Coming up with a story pitch can be hard, especially if you feel like there is no product, service, book or company news you want to promote. Really, the story hook or angle is one of the most important elements of your pitch. If you don’t have a story the media is interested in you will not get the media attention you are looking for.
The answer to this problem it to Think Like A Journalist.
What do I mean by that?
Well, I mean you need to get out of your business head. Don’t think about what you need to get, think about what the journalist needs. This will go a long way to helping you get PR for you business, brand or blog. This may be hard to hear but generally speaking, journalists don’t care about your business. You care about your business. Journalists care about their own business, they care about the business of telling stories. So when you are thinking about getting press coverage the best way to get a journalist’s attention is to pitch them a story that serves their audience.
This may be hard to hear but generally speaking, journalists don’t care about your business. You care about your business. Journalists care about their own business, they care about the business of telling stories. So when you are thinking about getting press coverage the best way to get a journalist’s attention is to pitch them a story that serves their audience.
Think Like A Journalist.
What stories matter to the particular journalist you are pitching? What stories matter to the audience that particular journalist is targeting?
What stories matter to the particular journalist you are pitching? What stories matter to the audience that particular journalist is targeting?
When you are coming up with story ideas to pitch think about the elements of the story the journalist will be looking for. Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Answer those questions and you are off to a great start.
You also want to consider the Why Do We Care factor. What is it about the story that makes us care? This is the human element of any story. We care about stories because they are about people or they impact people or they make people care something. Stories that are impactful make us laugh, cry, make us happy, sad, angry, hopeful, or even curious.
You will also want to consider the answer to the questions of why you and why now when you are pitching a journalist. Answer those questions in your pitch!
Think Like A Journalist
You want to always be pitching a story over an event. Remember, journalists are storytellers. They are interested in telling stories to educate, inform, entertain and engage their audience. Use strategies like Your Why, the How-to, or the News Piggy-back technique to help you craft story pitches the media really want.
When you are pitching and you are thinking like a journalist you are more likely to offer stories that will get picked up. It should never be about what you want but how you can serve the journalist and his or her audience. This approach will increase your chance of getting media coverage and go a long way to building a solid relationship with a journalist so you can continue to pitch and get press.
I would love to hear about your story pitch ideas. Share them in the comments or share them in my Media + PR Facebook Group
