You want to turn your press releases into great news articles on sites that will get you plenty of attention. We know that crafting a great press release is the first step—but then what? You face some big challenges to even get those pitch emails opened up, much less have your press releases read.
The key is to recognize those challenges and overcome them. So let’s get started recognizing!
1. You Have Lots of Competition.
The biggest challenge you have is all the competition. Email boxes of normal people are already clogged with junk mail. Now imagine a reporter’s, with all the PR reps trying to get their stories covered. I guarantee you it’s overwhelming. That said, you have to find a way to get your message to pop out from the others. Which brings me to my next point…
2. Making Sure They Know Who You Are.
The old saying, “It’s all who you know,” holds a lot of truth. It’s really hard for someone without connections to get much traction out of their story, much less get a reporter or blogger to open their email. Sure you might be able to land your story in small local papers, but getting in with the big fish is harder than you might think.
So how do you get the edge? Well, you network. Luckily, with social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter this is easier than ever. Here are some steps that can get you linked up:
- Find your targets and follow them on social media.
- Share their content with your followers.
- Comment on some of their updates. Don’t be annoying about it!
- After a while, reach out to them. Not necessarily for a favor, but just in an effort to converse.
- Repeat all of the above steps.
- Now pitch.
Have you become best friends? Probably not. In fact, maybe they still don’t know you at all. But at least your name will look familiar, which may increase the odds of them opening your pitch.
3. The ISPs May Regard Your Emails as Spam.
If your emails continually get ignored, your problems may snowball into something bigger than you ever imagined. There are many people that believe that the more your emails go ignored, the bigger the chance that ISPs will begin looking at you as a spammer. In other words, if you keep sending email pitches that don’t get opened, you may find certain ISPs will start delivering them straight to the junk mail box.
Once that happens, you’re essentially blackballed and will have to find a new avenue altogether for delivering your pitches.
4. Matching Your Pitch with the Right People.
Sometimes the problem has nothing to do with how you go about writing your pitch. And sometimes the ISPs aren’t the problem either. You see, sometimes you have lost the battle before you even click send. Why? Because you’re sending the pitch to the wrong person.
No, I don’t mean you typed their email address incorrectly (although that does happen…but I’m assuming you are more careful than that…I hope). What I mean is that sometimes figuring out the right people to send you pitch to can be tricky. If you don’t pick the correct targets, you’re wasting your time.
That said, you have to study up a bit and find the publications, reporters, and blogs that best fit your topic. The more highly specialized the better, as it will yield more targeted traffic in the end.
Remember, if you send your pitch to someone for whom it is not relevant, you’re wasting everyone’s time and getting on people’s nerves.
What other challenges do you face when emailing pitches? Discuss in the replies!
This article is written by Mickie Kennedy, founder of eReleases (http://www.ereleases.com), the online leader in affordable press release distribution. Download Five (5) Free PR and Press Release eBooks ($67 Value) here: http://www.ereleases.com/offer/bundle.html
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