The 2 burning questions in journalists’ minds

Before I started writing this I was video-chatting with a busy influencer who writes one of the top blogs in her industry. And she’s constantly pitched poorly by people she thinks should know better.

“It’s easy! I don’t want all your stats and lists of facts and paragraphs of details!”

When she – or pretty much any journalist/influencer you target – opens your email, they have two questions burning in the back of their minds:

     – What is this? They want to know what you have to offer. What it is, in a nutshell.
     – Why are you contacting ME about this? Why will my readers/viewers care? This is why the typical generic, mass-produced email pitch is so deadly. In a split-second, your target realizes, “Nothing immediately obvious in it for me, I’m out of here – delete.”

This seems pretty obvious when we stack it up like this. But most of the pitches I see, even from experienced pros, don’t answer these questions soon enough. When you’re too close to your subject matter for too long, you don’t even realize that you’ve lost the ability to get out of your own head.

The crazy thing is, the most common way people start off their pitches doesn’t come close to answering EITHER of these questions.

I expose this too-prevalent error and teach how to fix it, in the middle video on this resource page.

ICYMI, I’ve boiled down three key pitching skills into intensely practical short videos for you and your PR friends. Check them out at that link above, and I do appreciate you sharing them if you find them valuable.

And be sure your next pitch answers those two burning questions.

This article was originally published on March 9, 2017

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