We learn from our mistakes. With twenty-five years of experience in PR and communications, I have made plenty of mistakes while learning about the needs of clients, media, and digital leaders. I have listed a few of my top media relations mistakes below so that you can learn from them too, hopefully before making the same ones while executing communications for your brand.
Sending long emails to journalists, with vital information near the end. With understaffed and over-worked newsrooms, journalists often receive hundreds of potential story angles daily from PR professionals and from brands directly. Quickly scanning emails is often required to find the strongest story angles they plan to pursue. You have limited time to attract a journalist's attention and interest. Keeping your story and news pitches both short and concise is vital, while ensuring that the most newsworthy elements are clear in the subject line and at the top of the email. Don't bury the most important part of the story where email recipients may never see the information. Make their job as easy as possible, and your story idea will be more likely to generate attention.
Sending a strong story angle, with limited or no visual elements, to TV media. When pitching a story to television news, the visual is vital. Top journalists have told me that they write to the visual when selecting a story for the day's news. Ensure that you include the visual elements of the story idea front and centre for television reporters or producers.
Pitching a lighter news angle on a day when a significant news event or announcement is expected. For example, when the provincial or federal government is due to make a significant budget announcement, it's not a good idea to send mainstream news reporters an angle that can wait. This is an email that is likely to be ignored, and it can harm your relationships with the media, jamming their inbox when they are looking for news angles related to the budget news. Instead, evaluate whether your brand has something to add to the budget news, such as how a specific industry will be affected or what a thought leader's perspective may be on the budget news. Stay connected to when significant annual or monthly announcements are taking place so that you can ensure that your pitches to the media are timely and helpful.
Pitching a strong news angle to community news with no hyper-local connection. The mandate and focus for community news publications is to cover news that is directly related to the community in which they serve. You may have a strong Vancouver news story, but unless you have a strong Surrey connection to the news, pitching the Surrey Now Leader is not effective media relations.
Pitching media a story angle and a source to speak on the topic when you are not sure if they are available. If you send media a strong pitch and offer them a source to speak on the topic, ensuring that the contact is available, and knowing details of their availability, is important. If a reporter takes the time to connect with you to pursue a story, you do not want to turn them away because a source you offered to them is unavailable. It harms your credibility as a communicator and wastes the media's time. You want to establish yourself as someone the media can rely on.
Effective media relations is about making things as easy as possible for the journalist and providing them with valuable and timely news angles they can work with. My past mistakes may help you to minimize ineffective media relations and avoid harming your credibility with media contacts.
Originally published on LinkedIn.