Posted on: 07 December, 2001
Author: Todd Brabender
Anyone who has ever read a book on sales or taken a sales course hasheard it - on average it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 contacts before a saleis reached. Although sales and ... are very differe Anyone who has ever read a book on sales or taken a sales course hasheard it - on average it takes anywhere from 3 to 10 contacts before a saleis reached. Although sales and publicity are very different animals, thesame rule of thumb applies when pitching your release/story idea to themedia. Because of the Internet and email, media outlets today are bombardedwith hundreds if not thousands of media pitches each week. So, it's moreimportant than ever that to make sure your release gets noticed. Thisdoesn't mean pitching to more media outlets -- it means your publicist or PRstaffshould take the time to pitch to your specific media market.multiple times.Whether you pitched the release yourself or hired someone to do it foryou -- did the release make contact? Sure it arrived, but is that therelease that editor needs that day, for that article or for that issue.Hopefully so, but many times that is not the case. So the release is eithersaved for future use (again hopefully) or more than likely it is set aside,trashed or deleted. The releases/pitches that get used are the ones thatare, in fact, newsworthy, media-friendly and arrive at opportune times. Asyou might imagine a perfect combination of all three translates into yourbest chances of media coverage and publicity.Using a release distribution service gets your release pitched ONCE. But themost successful campaigns are those that are strategically and effectivelymaintained and/or re-pitched with calculated frequency. Most media outletsdon't or can't respond to your initial release or pitch.Based on my professional experience as a PR/Publicity specialist, I wouldestimate that media placements occur in the following manner:25% occur after the 1st - 2nd pitch50% occur after the 3rd - 5th pitch25% occur after the 6th - 8th pitchSometimes (in fact most times) a strong placement happens when a releasehits an editor at the right place at the right time. Sure you may have pitchthat media contact three times over the last few weeks, but perhaps thatreporter/editor/producer didn't have the time or the editorial space to workyour release into a placement. Your opportunity for placements increaseswith meticulous, media follow-ups and re-pitches. What many businessowners/entrepreneurs don't realize is the majority of media outlets fail torespond until after the third or fourth pitch. I continue to be amazed andamused at the editor/producer who, upon receiving my pitch for the fourthtime, says "I'm so glad you reminded me of this release!" or "Great timing!This will fit perfectly in a feature were doing this week/month!" If therelease had just been pitched once and not followed up, those placementswould not have taken place.So make sure your PR staff or the company you've hired isn't afraid to windup and pitch your campaign multiple times. Just like in baseball, the morepitches there are - the better chances you get to make a hit. Article Tags: Media Outlets, Occur After Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com