Elements of a Perfect Media Pitch

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want to make this the year people find you in the media? Click here to access my Be a Media Magnet course. It will give you the plan you need to make it happen.

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You might want to be featured on the media for your book or business, but how will they find you? They won’t – unless you pitch them. Or maybe you pitched them but you never heard back?

I was a television news producer for almost 20 years, and trust me, I know what pitches work for the media. Over the years I’ve developed a pitching formula and I use it to pitch media so I know it works.

I laid out the formula you need on my live-stream show Inside Scoop.

Here it is.

I want you to think about how you’ve positioned yourself publicly as an expert. I started a blog, listproducer.com, in 2011 that focused on list making and productivity tips and started to pitch media way before I published my first book, Listful Thinking.

That way I could point to my blog while pitching and say, “Hey, look at all this content I’ve created about list making and productivity.” It backed up my expertise. Are you doing the same? If not, that’s your first move. Be your own producer. If you need ideas on how to do this check out my blog post here with three ways to generate fresh content.

In this episode of Inside Scoop I share my formula to craft the perfect media pitch.

1) The Importance of a Media Pitch

You are an expert! So people should already know about who you are and what you’re doing, right? In a perfect world that’s how it’d work. But that’s not how it usually works. The media doesn’t often just “find” the expert they need.

It’s important to tell the media that you’re there, that you’re available, and that you want to do media. And that’s where the three elements of a perfect media pitch work their magic. In fact you can use content that you’re already producing to pull pitch ideas – here’s a blog post I wrote about this exact thing.

2) The Hook, The Twist, The Takeaway

These are the three elements of the perfect pitch: The hook, the twist and the takeaway.

The hook is Why Now? Why is this story idea interesting and relevant right now? In March I spoke with PIX11 in New York City about digital spring cleaning – a perfect pitch for springtime!

The twist is How is This Different? It’s true that there’s not really new, fresh ways to look at all topics – so much is a regurgitation of what’s out there already. When I was a producer, I appreciated a pitch that wasn’t the same narrative over and over. For example, stress expert Heidi Hanna pitched me about stress and how it can actually be good for you and I booked her because of her counterintuitive way of thinking about the topic. I’ve also interviewed her for both of my books Listful Thinking and Listful Living. And in my example from digital spring cleaning it’s different because usually during spring time we talk much more about physical clutter.

The takeaway is about What Does The Audience Takeaway? What action do you want the audience to take after they watch your segment? When I spoke with PIX11 about digital spring cleaning, I listed clear takeaways – what to do with your inbox, what to do with desktop clutter, etc. I gave the audience the action to take to get started.

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3) Following Up on a Media Pitch

This is almost more important than the pitch itself. Remember that producers, editors, and other media professionals get thousands of emails every single day. Everyone is vying for attention, and sometimes emails are missed.

Following up is basically re-pitching. It’s not a forward of what you sent originally, asking what the producer thought. You want to make their life easier – they’re not going to scroll to find your original message. Remember – you’re competing with thousands of emails! So re-pitch your idea and be short and to the point.

And if you don’t get a response, well then you can write about it or make a video for your own promotion. You never know if someone in the media stumbles over it in the future – that’s happened to me time and time again! Media begets media, even when it’s your own! I dive more into this in the full episode here.

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BONUS FREEBIE: Want to make this the year people find you in the media? Click here to access my Be a Media Magnet course. It will give you the plan you need to make it happen.

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