Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my blog visitors!

Happy blogging in 2006!

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.

Every once in a while, somebody comes up with a creative form of marketing that really appeals to the sillier side of us.

Before, there was Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. The latest piece of viral marketing on the block is the Gem Sweater advert from Space 150.

For all of you that have already been dragged along to a Christmas Sweater party, you’ll be disappointed that you didn’t discover Gem Sweaters beforehand!

This is a hillarious advert that is going to get a lot of hits…… not sure that it will impact sales though…… except for those looking for an outfit for one of the afore-mentioned parties.

Email pitching can be very time consuming and ineffective unless you know the target audience and layout of each publication on your list.

Make sure that you also have the correct contact for those publications. Research the reporters and choose a contact that covers the topic you will be pitching. Continually refine your media list when you encounter appropriate or particularly responsive contacts and update on a regular basis to make sure that the publication’s contact details are still current.

Look at the types of articles, sections and features that each publication includes in every issue and if possible, pitch your story idea with a particular section in mind.

Structure your pitch in the format that the journalist uses for that particular column or section. Writing a pitch in this way pulls the pieces together for the journalist and, thus, enhances your chances of coverage.

Lastly, writing a pitch for a particular reporter or section streamlines the phone pitch, which will be the topic of my next post.

Public Relations practices are being forced to evolve with technology. The invention of email means that communications between PR pros and journalists have become easier and quicker, but also more prolific.

Understandably, journalists are annoyed when they are spammed with pitches that are a) not relevant to their beat and b) not even relevant to their publication.

In this day and age when journalists’ inboxes are filled with both irrelevant and relevant pitches, how can you ensure that your message escapes immediate deletion ?

Over the next few days, I will be posting key factors to consider so that your pitch resonates with the media.

#1 – The Subject Line

Email is now the PR professional’s number 1 channel for pitching. This means that pitching must be very focused and strategic to increase your message’s chances of survival.

The subject line is the first touch point between the journalist and your pitch. If the subject line is not attention-grabbing and engaging, then your pitch is only one click away from the trash can.

For all of you people out there that are as sick as I am of the anti-Christmas campaigning, you may get a kick out of a recent post on Threadwatch.

Bloody Christmas comically communicates how the question of Christmas is getting out of hand.

Indeed, if we are going to be non-exclusive, then efforts should be made not to offend anyone during the *BEEP* season.

That means that corporate *BEEP* parties should not include:

Alcohol – Offensive to Alcoholics Anonymous
Meat – Offensive to Vegetarians
Sugar filled desserts – Offensive to Diabetics
Salt – Offensive to those with high blood pressure
Food – Offensive to Anorexics
Music – Offensive to deaf people
Decorations – Offensive to blind people

And so the list goes on……..

The power of a recognizable brand should not be underestimated in any marketing campaign. I often use a “borrow-to-build” strategy with my own clients. If the client’s brand is not so recognizable, why not use one that is?

For example, one of my clients has a very strong partnership with IBM. We have found that press releases that include references to IBM have a much larger pickup rate than some of the other releases distributed on behalf of the client.

Another example of an extremely powerful brand is Donald Trump. His T.V. show “The Apprentice” has become a marketing forum for the nation’s biggest vendors. In the past few weeks, we have seen the likes of Star Wars and Dick’s Sporting Goods “borrow” the Trump brand to build their own brand visibility.

Martha Stewart must be disappointed that The Apprentice has not had the same effect on her brand……

I hear that “the Donald” now plans to launch “Trump Vodka” in the hope of making the T&T (Trump & Tonic) New York’s most fashionable cocktail.