5 Don'ts When Pitching to Editors
Yes, there is a right and wrong way to pitch a subject or story to an editor. If you’re a publicist this means you probably spend most of your day writing about your clients to help get them press coverage. The more good publicity for your client the better. We have come up with 5 things to avoid doing when sending out your pitch to editors to help make your pitch process a little easier.
Don’t pitch only topics
Don’t just send over a story topic and leave the editor to come up with the details themselves. You should be the one sending the subject for a feature along with facts and background information for them to be able to read and elaborate on if they decide your pitch is something that fits in with what they are writing about at the moment.
Don’t send your pitch as an attachment – When sending out your pitch to editors make sure that your words are sent as the body of your email and not just attached to it. This ensures that the editor can read it on whatever device they have on hand, and respond to you while on the go.
Don’t direct message your pitch
You should always use email as your point of contact for the editors you want to get your pitch to. It’s easier to keep track of for you if you send all of your pitches out of one channel and email allows you to get your idea across in more than 140 characters.
Don’t send over a pitch that’s not fact checked
Do the extra work to make sure everything you send over to an editor is true and up to date. This way if an editor wants to run your story right away they aren’t having to chase down extra information or wasting time contacting you with questions that could have already been answered in the original pitch.
Avoid these subject lines
Never use subject lines that don’t at least in some way allude to the topic of the pitch you are sending over. Don’t email and editor and use subject lines such as “Can you cover?” or “I need your help.” Take the time to create a great subject line that will get the editors attention and interest in your pitch. don'ts
