We all want to get our clients’ stories covered by the news media, and the key often lies in building relationships with journalists.
For starters, a quick question for you: How many relationships have you built over email?
Even If you’re a part of an older generation and you’ve most likely become accustomed to consistently communicating via email, have you built a true relationship? Probably not.
This really isn’t aimed at older readers. As someone in the Gen Z range of generational tags, I’m looking in the mirror, and suggesting others in my age group do the same. For some reason, many of us gravitate toward any form of communication that doesn’t involve actual interaction. But even for the most experienced and gifted emailers out there, it is nearly impossible to build a true professional or personal relationship via email.
Why bring this up?
As I have grown into my role in PR and media relations, cultivating the type of relationships that are effective for our clients has been a key focus. It has also provided an unexpected learning curve.
Since beginning my professional career, many of the preconceived notions I had about working in media relations have evolved. I suspect that many at the same age and stage of their career share in this sentiment. I also understand that the digital era in which many of us grew up can make it much more challenging to utilize certain mediums of communications in media relations (more on this in a bit).
I went to school to become a journalist, a TV reporter to be exact, before transitioning to focus on strategic communications and public relations. Without question, my alma mater, the University of Missouri, taught me a comprehensive set of skills to succeed as a public relations professional. Of course, just like in most fields, there was still plenty to learn in a more practical environment.
I quickly realized upon entering the profession that I had work to do when it came to turning the pitch into a story.
This is where the email piece comes into play. When I learned to pitch media in school, it was inferred that they were to be sent through email. Contacting the press via social media was mentioned as a potential alternative, but email was the default method.
So, when I got to work sending out pitches in the “real world”, I did so with the idea that an email was sufficient to get coverage. If you’d checked the boxes of having the important information in the right format, you’d done all you could do. If you didn’t get a response, it meant that either too much other news was happening or your story wasn’t worthy of being covered.
I quickly discovered there was much more to it.
Over the last few years I have learned building a relationship with the journalist you’re trying to pitch is paramount. This is far more likely to happen over the phone or in person than through email.
That doesn’t mean that you have to be best friends with a reporter or assignment desk editor before sending them a story idea. It means that you have to utilize other lines of communication that go beyond a single cookie cutter email to create a dialogue between you and them.
For starters, when you write your pitch and send them a press release via email, recognize that (1) you should send a follow up email after a few days if you haven’t gotten a response and (2) it’s completely acceptable to give their work phone number a call as a follow-up.
It won’t happen every time, but once in a while you will get the chance to strike up a quick conversation and, hopefully, to make a good impression. This is a first step toward developing a strong professional relationship and getting your pitches to receive a fair look.
It is also an opportunity to establish a reputation for yourself as someone who pitches newsworthy stories, understands what is news to their organization and what is not, and won’t waste their time. This credibility is invaluable.
For media relations professionals of my generation, calling someone, especially a stranger, on the phone can feel like stepping into uncharted territory. We haven’t grown up with this as a primary means of communication. I know I was a bit unsure about giving a news desk a call when I first started, but it can be an incredibly helpful tool.
Additionally for Millennials/Gen Z’ers, pitching through social media direct messages can be a solid strategy, utilizing a medium that we’re more comfortable with to build a connection. You can also find ways to creatively share the story through social media, such as through sharing relevant images, videos and posts that can help convey why your story should be covered.
One Caveat: If you’re pitching a large, national or international news outlet, it will most likely be more difficult to establish a direct line of communication. In this case, getting placed more often than not comes down to a prior relationship or them taking action on your email. However, it’s still worth searching for a work phone number or social media page.
Additionally, this is where the importance of keeping a good contact list really comes into focus. Every number and email address you save is one you can go back to on another pitch somewhere down the line.
Remember, when you’re working to build relationships with media members, you must respect their boundaries. Don’t go searching for a personal phone number or social media page that’s not listed on their professional bio thinking that it will give you a leg up. You are just as likely to infuriate them and burn a contact.
The main point with all of these strategies is that you’re trying to build a friendly, mutually beneficial relationship between you and a member of the media. The most well-written pitch about an absolutely fascinating story could get lost in the shuffle without fully utilizing the strategies of appropriate connection at your disposal.
For my fellow young PR pros: I could spin this reality as a tall mountain to climb, but instead I think we should view this as a great opportunity to work on our relationship-building skills, all while putting our unique comfort operating in the digital media landscape to use. That way, our generational gifts can be best used to get our clients’ coverage .
For older colleagues and mentors: you might be impatient with a younger team members’ hesitance to make a phone call or follow up with a reporter, but understand that your young teammates are still learning. Don’t assume they know the things that are second nature to you.
At Chemistry PR & Multimedia, our team had a mixture of youth and experience that have these perspectives. Due to this, we have the best of both worlds, creating a productive work environment that allows us to fulfill any client’s media relations needs. It is helpful that we have an office full of people who want to learn. From a generational standpoint, we have great information traveling in both directions.
At the start of this blog I asked you if you’d ever built relationships over email, to which the answer was most likely “no”. So the next time you go to pitch a story, remember the importance of cultivating a relationship, knowing that sending an email is just a starting point.
