Episode 88 - PR Questions I Get Asked the Most about PITCH WRITING (Part 2)
You’re in for a treat today because…
I’m taking you into our monthly VIP mastermind-style call. The same one my PR Starter Pack community members attend every month to get coached through their pitches, form relationships with journalists, be a part of a community of entrepreneurs making a difference, and get any PR questions you can possibly think of ANSWERED!
These are real, on the ground questions that arise as entrepreneurs and business owners start crafting their pitches prior to landing media coverage. From how to write an award-winning pitch, to the main reasons why pitches get ignored – this (less than) 15 minute episode will leave you with actionable steps to strengthen your next pitch.
As for the emotional payoff? The answers I share to these 7, pitch-related questions will give you the utmost confidence as you hit send on your pitch. These strategies I share has landed our PR Starter Pack community members coverage in Oprah Magazine, Buzzfeed, Allure, and so many more.
And I can’t wait for them to land you in a hot new issue, too.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
How to craft an award-winning pitch
Struggling with credibility? Here’s what you need to know!
The best time to pitch for press
Why pitching is relevant at all times – even if you’re pivoting
Main reasons why pitches don’t get accepted
How to pitch before your products are fully ready
Why it’s important to build relationships with journalists
P.S. If you want your small business to go from invisible to visible, seen, and valued, register for my FREE PR Secrets Masterclass. Soon enough, your credibility and visibility will skyrocket. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community: Small Biz Pros: By Gloria Chou
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts
Are you following my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today so you don’t miss any future episodes!
I would also appreciate it if you would leave me a review! Reviews help me make sure I am providing the content that you need! Plus, you will be entered to WIN a 1:1 pitch writing session with me where I will help you find your press-worthy angle! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”.
Here’s a glance at this episode…
-
00:00 - Introduction
00:32 Gloria Chou: What's up small business heroes? I'm so excited for this unique episode. So as you know, I am so proud of our signature pr program I built for small businesses. It's called the Pr Starter Pack. And the most important element is community.
Every month I get on an in depth coaching and workshop style call with our members and I even sometimes have top tier journalists come on as well through these calls, questions are being answered. We are getting pitch reviews, feedback and learning from each other is really spectacular, right? So I've compiled some of the questions that I get on actual coaching calls and hope that it can help you start your pr journey.
Remember this is a $10,000 an hour task that we are building a skill that we are building, knowing how to communicate our brand with relevance to get that hell yes from anyone on the other side.
So pr is something that builds long term ROI for your business. It's a long term set, unlike social media, that's not searchable and that is why it's so important to do this work.
I hope that this episode of some of the questions in the actual call will inspire you to start your journey. And if you want to come on these calls and meet me and our other members to get your questions asked, go to pr starter pack dot com or just do a search for pr starter pack. I cannot wait to welcome you into our community so that you can ask your questions. Now, let's get into the episode.
01:46 Background Music
01:56 Gloria Chou:
Someone says I'm confused on what I'm pitching. Am I pitching my story as a founder or do I pitch my group program or do I pitch the importance of my niche? So the whole thing is like, it's all, it's all an ecosystem like you are not separate from your group program, from your stories and from your trials and tribulations. It's all getting you to this point right now.
What I really think it's not so much about, you know, thinking about what to pitch. But what is the most relevant thing right now?
Do you have any experiences that maybe are great for Q four or maybe if your group program is something that people are really looking forward to or is trending right now, then maybe pitch that, right?
But again, it doesn't live in a vacuum because your group program is from your story as a founder. So you know, and doctor nor and doctor Greta whore service based entrepreneurs can also say, you know, it might start off as a tiny little point about health care policy or COVID vaccine policy. And then once you get on the call with the journalist, right? That's when you can expand on your story.
So it's, it's, it's not really like when you pitch one thing, then that article is gonna be limited to one thing. It's really up to the journalist to decide what to write about and you're just giving the first starting point of a conversation.
