• Four Reasons Why PR Pitching is An Art Form

    All editorial pitches are opportunities for expression. Through email, direct messages on Twitter, inMail on LinkedIn or any other communications channel, editorial pitching provides us PR professionals with a creative channel for securing a story. It’s an art form, really, and here are four reasons that support that statement:

    First, a PR pitch offers the practitioner unlimited creativity. You know the charge at hand, and can accomplish your goal – connecting with a key writer or editor and seeing that they give attention to your story idea – in any manner that is appropriate. The words you use count so much in this circumstance. You may be succinct or detailed, punchy or rich with metaphor or vignettes. Each pitch is a clean canvas and every outreach an attempt to inspire a specific reaction. It’s exciting, as every communication is another opportunity for success!

    Second, like an artist working on a commissioned piece, it’s critically important that you consider the audience before getting started. And, that’s typically both the audience (reporters) and the audience’s audience (editors and readers). The better you capture the imagination of the reporter with your initial outreach, the better the chances he or she will be inspired to “sell” the idea to editors and, ultimately, disseminate the story to legions of your client’s preferred readers.

    Third, just as when you see a painting and are moved by what it attempts to convey, you know right away if your PR pitch struck a chord when you hear back (immediately and positively!) from your editorial target. It’s a thing of beauty when your creativity captured the interest of your intended subject and inspired action.

    And, fourth, the preceding point is particularly true if your pitch was highly personalized for and delivered to a priority writer or editor, whose coverage often results in a landslide of other writers covering the same topic. It’s valuable to create the pitch that keeps on giving, paying dividends long after the client’s last check has cleared.

    What am I missing? Can you think of other ways that editorial pitching is an art form?

     

    Scott Signore

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  • 4 Ways Visuals Help Win PR Business

    These days it’s impossible to find an article written about our business that doesn’t cover the emphasis currently being put toward visual story telling.  It’s an exciting part of a PR and social media gig, and should be a big part of every agency new business pitch.  Here are a few ways to leverage visual content to help pitch prospects:

    First, work with your in-house video producers to develop a “draft” video that supports the theme of your pitch, and use that content to further support a specific point during your meeting. You may slightly miss the mark on the tone or vibe of the video – occasionally that happens – but the effort and the investment will be appreciated and will demonstrate how your PR agency employs visual images to positively impact any communications initiative.

    Second, pepper your recommended communications program with smart and provocative graphics, videos and images. Propose a monthly webinar hosted by your client’s key spokesperson, or spice up the distribution of a press release with an accompanying infographic that helps tell the story. Or, develop and distribute a logo or icon that represents the category you are creating. In all circumstances, recommend a stream of visual content that will help you and your team better tell the prospect’s story. (A steady flow of visual content is key. One-offs aren’t going to cut it in today’s content-hungry world. Visual content should be included throughout any smart program, and it should be front and center during a new business pitch.)

    Third, work with your in-house graphic designer to be certain that your presentation is perfect. In addition to being packed with sound, smart and creative ideas, it should be visually strong. Quite simply, it must look good – and it should help convey whatever message you are trying to deliver. Basic graphic design fundamentals exist for a reason, and they should be employed when assembling your final presentation.

    Finally, leverage some of the content discussed in the meeting for a follow-up visual deliverable. Include a video via email, a graphical representation of a key metric or send a crisp clean infographic via FedEx. In any circumstance, you are reminding the prospect of the content-rich discussion that occurred in the meeting, and the fact that you have the capabilities to deliver supporting materials whenever necessary.

    What tips do you have for leveraging visual content as part of the new business process?

    [Blogger’s note: Clients here at Matter have the luxury of being able to leverage Studio-C by Matter Communications, our in-house creative services team. That team has a continuous dialogue with those pitching new business and running client account teams, and that relationship makes for improved visual content that support both client and new business initiatives. It’s seamless, really, and has benefits that are both programmatic and budget-related. And, the award-winning deliverables are top-notch.]

    Scott Signore

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  • 5 Ways to Lose a PR Pitch

    PR agencies typically have to earn the business they win by jumping through multiple hoops. Often we get an RFI (Request for Information) or an RFP (Request for Proposals) from the company looking to hire a new firm. Anyone who has completed these knows they’re laborious, time-sucking exercises that don’t accomplish much more than a half-hour phone call would.

     But, that’s part of the gig, and a blog post for a different day. Now, if your PR firm is selected to advance to the next round, that typically means  pulling together a comprehensive presentation that shows the prospect how your team thinks, what they’d actually do, and how much it would cost.

