5 Ways for Public Relations Professionals to Improve their Pitches
Personalization increases conversion rates. That’s not a theory, personalization’s effectiveness has been proven over and over. If you’re a public relations professional, your conversion is your ability to have a publication or influencer share your client’s story or event. It’s only logical that personalization assists that transformation, yet professionals continue to destroy their relations (remember… that’s the R in PR) with batch and blast systems and techniques.
We’ve written and shared how to pitch a blogger before. We’ve also shared how NOT to pitch a blogger. And along the way, we’ve shared outreach tools that assist Public Relations professionals maintain their outreach contacts and do a better job of building a relationship with them. Hint: It’s not building a cheesy email that opens that you’ve been a long-time fan, that you recently read ____ post, and you’d like to share information about your client. #yawn
New research from Cision pinpoints the areas that public relations professionals need to improve on:
- 79% of influencers want PR professionals to tailor pitches that best suit their coverage
- 77% of influencers want PR professionals to better understand their outlet.
- 42% of influencers want PR professionals to provide information and expert resources.
- 35% of influencers want PR professionals to respect their pitching preferences, of which 93% prefer email.
Perhaps most important is that54% of reporters pursue a pitched story because of thorough detail included in the product, event or topic details. Quality matters! The only stat I’m weary of on the entire report is that press releases are still deemed important to reporters. I think that’s a
Read the State of the Media 2016 from Cision
We get pitched all day long on Martech Zone and I have a handful of PR professionals that always have my ear because they’re respectful of my time when pitching a story. The only stat I’m weary of on the entire report is that press releases are still deemed important to reporters. I think that’s a vague description at best. I really don’t care about whether it’s a press release or a well-written story… but I don’t search for press releases and haven’t for a long time.