when you ask for a link on an article that’s months (or years) old.

If you’re asking for a link to your product, resource or web page without showing how that link will benefit the publication’s readers, you’re barking up the wrong tree.

2. Could you run my story?

Asking if there’s interest in your pitch doesn’t create interest. Here are several examples:

Any chance this is something you'd be interested in writing about?

Interest in covering _____? [written in the email’s subject line]

Let me know if you’re interested in sharing.

Maybe you’d consider running something on the site?

Any chance you'd be interested in exploring these ideas further?

Would you be willing to take a look at it?

Journalists and editors get that PR pros have a job to do. We understand that you’re being pressed for media coverage. Sending irrelevant pitches along with a plea to cover them isn’t helping you achieve that end, though.

Stop asking journalists whether there’s “any chance” they want to write about your non-news, and instead send them something they can sink their teeth into.

This can be a timely angle on a current trend or breaking news story, a study that might appeal to the publication’s readers or an op-ed on a common pain point that hasn’t already been written about a million times.

3. You’ll be interested, I promise.

Just as writing in a press release that your product or service is “awesome” doesn’t make it so, telling a journalist or editor that his or her readers will love your pitch does not make that a fact.

I think the PR Daily audience would love to learn about our product!

I think your audience would love to read it.

It’s essential to pitch your stories to reporters who cover topics, industries or trends that relate to your news.

When you have correctly targeted a reporter or editor, you don’t need to include this line. Your pitch should speak for itself.

Many PR pros include exclamations about how a publication’s audience will love to read about their product, service or organization’s news. The truth is, they don’t—and neither does the reporter or editor you’ve pitched.

Shelve this tired sentence. If your pitch doesn’t scream why it’s relevant to a recipient’s audience, you should go back to the drawing board.

[RELATED: Pitch—and receive instant feedback from—reporters at major news outlets.]

4. It’s me: I’m following up again.

Radio silence from those you pitch can be annoying, but it’s often a sign that you didn’t hit the mark.

I haven't been able to reach you live on the phone. Do you need any additional information about this campaign?

The journalist or editor you’re attempting to reach probably has a full inbox, a long list of tasks, an impending deadline and lots of stress. Don’t add to the chaos by continuing to follow up on your news that you opened a new office, hired someone, launched a product or won an award.

Continuing to tweet at or email a member of the news media harasses a person who is not going to give you the answer you want to hear, and continuing to call is even worse. Just don’t do it.

5. It’s all about me.

All of these bad pitch behaviors underline one big problem: The PR pros who demonstrate them are thinking only of themselves, not the journalist—nor his or her readers.

Lines such as these make this attitude more transparent:

We appreciate you spreading the word about…

I truly hope you take my article in consideration for publication because this [story] is very important to me.

If you want to grab headlines, stop thinking about you, your organization or your client—and start thinking about the journalists and editors you want to reach, along with their readers.

Offer to write a blog post. Better yet, write a blog post (after reading the publication to ensure your topic or point of view hasn’t already been covered) and then pitch it to them for consideration. Answer Help a Reporter Out queries with relevant and helpful information. Save links to your products and services to your byline, unless it fits into the story (such as a compelling blog post that highlights your sentence). Offer your executive’s opinion on a breaking news story with quotes that a journalist can easily copy and paste into an article.

Journalists and editors don’t owe you any favors, so please don’t act like they do.

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