Perfect your pitch email
We know when it comes to PR, contacting the press can be very daunting; what do I say? how do I approach the subject? when shall I email? how many times can I send the same editor an email? There’s many questions which comes along with emailing the press, and some of which we can hopefully answer in this ‘Do’s and the Don’ts of emailing the press, giving you the confidence to go forward and start pitching.
THE DON’TS
Tell them your life story
As a key starting point to perfecting your pitch email, always remember, keep it short, sweet and simple. They don’t need your life story or waffle - when you receive an email that’s three paragraphs long, what’s the first thing you do (or think of doing) ? deleting the email, so avoid sending large amounts of text as it can immediately write off your pitch.
Email at evenings or weekends
Surprisingly, Editors don’t sit on their emails at 9pm or Saturday lunchtime checking their emails, so stick to emailing on working days, during working hours (we advise to avoid Mondays or Friday when possible) otherwise you’re limiting your chances and wasting time which could be put to good use. Try to think when is the most likely time you reply to your emails?
Attach high res images / dropbox or WeTransfer links
When sending your emails, don’t attach any high res/ high storage files. Three reasons for this is because; it clocks up their inbox, the email may often not even load due to the file size, and they don’t want them, all leading to the email being deleted. If you want to send a image of the product you’re suggesting, you can attach a low res, cut out image into the body of your email, and if they like your product they might ask to send them one of the above, which is great and the result you want. Understanding what you need to contact the press is key in nailing this.
Hound them
Don’t send the Editors email after email after email - send your first email, and if you haven’t heard back, you can follow up around a week+ later. Once you’ve contacted them a couple of times, it might be worth to change product or contact, and you can always come back to them at a later date when you think your product might be relevant.
THE DO’S
Now for the do’s and once you’ve cracked these, you’re ready to start pitching your product.
Keep it short, sweet and simple
As previously mentioned, the shorter and straight to the point, the better! Keep all information relevant for the feature and editor and make it as easy to read, the editor will thank you for this.
Add hyperlinks where possible
Hyperlinks are great to send your Editors straight to your website, social media etc - it cuts out the middle man of them having to google your brand which is time saving for them. Use them when mentioning your website, the product or anything where you can send them through to, to get a better feel of your brand.
Try and make common ground
After using a nice salutation, try make some common ground or relate to something. This could be as simple as ‘I hope you had a nice Christmas’ or if you know they’ve just been on holiday, you could say ‘I hope you had a nice holiday, the weather looked lovely’ and so on. Try to make the email personal, and do not use copy and pasted emails.
Email over calling
Always email the editors, don’t call them. If you do manage to get through to someone via the phone (which is not very often) they will just ask you to send them an email with the details on, as it’s much easier for them and will be much more beneficial for you.
Give them the details
When emailing, if applicable, tell them which feature you are pitching for. Suggest your press worthy product for the x feature (whether it’s a regular or a seasonal feature) and x publication - if they’ve got all the important information there’s more of a chance that they’ll feature your product.
Once you’ve perfected these steps, you should be ready to start contacting the press with your perfect pitch.
Ready for more PR? We’re here to give you the contacts, community, advice & support you need to get the coverage you deserve. You can find out more about our memberships here.