Episode 60: The Worst Pitches I've Ever Received (Don't Let This Be You!)
Seeing the worst in something is not always totally wrong.
Sometimes, the best and most straightforward way to learn is by seeing examples that don't work. It gives you the necessary reality check.
This is particularly true when you discover the process of crafting pitches that could help you land PR features.
It's easy to get lost in the ocean of information telling you what makes a good pitch and what a bad one looks like. However, you can't entirely rely on theory and concepts concerning PR. Nor can you depend on your writing abilities.
You have to understand what your recipient wants and needs for their audience!
For instance, the one you are pitching may need someone who can inspire their audience and provide value to their publication.
In short, you determine your chances of getting noticed by the journalist or the publisher through the depth of help you provide them.
That's why everything in your pitch—from the email subject line to the closing statement—matters. Every detail in your pitch must signify, "I’m here to help you!” and must not be self-serving.
Unfortunately, that’s what most of the worst pitches lean towards—they’re often all about themselves and written without much regard for helping people.
It doesn’t also help that many small business owners don’t receive feedback about their pitches or don’t bother investing time and effort in their PR activities.
But those are just some factors that make pitches go from bad to worse.
Don’t let that happen to you!
Here in the Small Business PR Podcast, I don’t want you to waste your efforts, get your pitches unnoticed, and fall into ineffective pitching practices.
In this special episode, I will walk you through some of the worst pitches I have received and see how we can transform these bad ones into better pitches so that you can also craft your best pitch very soon.
“Even if you're just one step beyond, then you can feel confident to start sending that pitch. Remember, your first pitch is probably going to be awful. But the more comfortable you are sending these pitches, the better you'll be.”
-Gloria Chou
If you want to go out from being unknown to being seen, heard, and valued, you must learn the right way to pitch. This episode will help you create a pitch that not only gets noticed but is credible, relevant, and has a unique point of view. This will definitely help you land that PR feature you truly deserve.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Common elements and practices that make your pitch look bad
The importance of researching the recipient of your PR pitch
Why credibility is the least important factor when pitching
Actionable steps to getting your pitch easily noticed
Why pitching specifics matters more than you realize
Giving value to the journalist, the press, and their audience
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn: Gloria Chou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community: Small Biz Pros: By Gloria Chou
Small Business PR Podcast-Episode # 2: The CPR Pitch Framework
Additional Resources:
Join the Small Biz PR Pros FB group
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Here’s a glance at this episode…
[02:02] I encourage you to think, am I just doing busy work and doing all these things that people tell me I should do? Or am I building long-term valuable assets for my business for life?
[03:38] If you can't even bother sending your own email and you're delegating this to an outside agency who really has not done the work nor really care about my audience. It's just really not going to make me feel like you really care about my audience.
[06:17] The credibility part is probably the least important part. If your entire pitch is listing all the places, you've been seen, and validated, it starts to get boring.
[08:26] Be specific. One way to make this really good is not only add specificity, but again, like I said, frame it in a question form. How can something do something? That way, the person receiving it will know exactly whether or not it's a fit.
[22:16] We're not all about that here. We are really about giving value and leaving our audiences with something that they can implement, like today.
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Gloria Chou 0:00
Now, you know here at GCPR and the small business PR podcast, I'm all about inviting people to the table and being inclusive. But sometimes the best way to learn is by seeing examples of what doesn't work. So today, I will be anonymously reading the actual pitches that I've gotten that I think could use improvements. So this episode is one where I'm reading some of the worst pitches I have received. Hey, friends, I'm Gloria Chou, small business PR expert, award winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional, yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast.