03:12 Gloria Chou:
The pitch is just to get the journalist to respond, to get on the phone and to talk more. The pitch is not writing the story for them. The pitch is not the story, right? That's why earned media has credibility because it's up to them to use their court discretion to say, does this person know what they're talking about?
And then, and then if so, how can I turn this into a story, right? So another thing is I'm struggling with the credibility portion of the pitch. I don't want it to be long or sound like a biography. So definitely that's kind of the beginner part that everyone struggles with, right?
When you start, you're struggling with fitting everything into a pitch, right? I think you've heard me say this all the time, which is that it takes more skill and expertise to hone it on a pitch and write in shorter sentences, right?
The hallmark of someone who's just beginning this journey is writing a really long pitch and that's ok. We all start there, right? I definitely started there as well. Dr No, started there, Marsha started there. And as you refine your pitch and as you get even better on what is the best, first two sentences, what is the most relevant thing?
04:10 Gloria Chou:
Whether it's seasonal, whether it's trending news, whether it's commenting on a Fortune 500 coming, whatever that is, you're gonna be able to just realize everything else is fluff and you can just get rid of the other kind of sentences that don't really matter much.
If you go into the portal, you'll be able to see how I write pitches. I don't really write.
Hi, how are you? I hope you had a great Thanksgiving but, but like no, like the first two sentences, what is going on with the world?
What are people looking at? What's happening in the news? What season are we in? Do you have any data? So that's really what I mean by you know, just don't even worry about the credibility part that really is at the last portion. And c again, credibility is more just confidence.
Like do you have the confidence to send this pitch is really all it is. So that's, that's really what I mean. So again, having a long pitch, everyone starts there. That's OK. As you go through the training, the portal, attend these calls, you'll be able to see how I write pitches.
You have so many people here who have also done the work and the more you kind of kind of pick away at it and the more concise it is, the more you've really, really done the amazing work, which is the skill of knowing how to communicate and then that's, it's a process, but it's really so worth it.
It's gonna help you with your Instagram captions, captions. It's gonna help you with your newsletter. It's gonna help you with your web page, right? It's just, it's all a copy. So that's really why I say it's, it's really like some of the most important work that you can do.
What else's question? I'm launching a tinted mineral sunscreen in 36 shades for darker tones. Yes.
05:35 Gloria Chou: And when is the best time to pitch it to when, when I'm ready?
I mean, honestly, I think that, a lot of, a lot of things, the beauty industry and, and polar can say this as well because she is,, spray tan artists and, and there's a lot of things with colorism here. I don't see a lot of tinted mineral sunscreens with 36 shades for darker tones.
So, if I were able to get ahead of the game and I actually, I would actually pitch this earlier and look, if you don't have supplies right away, like you can start collecting people's emails, right? There's always a way to get ahead of the game, you know. So, I'd rather get ahead of the new story than be like, ok, someone else launched it. And the thing about launching something is you can only be the first one and I do this on my VIP day when I do a press release.
So, like, you know, once you say that you're the first to do X Y and Z and it's on Google, it's, you've released it, then no one else can do that, right? So I'd rather you say that first and if you're not comfortable with this because you're worried that you're gonna get an influx of orders, which is actually a good problem to have and you can always do a wait list. You can just start pitching generally, not focus about your product, but what you're seeing changing in the sunscreen industry, right?
So that's another way to position yourself as, as an expert can do. OK.
06:53 Gloria Chou:
Question number eight, I'm pivoting and I want to pitch, but at the same time, I feel like I'm pivoting as too unknown and what I might pitch may not be relevant. What do you recommend?
So you're allowed to pivot, right? We have so many people in the starter pack like Tanisha, like Vincent who now have gone on to, to like to sell their companies and get new companies. That's fine.
And that's what I love about pitching is it's really about your story about your, why about your mission about your values? You're not pitching to sell your product and who it's for and how much it is, right?
