Pitching the Media: Are you too macho?

Drew Gerber Blue Kangaroo

Guest Blogger Drew Gerber’s firm gets national publicity on a regular basis for authors, entrepreneurs and social conscious companies. He has created a free service to help everyone get publicity even without a publicist.

Pitching the Media: Are you too macho?

The most common mistake when pitching journalists is “Macho Pitches”

As C.E.O. of Wasabi Publicity, Inc. and founder of the free media list tool PitchRate.com, a lot of pitches to journalists come across my desk. A majority of them are great; but others-- could use a little “tweaking.” The most common mistake I see people make is that they don’t pitch to the journalist’s request. Instead, they pitch to their own strengths. Right now, on PitchRate.com there are over 100 requests from journalists, and I can’t stress enough how important it is to read them carefully and tailor your pitch directly to the request ¬¬— and not make a “Macho Pitch.”

What’s a “Macho Pitch”? A Macho Pitch is one that comes from the stereotypically testosterone tainted well that gives birth to Manly Action. Actions like not asking for directions when you’re lost or resisting reading instructions while assembling the kids' swing set. A Macho Pitch resists following the requests, or directions, of journalists. Journalists often request something like "Please provide your 3 top tips on building your business in 2010." Experts practiced in the ways of the Macho Pitch don't provide tips — they just pitch how they're qualified to provide the tips. It's like the journalist is leaning in for the kiss and the expert is still chatting away about what a great kisser they are.

How do I avoid being a Macho Pitcher?

Before writing your pitch, read the directions and kiss them in the way they want to be kissed!

Once you’ve read the journalist’s request carefully, it’s important to thoughtfully craft your pitch. Here are 5 tips to keep in mind while writing a non-macho Perfect Pitch:

Use a news hook — A news hook is an angle or approach to telling a news story. For our purposes, a news hook is an angle that ties you and your expertise into news or conversations of the day.
Creating the perfect headline — Writing headlines is great practice for all kinds of PR pitching because it forces you to condense what you want to say into the fewest words possible.
PRO TIP: Put the most compelling and important information at the beginning. Try this with your pitch: What’s the most important thing you want to tell the media about how you relate to the news or conversation? Can you say it in one sentence? Now say it in a five words or less. That’s your headline.
Learning from headlines — Read some headlines in major newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal or USA Today, or just go to Google news headlines. You’ll find many headlines related to the universally appealing topics of health, money and relationships. Can you tie your expertise to these universals?
How media recycles headlines and hooks — Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Not only your plastics, but also your news content. The media does and you should too. Holidays and seasons set the stage for news. For example, Valentine’s Day is every February. Media will naturally seek Valentine’s Day stories every year. Tie your pitch to seasonal news and you’ll get more attention.
Reduce: Make sure your sound bites stick. Reduce the number of words you use to tell your story.

Reuse: The media calls it “re-purposing.” You have content, but you just dress it up in seasonal clothes. For example, you might have content about health and beauty tips.For summer, give it a sunny slant. In winter, talk about how the cold and snow impact one’s skin.
Seasonal and breaking news headlines — Holidays like Valentine’s Day and July 4th aren’t the only seasonal news to pay attention to. There’s weather-related news like preparing for winter or getting skinny for summer. All those weather tie-ins matter. The media is looking for content related to that seasonal news daily. Even more important than weather, though, is breaking news headlines. This can be crime, celebrity hiccups and political matters. The trick here is to only comment on breaking news that furthers your brand. Its most effective if you choose to find and work with media perfectly suited to your expertise and the breaking news commentary you can create.

Reading and understanding exactly what a journalist is asking for is the first step to writing the Perfect Pitch. Follow my simple formula and answer the request while tying your pitch to breaking news and you’ll be sure to get attention! But if you’re already guilty of writing Macho Pitches, there’s a good chance you’ll have a hard time following these directions too.

About the Author:

L. Drew Gerber is CEO of Blue Kangaroo, Inc. and the creator of PitchRate.com, a free media list tool that connects journalists and producers with the highest rated experts. Gerber’s business practices and staffing innovations have been revered by PR Week, Good Morning America and the Christian Science Monitor. His companies handle international PR campaigns and his staff develops online press kits for authors, speakers and companies with OnlinePressKit 24/7, a technology he developed.

For more great free publicity advice, visit: http://www.PublicityResults.com. Contact Gerber at: AskDrew@PublicityResults.com or 828-749-3548.

Other info:

NOTE: Pitchrate is a free service.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know I'm a compensated affiliate for Blue Kangaroo & Wasabi Publicity programs. As you know I only promote products, services, and people I believe in. I've personally done business with Drew Gerber. We work with some of the same clients. I media train them and Wasabi Publicity does their publicity and gets them media placements.

If you’d like to do business with me for a product or service I first need to try your product before I’ll recommend it. If you have a service I’ll need to get to know you and you company so I can understand the kind of proven results you have for your clients and customers before I would consider recommending you.

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