We get a lot of PRs contacting our editorial team - but what’s the best way to ensure your message gets through to them? It might be a case of what you should be doing, but instead what you shouldn’t be doing. Here’s our top five tips on what not to do when selling in to a journalist:
1. Using the wrong publication name
It might seem like a small thing and it’s obvious that PRs are selling in hundreds of publications every day. However, there is something quite off-putting to receive an email pitch that mentions a title you don’t work on. It’s easy to forget changing the publication name when pushing out email after email to pitch a product but that double-check is well worth it.
2. Calling the journalist by the wrong name
This is one my colleague and I get a lot as our surnames can also be used as first names, so people do tend to get them mixed up. However, it is somewhat depressing to get a really friendly, familiar email addressed to completely the wrong name, or worse to get a call when you’re on deadline to your direct dial and then be addressed by the incorrect name. My personal favourite was the email I got with the salutation ‘Dear David’. . . I’m a woman by the way.
3. Making an assumption
We get a lot of product pitches that assume that we will automatically include them as a competition prize or reader offer. We really like to think about what would fit with the readers best and give them the most benefit, so assuming something can just go on the page is always a little off key.
4. Sending massive images
Having someone send images of massive sizes which you hadn’t asked for is a nightmare not least because it tends to clog up our computer systems. Much better to catch our eye with low res images than crash our systems with jpegs of 5MB.
5. Responding to enquries with information which doesn’t fit
When we send out requests for information to PRs we are usually pretty specific so it’s good to stick to those criteria as that is the brief we are writing to. If we need sales with a minimum of 50% off and we receive info which is 20% off we are not going to be able to use it.