#Cringeworthy

Continued from last week . . .

Two recent pitches crossed my desk – one hailed as “best pitch ever, actually” by the journalist that received it, the other posted to Facebook and Twitter with “#cringeworthy.”

The difference comes down to one word in the so-called “bad pitch.”

Before I go any further, I want to state that I believe the journalist in this case was unfair and unprofessional. If he didn’t appreciate the pitch, he could have simply deleted it and moved on. If the felt like there would be some teaching value in sharing it on his social media, he should have at least omitted the PR pro’s name and email address. Veteran tech journalist Harry McCracken extended this courtesy when he famously posted bad pitches to his Facebook page.

That aside, what set the reporter off?

This pitch used a clever subject line to attract attention and entice the reporter to open it. Just like the “good pitch” by Adam Yosim that I shared last week.

And in this case, the subject line actually related directly to the point of the pitch, which was to highlight an expert on Generation Z:

“GenZ will drive political establishment cray cray. Here’s how.”

This playful style isn’t for everyone, I know. But I respect the PR pro’s attempt to make this stand out. And that much obviously worked – the reporter opened it, right?

Here’s where things went wrong. The first sentence after the greeting is:

“Ok, I apologize for using the words ‘cray cray’ in an email subject line. Forgive me on that? It’s cringeworthy indeed.”

The key word here is “apologize.” Why use anything in a pitch if you’re going to apologize for it?

Can you see how the apologetic tone immediately creates a feeling around this pitch of desperation? That the PR pro is using a trick to get attention and then having to backtrack?

I can very much relate to this feeling, because I used to have it myself. I viewed the PR-journalist dynamic as entirely uneven – the journalist had all the power, and I was just a little peon begging for a morsel of attention.

Now go back to Adam’s pitch with the similar playful, creative subject line. Adam had a tougher hill to climb, because his didn’t have anything to do with the story idea he was pushing! But there’s no apology there – he just owns it, explains the connection and moves on.

That’s because Adam has learned that he can provide immense value to the right journalists. Those who are stressed out every day because they have to find the exact kind of content that Adam has access to. He knows he just needs to find the right targets and clearly convey the relevance and usefulness of the info he has.

Adam did a lot of this work on his own, and he honed those skills razor-sharp at my media pitching workshop in June.

The next one is in New York – register now to spend time with me and striving PR pros like yourself and Adam and get the placements and respect you deserve.