Gloria Chou 0:55
Now my podcast is pretty new, right? It's gaining traction, but it's new. And I still get pitches pretty much every day, especially from people who have paid podcasts, pitching agents, or PR agents. And as I go through them, I will talk a little bit about why they've missed the mark will obviously first of all, they have not listened to my CPR method or have listened to this podcast. But I encourage you as you're listening to this to figure out what you would change in this pitch and how you can draw that connection one step closer, so that you can get onto your dream podcast. I always say that everyone should get on to at least one podcast. And then it becomes very addicting to tell your story to connect with your audience in such a long form way. Remember an Instagram reel or an Ad. They're not searchable. You're not building assets for life. Now in this market economy, I'm all about helping you get a sustainable ROI from your efforts, and even just being on someone's podcast just once. That is six pieces of shareable content. That's shownotes. That's SEO. That's backlinks. The podcast host will probably make reels, and graphics and YouTube things that you can turn into more and more and more things to work for you. So always as a business owner, I encourage you to think, am I just doing busy work and doing all these things that people tell me I should do? Or am I building long term valuable assets for my business for life? And nothing builds long term valuable assets like organic PR and podcast. So without further ado, I will be reading some of the recent pitches that I have received. Right. So the first one is the subject line was sent to me is a great guest for you. "Hi, Gloria. I hope your Monday is going well. I'm reaching out today on behalf of let's just say Mr. Smith, serial entrepreneur and founder of the successfully crowdsource funded Mr. Smith Inc." I thought his passion for helping entrepreneurs and small businesses compete with the unlimited marketing budgets of their corporate competitors would make him a great guest for small business PR. Now that is actually pretty relevant. Because I'm all about helping bootstrapping founders. demystifying what it takes to actually grow your business, right, through bootstrapping means. So I do like that. Alright, let's keep reading. I am attaching his one shooter so you can dive deeper into what he does is experience and value he can provide. If having him on your show is something you're interested in, I will love to connect you. Now first of all, I'm thinking if this person doesn't even have the time or energy to actually pitch me himself or connect with me, or give me a podcast review or do something a little bit deeper than like, here's what I'm, I can talk about my assistant can send you the pitch. I don't know, to me, it seems like not as attractive, right? With podcast hosts really tap into our audiences will probably read all the emails. And if you can't even bother sending your own email and you're delegating this to like an outside agency who really has not done the work nor really care about my audience. It's just really not going to make me feel like you really care about my audience. Right? So I am the gatekeeper, it is my job to make sure my audience gets value. And this pitch, although the general topic is fluffy and nice, it doesn't have any specifics about why he speaks to my audience. Why in this of all seasons and those market economy, in this month, in this year, his expertise would help my audience with what they are struggling with. Now, if you know anything about my methods, I'm all about relevance, relevance, relevance. What is different about this six months versus last six months? I want to make sure that the pitch you are writing is super relevant to what people are feeling and connecting with them right now. Because things are constantly changing. And this pitch, although it's short, I like it, it doesn't really give me anything. What I will probably improve is I will talk a little bit more about the specific about the specific industry, niches that he's helped, maybe some examples, and then go into the questions that he can answer on my podcast. That way I can quickly ascertain "Yes that is something I would like to go forward with," because I already have a list of questions or "No, this one just doesn't have enough information. So I'm gonna keep reading the next one." It starts with dear Gloria. My name is Alice and I represent entrepreneur, author, course developer, and motivational speaker, Mr. Smith, and I believe he would be a valuable guest for your audience. See attached speaker sheet to learn more about him and the value he can bring. Again, when you're basically saying, hey, I'm an assistant to so and so who doesn't have the energy or effort to really care to pitch on his own behalf. And I have attached all this stuff for you to read on top of everything else that you're doing. It's just adding more work for me, right? Don't do that. Okay, let's keep reading. Mr. Smith is the CEO of Mr. Smith company, the award winning digital marketing agency for independent retailers. He is the author of Mr. Smith's book, which provides a roadmap for how small business can build an online presence, that