If you’ve ever tried to pitch a story to the media you know how hard it can be. You can contact 50 journalists, spend 20 hours, and get nothing out of it. It’s even hard for PR firms, which is why the ones who can make it happen get paid the big bucks.
What gets me is when people have a PR opportunity staring them in the face, and they don’t see it. Here’s an example:
While I was living in Hong Kong and writing for Forbes, the Governor of Utah and his trade staff traveled to Hong Kong to promote Utah as a destination for Asian companies to set up US operations. The Utah World Trade Center sent out a newsletter saying this:
Join Zions Bank and the Mountain States Trade Mission to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China this September 14-18. The trade mission will include country briefings by the U.S. Embassy, business meetings, receptions hosted by the U.S. Consulate, cultural visits and a Sundance Film Festival opening night gala in Hong Kong.
Space is limited. For more information contact … [contact info]. Matching grant money may be available to qualifying companies to help defray the costs. For information contact [more contact info].
The trade mission is sponsored by the Sundance Institute, the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the U.S. Commercial Service and World Trade Center Utah.
Neither the governor’s staff nor the UWTC ever reached out to me. I wasn’t offended, just puzzled. It’s not that I’m The Man when it comes to all things between Utah and Hong Kong. “How dare they plan a trip without talking to me first!” No, it’s not like that. What I’m saying is that if their goal was to get publicity for Utah, I was an easy target. I loved writing stories that involve both Utah and Hong Kong. I’m easy to find. At the time, a quick Google search for “utah hong kong media,” “utah hong kong journalist,” or “utah hong kong business” would have brought up scores of my articles. Search for “utah hong kong forbes” and a few of my articles pop up before anything else. With a few minutes of research and outreach, Utah could have had an article in Forbes to publicize this trip. How far would that have gone to assist them in their efforts?
Tip #1: Pitch journalists who are connected to your hometown or state.
Utah isn’t the only one missing out. Strangely, I’ve never received a pitch like this: “Hey, I saw you went to BYU and that you just published an article in Mashable, I’ve got an idea for an article that I think would go well with your readers…” Would I have written that article? Maybe, maybe not. Would I have given them the time of day? Sure, which is more than I can say for most of the pitches I get and automatically delete. BYU produces a lot of successful entrepreneurs with companies that need and want PR. While I was writing for high-profile publications I was an easy target, but the people who would have had the easiest time pitching me never tried.
Tip #2: Pitch journalists who went to the same school you did.
Someone else recently did this the right way. A PR firm saw that I’m writing articles focused on the chief marketing officer (CMO) role, so they sent me a press release about a study their client released in association with the CMO Council, the leading professional organization for CMOs. I have NEVER responded to a press release before, and I’ve received a few. But their personalized approach, together with the highly relevant content of the release, convinced me to write an article based on it. They saw that I was an easy target for the news they had, and they acted. Easy article for their client.
Tip #3: Pitch journalists who have shown a sustained interest in the topic you want to pitch.
Most companies make the mistake of approaching a journalist right after they’ve written a story they wish had included them, and they assume this journalist is an easy target for a follow up piece. “Hey, I saw that you just wrote a story about the top 10 productivity app startups, and we’re #11, so I bet you’d love to write a story about us, too!” Wrong. That journalist is the worst person for you to approach right now. They are the least likely journalist in the world to write about your startup, unless their entire focus is on productivity apps and that’s all they write about and you can see a pattern of it in their writing. I get so many pitches like this and all I can think is “Wow, too bad you didn’t email me three weeks ago, this would have been a perfect fit back then.” Unfortunately, it’s hard to get around this challenge. You can’t know what someone is working on before they publish a piece, unless they publicize it, or…unless you ask.
Tip #4: Email journalists and ask them what they’re working on.
If I were in Utah’s shoes, I would have spent five minutes on Google to see if there were any journalists in Hong Kong with a Utah connection. If I were an expert on a certain topic, I would do a search to look at all the articles around that topic. This isn’t complicated. Just takes a little searching around on Google. The hardest part appears to be thinking to do it in the first place.
What easy PR opportunities are you missing out on?
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