     That’s a lot of work, right? And when you consider that PR agencies often go up against three-to-five competing firms, the odds are stacked against you from the get-go.

     Here’s how you can make sure you have no chance to win the PR business, despite hours-upon-hours of work:

     1. Fill the presentation with 20 slides about how wonderful your firm is, and about stellar work you’ve done for other companies. This will effectively alert the prospect to the fact that you’ve just regurgitated the contents of the RFP into slide form, and haven’t spent any time actually thinking about their unique business needs. Kiss the business goodbye.

    2. Include boilerplate slides lifted from prior presentations that discuss PR basics like “thought leadership” and “byline articles” and “building momentum.” If you can simply switch the prospect’s name out for any other prospect, you aren’t fooling anyone except yourself, lazy bones.

    3. Bring five people to the pitch, including the principal of the firm and two vice presidents, none of whom will actually be working on the account for more than a few hours a month. Make sure the other two staffers in the room (both junior) remain silent until it’s their turn to clumsily talk through the one slide you made them practice in the mirror for five hours. The prospect will know who’s really going to be working the account. Pro tip: not your firm.

    4. Make sure the pitch team doesn’t research the key bloggers and reporters that the prospect obviously cares about.  Avoid researching competitors, analyst opinion and current industry trends. Winning teams leap at the chance to discuss these in detail. Losing firms all look at each other uncomfortably during the meeting, eyes darting wildly, when prospects ask pointed questions. But, hey, you’ll have a funny “worst pitch ever” story to scare interns with.

    5. Fudge the truth about services you offer, reporters you know, how many clients you work on, and your personal background – and do it unconvincingly. The key here is to leave as many question marks in the prospect’s head as possible, including: “How did these clowns get in here?”

    Matter

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  • 6 Ways PR People are Like Salespeople

    I once told a young family member of mine to learn to sell, because “you’re always selling something to someone.” Like I’m doing now, trying to get you interested in whatever I’m going to type below. For years I’ve thought that sales should be a higher-profile topic at colleges and universities as the bulk of graduates will try to secure the interest of – and the associated commitment related to – something, sometime in their career. Some professionals will sell on a daily basis, while others only occasionally have the need to close a deal. Most professionals, sometime or another, will need to sell. And, that’s true in spades for PR people.

    Here are six ways that PR people are like sales people:

    First, in most cases a PR initiative begins with basic information and a general intent to bring a product, service or even an idea to market, and PR people work to craft a pitch that will resonate with the reporters, editors, bloggers and others who will communicate directly with the identified key audience. As part of the process of identifying business objectives, PR and communications professionals need to take the content available at the onset of the project and craft what is, in essence, a sales pitch that will yield results – and that process is hugely important.

    Second, no matter the specific pitch (or particular project) PR people work with a prospect list. It may be the list of media who could, perhaps, bite on the editorial pitch, or a list of publications or bloggers deemed a priority by the client. In any case, it’s the list of media targeted by the PR professional.

    Third, PR people need to sell their creative ideas to their client in advance of execution. With any luck, the creative idea makes so much sense that minimal persuasion is necessary. In most cases, however, a good PR person has to develop his or her case for why a particular idea is strategic and aligned with business goal – and get the OK from the client before execution. Yep, sales again.

    Fourth, PR people need to sell the value of PR to partners and other third-party organizations whose involvement in a case study, press release or interview may be extremely helpful to a client’s initiative. They may not entirely “get” it, but their respective buy-in is hugely important. The partner’s involvement may be the difference between carrying a credible story to market or not, so you need get their agreement to make your story stronger. How do you do that? You sell.

    Fifth, agency-side PR people need to pitch their agency as part of the employee recruitment process. Particularly in today’s competitive recruiting world, PR people are asked to contribute to recruiting success by meeting with prospective employees and persuading the prospect to consider joining their team rather than taking an alternate professional path. If you’re a solid PR pro, we’d love to hear from you, since our firm (a “Best Place to Work,”) is hiring. See what I did there?

    Finally, agency-side PR people need to pitch. They need to be part of a pitch team that shows the agency’s success and expertise in a smart and strategic way. They need to be inspirational and persuasive while being polite. They need to be smart and savvy, while not appearing smug. They need to be the very best PR people in their day job, and they need to sell their skills when called upon to help their agency thrive.

    What am I missing? What are other ways that PR people are like sales people?

    Scott Signore

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