out shines and outranks the competition. You also find his business courses on Udemy, LinkedIn or he has taught over 13,000 students. Now, that's great. He's talking about credibility and credibility, as you know, in my proprietary CPR pitching method, which is credibility point of view and relevance, this is something I teach on every PR masterclass. The credibility part is probably the least important part. If your entire pitch is listing all the places you've been seeing validated, it starts to get boring, right? Because I want to know, on the podcast, if we have 30 minutes, or 40 or 50 minutes, and you are in my listeners' ear, it's not going to be you listing a bunch of accolades and gloating about yourself. It's what have you learned. What are the actionable steps? Maybe sharing some data points, or something that's unique to your methods that other people don't talk about. I don't see any of that here, here, in this pitch is all about, he's great. And he's done this and he's done this, again, nothing about my audience, what industry he speaks with. And I always say, if you speak to everyone then you speak to no one. Be specific. Is he helping real estate businesses? Is he helping product own businesses? Is he helping service based businesses? Again, be specific, right? So the email continues more about him, which is, over the past 12 years, Mr. Smith has helped 1000s of small businesses create winning marketing strategies. Again, I can say that about literally 1000s upon 1000s of other internet marketers. What is different about Mr. Smith, right? It continues. Mr. Smith and his team are currently at work launching Mr. Smith, LLC, a platform that makes it simple, fast and easy for small businesses to launch a website. Okay, so now you're talking about website experience, I think. Okay, what is different about this than Squarespace or Wix? Right? That's the first thing that pops into my head. So the email continues. Mr. Smith can be interviewed on small business marketing, business management, sales, entrepreneurship, business development. Now, I like that they've put this in bullet format. And as you know, the way I like to write my emails, and all of my PR starter pack members, no, this is I like to break up my paragraphs by listing three or four points. But the thing about this is, he's not making it easy for me to know, what is it about small business marketing he can talk about. What is it about sales? These are huge umbrella terms that have like hundreds of different topics within them. Right? So Mr. Smith can talk about sales. Okay, Mr. Smith can talk about entrepreneurship. Okay, well, the person who's downstairs selling flowers right next to the grocery store can talk about entrepreneurship. But I know that his story will be much more interesting, right? So tell me about what type of sales? Is it sales with JV partnerships? Or is it affiliate marketing? Or is it sales with paid influencer? What kind of sales? What kind of entrepreneurship? Be specific. One way to make this really good is not only add specificity, but again, like I said, frame it in a question form, how can something, do something, right? So that way, the person receiving it will know exactly whether or not it's a fit. Make it easy for the person receiving it. Okay? All right. And then they attach this one sheeter of Mr. Smith, and it has his like, Twitter, his link to his courses, his Twitter handle, more bio about him, more like suggested areas of interview expertise, which is exactly the copy and paste from the email, which is small business marketing, entrepreneurship and sales, which tells me nothing about why I should pick this person over the other people I already follow on Instagram who talk about sales and marketing, right?
Gloria Chou 9:13
I think in this day and age, when we're online, and we have access to so many quote unquote, gurus. We want to know who is sharing our point of view. Because I'm not going to connect with someone who is speaking to the masses. I want to know, are they elevating bipoc founders? Are they someone who themselves have traditionally been marginalized? Are they someone who themselves maybe as an industry outsider, like myself, right? These are the questions that I asked. And the reason why my audience is super engaged is because they resonate with that message. Right? So again, be specific. So I'm going to keep going and reading the more the worst pitches that I have received. All right, the subject line of the email and as you know, if you're in my PR center packs, you know that subject line is a huge topic. We need to make sure that our subject line is concise and specific for this week or this season or this year, right? I want to make sure that the subject line speaks to me. So the subject line says, podcast guests pitch how to thrive in the digital age. That to me, I'm just going to delete because nothing about that is specific to me or my audience of bootstrapping small business owners. I also think you're wasting valuable real estate because in a subject line, you have only so many characters, and you're wasting it by writing things like podcast guest pitch or a great suggestion for you. Right? Put in the subject line, something more specific, right? How can ecommerce