So the more it starts to sound more like a product brochure or a business brochure, it's probably not gonna get featured what I love about earned media. It's really communicating your values, your expertise, your point of view and how you're different.
And so that's what I mean by like it's, it's OK if you pivot everyone pivots, I pivot everyone else here, pivots and that's really kind of another thing that you put between you and the send button that we just really need to get, get away because we are always pivoting like even the new source that you're, you're pitching to like they're pivoting to. So it's, it's fine to pivot.
07:51 Gloria Chou: So number 10, what are the main reasons? Pitches don't get accepted. So again, my question is what is the open rate? Right?
When you install an email tracking device, what, what does the data tell you like, first start with testing your subject lines and then how, which ones get opened and then go with that and then also your DMS, right? Are you following up?
I think every person on here who has gotten media wins has followed up, right? Like Marsha or Doctor Greta, like, have you gotten featured without following up? Right? Like you got to follow up, right, Marsha? She's so it's not just an email and you're just like, ok, bye again. It's a garden. You have to keep watering it, you water it once. That's great, but you gotta keep watering, right?
So that's really what I mean by, you know, don't get worried about the rejection. It all starts first, you get rejected and then you get a couple of notes and that's a good thing. It means you're getting a response and then it starts to be like, ok, well, this is not gonna work for me. Like what, what else do you have? Right.
So really just think of it as a constant opportunity, think about it in a way that it's gonna work because again, it's really the law of energy.
If you think it's not gonna work, you think you don't belong. If you're looking, it's like what Bernay Brown says where you're always gonna find the ways that you don't belong. But if you do find the ways that you can adapt and pivot, then, then so many opportunities get open for you. Number two, I have competitive products and I'm super new to the market.
I think this is Ash's question, how can I pitch my vision without actually having it built out? Well, the thing is, it's never really like Doctor Greta says, it's never really about your product.
Like yes, there are some, some, you know, very specific guides that are like that diving into your product. But the journalist is a generalist, right? So it's more about your mission, your why, what's the gap in the market and what you're seeing and then you can have a link back to your website.
09:34 Gloria Chou: So I really think that the whole point of what we're doing here, it's not a deep dive manual into your product and the benefits and how to use it. It's more about establishing your story and, and how you can be a part of the solution, right?
So that's, I, I hope that answers your question and the best way to actually get ahead of competitors is to actually pitch before you launch. Because what I would hate for you to do is launch and you paid so much money for a web site, graphic designer and you're kind of waiting around and it's crickets. So I'd rather have you ramp up, right and be like, here's what I'm launching. Here's what's happening, spring and summer.
You know, if it's a tinted mineral thing, do that first before you launch and that's a really good position to be. So that when you do launch, right, you're already gonna have that compounded traffic, an article that came out this month and I got it because of the Google trend. I'm so glad you installed the Google Travel Alert.
If we have something to add to the conversation, give insight and value, do we reach out to the writer of the original article therefore, would change my pitch completely right to, to fit this. I think if you always have a way to add yourself to the conversation, then that's just a fact.
10:37 Gloria Chou: It's just about how you have, how you position it. And I think yes, you definitely should reach out to the original article writer because one, it shows that you've actually read their piece where it's like, I love your discussion about like, for example, for Raphael's, right, we're talking about like winter cocktails and like, you know, maple syrup, old fashions.
If something's happening, if it's spring and summer, maybe it's something with edible flowers, I don't know. Right. So that's again, reaching out to the person giving insight. It's a collaborative process and the new cycle is always evolving. There's nothing that's dead in the water, right?
It's always gonna keep evolving. It's like energy, it doesn't get destroyed, it just takes on a different form, just like your angle can be adapted to winter for whatever like Val who makes an incredible like, wellness oil that can be for every season, for every reason. Right.
So I think there's always a way to, to change your pitch. And, Rafael, I don't know if I can share with people the pitch that we wrote, but I was so excited you can, you can share with people what we decided to go with.
11:34 - Outro