Anyone who has ever read a book on sales or taken a sales course has
heard it - on average it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 contacts before a sale
is reached. Although sales and publicity are very different animals, the
same rule of thumb applies when pitching your release/story idea to the
media. Because of the Internet and email, media outlets today are bombarded
with hundreds if not thousands of media pitches each week. So, it's more
important than ever that to make sure your release gets noticed. This
doesn't mean pitching to more media outlets -- it means your publicist or PR
staff
should take the time to pitch to your specific media market.multiple times.
Whether you pitched the release yourself or hired someone to do it for
you -- did the release make contact? Sure it arrived, but is that the
release that editor needs that day, for that article or for that issue.
Hopefully so, but many times that is not the case. So the release is either
saved for future use (again hopefully) or more than likely it is set aside,
trashed or deleted. The releases/pitches that get used are the ones that
are, in fact, newsworthy, media-friendly and arrive at opportune times. As
you might imagine a perfect combination of all three translates into your
best chances of media coverage and publicity.
Using a release distribution service gets your release pitched ONCE. But the
most successful campaigns are those that are strategically and effectively
maintained and/or re-pitched with calculated frequency. Most media outlets
don't or can't respond to your initial release or pitch.
Based on my professional experience as a PR/Publicity specialist, I would
estimate that media placements occur in the following manner:
25% occur after the 1st - 2nd pitch
50% occur after the 3rd - 5th pitch
25% occur after the 6th - 8th pitch
Sometimes (in fact most times) a strong placement happens when a release
hits an editor at the right place at the right time. Sure you may have pitch
that media contact three times over the last few weeks, but perhaps that
reporter/editor/producer didn't have the time or the editorial space to work
your release into a placement. Your opportunity for placements increases
with meticulous, media follow-ups and re-pitches. What many business
owners/entrepreneurs don't realize is the majority of media outlets fail to
respond until after the third or fourth pitch. I continue to be amazed and
amused at the editor/producer who, upon receiving my pitch for the fourth
time, says "I'm so glad you reminded me of this release!" or "Great timing!
This will fit perfectly in a feature were doing this week/month!" If the
release had just been pitched once and not followed up, those placements
would not have taken place.
So make sure your PR staff or the company you've hired isn't afraid to wind
up and pitch your campaign multiple times. Just like in baseball, the more
pitches there are - the better chances you get to make a hit.
Todd Brabender
Spread The News Public Relations, Inc.
Generating publicity & media exposure for innovative
products/businesses/websites.
(785) 842-8909
todd@spreadthenewspr.com
http://www.spreadthenewspr.com
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