A comprehensive guide for Public Relations professionals on how to get to know media contacts better, pitch them more effectively and get more coverage for stories.
2. This is the main mistake
in media relations
Machine gun
Fly
3. Most brands use outdated tactics to
reach out to media.
This is does more harm than good,
giving the profession a bad reputation.
Machine gun
Fly
4. In this presentation:
Ban spray & pray media relations
Get to know your contacts
Create a rich story
Send multimedia pitches
Measure results
0
1
2
3
4
prezly
Why to:
How to:
5. Why do I care?
I’m a fulltime designer of tools
for PR professionals
Follow fritsbits
Follow my company prezly
22. How not to do it
Real example, keeping brand confidential
Subject:
Press release: Airline brand opens a base in Location
!
Dear journalist,
Attached you’ll find a press release about the arrival of airline
brand in Location.
If you’d like more info feel free to contact me.
23. How not to do it
Real example, keeping brand confidential
Noooooooooo!
24. How not to do it
Real example, keeping brand confidential
Irrelevant for journalist that received it
No personalisation
No clear value proposition for the journalist
All recipients in CC
Press release in heavy PDF attachment (1.5MB)
Media assets via Dropbox link at end of 5-page press release
37. Think visually.
Enrich your stories with images
and videos to increase interest
and engagement.
prezly
38. Press releases with multimedia
get viewed a lot more
+ 7.4x
+ +
4.3x
1.8x
= Attachments, soundbites, charts, interactive,…
prezly
9.7x
39. prezly
9.7x
!
79% of journalists say news releases
accompanied by a good image are more likely
to be picked up than those without photos.
source 〉
40. The more you can give journalists what
they need to be successful, the more
coverage you’ll get.
prezly
41. Read our
complete guide to visual press releases
prezly
Creating visuals can be daunting
42. Think beyond journalists.
Tell stories, not just for the
traditional press, but for
consumers, bloggers, social media
influencers, and anyone who’s
interested.
prezly
43. email
pitch
+
social
prezly
+
web
Publish stories on your
online newsroom.
Having social media press
releases makes it easy for
people to share your stories
and for people to find them
via search engines.
Traffic distribution on
social media newsroom
44. An example social media press release
prezly
✔ High resolution photos
✔ Infographics
✔ Low resolution image previews
✔ One-click visual downloads
view
✔ Easy to share on social,
A PR CRM like Prezly automatically including detects visuals
the
social profiles of your media contacts.
✔ Works well on mobile devices
✔ Optimised for search engines
45. Don’t reinvent the wheel
get a free mobile
social media
news template
Download
47. Publishing a your story online
is just the first step.
You should still pitch to relevant influencers
to make sure they know about it.
48. Use a pitching tool that integrates
with your newsroom
This way you can
easily share your stories in multimedia
and get integrated analytics
Try my PR pitching tool Prezly
49. An example multimedia pitch
prezly
A PR CRM like Prezly automatically detects the
✔ Personalised intro ✔ Multimedia previews
50. 4%
59%
37%
2-3 sentences 2-3 paragraphs
500 words 1,000 words
prezly
The perfect media pitch
according to 25k journalists
What is your ideal pitch length?
51. Lack of personalization
Too lengthy
Bad timing
Confusing subject line
Large attachments 2,9
10,4
15,4
21,9
28,7
Aside from irrelevant subject matter, what factor is
most likely to make you immediately reject a pitch?
prezly
source 〉
52. prezly
Keep it short and personalise.
Include media assets.
54. From:
1
A specific ‘from line’
Frederik from Prezly
prezly
This tells you who the email is coming from, as well as which
company I work for… all before you even open my email.
55. Subject:
2
A short and clear subject line
Relevant, timely & inspire curiosity
33% open email based on subject line alone.
Keep it to 50 characters or less.
list of best practices drawn from analysing 200 million emails
prezly
56. Body:
3
A brief & relevant introduction
I saw your tweet about Gen Y
employees and thought you might like
to learn the surprising results of a new
study.
Who you are and why you’re reaching out.
Tie it to something personal.
prezly
57. Body:
4
A value proposition
Your latest article about Gen Y got a lot
of buzz. Sharing the results of this
study could be a great follow-up for
your readers.
What’s in it for them?
prezly
58. Body:
5
Multimedia previews
News with multimedia gets viewed up to 10 times more
prezly
source 〉
59. Body:
6
A clear next step
I’d love to answer any questions you
have about the study. Can we talk for
15 minutes sometime next week?
frederik@prezly.com
+320472656889
All contact info
prezly
68. Use these insights to get to know your
contacts better.
Make it a habit to review the email behaviour of
your contacts regularly. If your contacts aren’t
opening and clicking on your pitches anymore,
please, stop spamming them.