Re: News Story Pitching - Call & Blab?

From: Rob Frankel <rob_at_robfrankel.com>
Date: Tue 17 Oct 2000 10:50:02 -0500

LAWRENCE WAN <ivitae_at_mail.com> WROTE:
> Do any PR, Marcom & Marketing experts out there have
> any tales & advice on what truly works when pitching
> a story? How about sending a pitch email 1st, then
> calling? Or, is calling not effective, since it takes
> forever to reach the journalist, & they never listen
> unless you're a close contact?

Although I am not anywhere close to being an expert on
this, I'd be happy to toss in my two cents on what's
worked for me in promoting my book (no plug). I
purposely have marketed it using grassroots strategies
-- no big budgets here. Here's what has worked to get
a seven page excerpt (paid) in MEDIAWEEK's national
weekly, a beauty of a review in UPSIDE magazine's
September issue and a prominent mention in the
valhalla of the business traveler, American Airlines
American Way magazine this month:

1. We sent an e-mail to the editor, with a short blurb
about how their issues were addressed by the book.

2. We sent the editors who replied that they were
interested a copy of the book.

That's pretty much it.

The more interesting effort went out to a database -- a
really old one, if the number of NDN and Undeliverable
mail messages are any indication -- with a merged
letter that addressed the editors' topics. For
example, this week, because the stock market went into
the dumper, the letter mentioned that the book contains
a prediction (true) that the dot.com's would melt down
because they spent too much on technology and
advertising, not enough on building brand.

We've sent out about 20 copies so far this week as a
result.

Finally, and this really blew my mind, the one thing
that really increased response was our attaching a
tiny 3K JPG of the book cover to the e-mail.

Anyway, I hope this isn't off track, but I thought it
was interesting to share, especially in light of the
way these editors didn't ask us to write anything for
them. But we mus have intrigued them,because they
took the time to hit the reply button and express their
interest.

Rob Frankel, http://www.robfrankel.com
Big Time Branding Guy and Author of "The Revenge of Brand X:
How to Build A Big Time Brand on the Web or Anywhere Else"
on sale now at http://www.revengeofbrandx.com
"The man knows branding." -- UPSIDE magazine





Received on Tue Oct 17 2000 - 10:50:02 CDT