When you send an email pitch, do you always follow-up with a call? Or do you never follow-up? This is one of the trickiest questions in PR.
On today's PR University audio conference with top editors of womens' magazines, there was a definite split among the panelists regarding their receptivity to follow-up calls.
"Please don't call me," said Lea Goldman, Features Editor of Marie Claire. Goldman says that she religiously checks her email and reads all email, at least the subject line. If she wasn't intrigued at the time, calling to plead your case rarely if ever helps.
Cari Dineen, Senior Editor of Redbook, and Jeanine Detz, Senior Editor of Shape, both agreed 100%.
On the other hand, Stephanie Emma Pfeffer, Senior Associate Editor of Family Circle, and Nancy Minikes, Research Editor of Women's World, were somewhat more open to follow-up calls, but not minutes or even hours after you sent the pitch. Give them a couple of days to get back to you -- remember, most editors are getting hundreds of pitches a week.
Minikes made an interesting point about customizing your pitch: if you address it directly to her by saying "Hi Nancy," she will make a point of responding by email and telling you whether or not she's interested. But if you just send PR spam, she will very likely ignore it and will not respond.
The bottom line for all these editors: customize your pitch! [How many times do we have to say this?] Address them by name, know their slice of the female demographic they are targeting, know the sections that they edit, and then make your pitch accordingly.
The dumb pitch that got the biggest laugh from this panel: emails that say something like, "I have a good expert or story about [fill in the blank]. Can you help me figure out whether it's a good fit for your publication?"
So, back to follow-up calls, here's a poll: do you make the call or not?
[polldaddy poll=1490921]
Great write up and topic, Jon. I believe it comes down the relationship that you have with the reporter. If you know the reporter and understand what interests him/her and he/she does not return your email, make the call. In my experience in tech PR, many times reporters have appreciated the follow-up call. The key is to understand and respect their time and deadlines.
ReplyDeleteJeanette Bitz
Engage PR
I have found follow-up calls to be a waste of my time, the editors' time, and my clients' time. If my news release/pitch wasn't good enough, or the "news" wasn't newsy enough, no amount of calling is going to get coverage. And as someone who works a ton of hours and gets 200+ emails a day, I actually do get pretty peeved if people demand my time by following up repeatedly. So I assume editors would feel the same way. As far as I can tell, this has never impacted my ability to get legitimate news covered. But your mileage may vary. :)
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that not all email is seen or read -- it can go in a spam folder, the reporter is on deadline and ignores it, or simply deletes without even reading the subject line. I have had many reporters thank me for following up with them when the topic is timely and relevant to their beats, but for some reason they did not see my pitch.
ReplyDeleteI just had an example yesterday where I got a story placed that wouldn't have happened because the editor had briefly seen my email and then forgotten about it. i took 5 minutes of his time, explained my pitch again, and he then retrieved the email and got the story going. i would add that i wouldn't have done this if i didn't think this was a legit story for his outlet.
ReplyDelete[...] To call or not to call? Should you follow up with an editor after sending PR? Mixed bag. [...]
ReplyDelete