Everyone hates failing. Success isn’t guaranteed even when you are an expert. Many athletes fail to repeat their glory in world championships. Only a handful achieves the feat. To be honest, no one loves to suck at their thing. Everyone wants to be perfect in what they love to do. However, mistakes happen, and people pay for it. In the PR world, a little mistake can completely burn out your contact, and you remain kicking yourself for doing it. The PR world can be exciting, as well as scary. Whatever you want to tag it, the reality doesn’t change. Mistakes can drive you away from the potentials.
Some people regard working with media as walking on eggshells. A little mistake, and it can break. That is the delicate thing called media. You must have a bright picture of why you should handle it with care. Reaching out to reporters isn’t easy. If it were, then every marketer would be a published writer on reputed media portals.
Beneath are the five ways that could kill your PR game completely and stick you at the starting point, not knowing which direction to go.
CLUTTERING MAILBOXES
While writing an introduction mail to a reporter, most marketers fail to influence them or encourage them to read the entire mail. Leave reading or even bothering looking at it, most emails go unopened because of the faulty subject line.
While email marketing gives the best ROI in the industry, it’s the platform where most people fail to influence. Think of all those subscribed emails hit your inbox now and then. They clutter your mailbox with useless content that you are least interested in.
Editors and journalists are busy bees. They have no time to listen to how great your company is or what you have done for it. They want to talk about something useful for themselves. They want to hear your news angle and your purpose in reaching them. Always be upfront when pitching yourself to the editors. Have a punchy reason. Be bold.
POOR AIM
When you don’t know what your aim is, or have a poor goal, things tend to fall apart. While pitching, don’t forget to target the right audience. It’s vital. Editors aren’t interested in reading wrong emails. Many times, they respond to the pitchers as how their email has embarrassed them and how they pitched it to the wrong media outlets.
Save yourself from getting embarrassed at the hands of reporters or editors. A little thing in the world of journalism travels far, and it can spoil your relation or your image in front of the media outlets. And in the future, they may hesitate to trust you, even after you pitch them the right email.
PILLOW FLIGHT
If you have done enough bragging of your accomplishments, then you are going to see feathers in the room. Consider it a pillow fight and yourself as the losing party. Editors are least interested in your work accomplishments or your clientele history. They want to see something beneficial that can resonate with their portal. Just talk straightforwardly on why you are approaching them.
Suppose if you are an expert on writing Web Development, Web Design, Online Marketing (SEO, SMO, PPC, ORM) articles, then you have to pitch it to the website or media outlets that deal with it like Cnet.com, Techcrunch.com.
No matter how excellent article you have written on Magento 2.0 or how beautifully you have illustrated differences between Magento 1.0 and Magento 2.0, you will gain nothing if you pitch your those articles to ew.com (an entertainment site). Don’t complicate things. Understand that every niche is individually respected and protected. Follow that. Things will become transparent and rewarding.
BEING A CREEP
Editors are often too busy. Many times, they forget to get back to you or forget to read your email pitch even after you write a catchy and perfect subject line. That’s just their industry that consumes their attention to other pending tasks and looming deadlines.
It’s okay to remind editors after seven days of sending your pitch. However, it’s not a good idea to send them an email, tweet them, and stalk them on LinkedIn or trying to chase them in a café to get the response. It will show your desperation, and it scares editors off. No one likes desperate people to be around, and your misery can kill your chances to get published. Moreover, you will be on their blacklist forever. Now would you want to see your name there?
CHECK CLOCK
You have written a perfect article that contains every bit of knowledge about the topic. You are sure to get it published on big media portals such as Forbes, BuzzFeed etc. You have flooded your article with pearls of wisdom. Still, you see the face of the failure.
Sending a pitch to the editor on Monday morning or Friday evening will cease your chances to get published. These are prime working hours for the media employees and media people are always during those hours to check and complete the pending tasks before they begin the new one.
Your best bet is to send an email sometime in the middle of the week. Try to send an email earl