Everyone knows that journalists hate follow up calls. Not only that, it is extremely time consuming for PR specialists to mechanically work their way through a media list, calling every single contact on their list. Since time management is key in successfully managing several PR accounts at once, there isn’t the time to conduct this kind of phone pitching for every single pitch that is distributed.

I perform my phone pitching in the following way. Instead of calling every single contact on my list, I set myself goals.

- What are the top publications in which I want to get my client coverage?
- Where is the greatest fit between story and publication?
- Which of my media relationships can I leverage to maximize chances of media coverage?

I have found that I achieve better success when I spend my time honing my pitch for a target number of publications rather than approaching every publication in the same way.

At the end of the day, a journalist will appreciate a call from a PR professional that has a truly interesting story that fits their beat and their publication.