businesses leverage marketing and PR with influencers in Q4? That is specific that tells me exactly who that is what the episode is about. And the reason why this is important is think about yourself as a listener. When you're scrolling for, let's just say not even a podcast, but any article, if the article is super fluffy, and it's titled sales and marketing in the digital age. I don't know that, to me sounds like a very dry school paper. But if it's like a podcast episode on like, how female own product businesses can scale from zero to six figures without using influencers, that is so specific. Boom! Right? If that fits, what I am doing, I will follow and download that. So again, don't be afraid to be specific from being specific and fleshing out your messaging, you will truly attract your tribe. So I'm not seeing specificity in this at all. But let's just keep reading. Okay, so the pitch goes, after having listened to your podcast, with Travis Albritton, who was my podcast manager, so at least, at least you'd like scroll through and spent 15 seconds, you know, putting in someone's name. I wanted to suggest Mrs. Smith to be a guest on your show. So again, if this person really listened to the podcast episode with Travis, who is by the way, my podcast editor, and we talked about all things, podcasts, how to grow your audience, how to leverage YouTube. This has nothing to do with that, because the pitch goes on to say, as you know, female founders are heavily underrepresented in tech. But Mrs. Smith would break the mold and has ideas to share so that your founders can do the same. So again, my episode, Travis has nothing to do with tech or women, like at all. So this is another kind of gimmicky thing that a lot of people do, where they have their assistant or they just like basically go through the latest episode. And I believe, I believe Pat Flynn talked about this on his episode where you know, he, he says that is one of like the most tired things that everyone's like, I love your episode was so and so. And it takes two seconds for you to just go and insert the name of their latest podcast episode. I'm reading this to you right now, this is like, one on one and textbook like proof of why this doesn't work, because this person literally said, Oh, I listen to your podcast episode when so and so that's why this person would be a good fit. Again, completely unrelated. And I would prefer them to not have even mentioned that they listened to my podcast episode because this truly negates everything they said, because they have not listened to the podcast episode. So this is embarrassing. And it basically shows that they are just trying to do this to make it seem like I would fall for it, which annoys me even more. But let's keep going, shall we? So the pitch keeps going. And assessment, founder of Mrs. Smith company again, all of these names are you know, anonymous, I'm not going to be calling anyone out. This is just for you to be able to learn how to be one step ahead and improve on this. Okay, Mrs. Smith, founder of Mrs. Smith company. And you know, Ivy League MBA featured in The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, can cover the following topics. Bullet point one, where female founders hold themselves back and how to stop it? Bullet point two, what non technical founders really need to know about tech? Bullet proof, bullet point three, how to thrive in the age of technology as a non tech professional? Here is myth, the system is full bio. So do you see how this thing has nothing to do with my audience of bootstrapping small business owners who are trying to get that organic visibility, who are trying to just press "Send" and just be confident enough. This has nothing to do with that. This is literally about digital technology and how we can thrive as a non tech professional. Again, nothing to do with my audience. So this person who has not done their research, they're just like sending it out to everyone. And they for sure have not listened to the podcast episode which they refer that they have. And then it goes on for four or five more care paragraphs about Mrs. Smith, where she went to school, all the accolades that she got. And again, it's it's almost like when you haven't done the research, and when you haven't really done the work to be specific in your pitch and to be relevant in this season that we're in now. You just stuffed the entire pitch with the credibility piece about where you've been seen where you've spoken. And it doesn't really get you that far anymore, right? Because again, a podcast is a really deep way to connect with my audience. And we're not going to spend 30 minutes just having you list out the various degrees that you've got, that you've got. that has no relevance to me whatsoever.
Gloria Chou 15:25
All right, so let's keep going to read the worse pitches that I have received. Okay. "Hi, Gloria. Hope you're doing well. I was looking into your podcast. And judging from the theme, I think our founder at Mr. Smith capital would make a great guest. Mr. Smith is an entrepreneur who has found a niche within the commercial real estate lending industry for the past decade." Oh, listen, we have amazing real estate founders in the PR starter pack. But this pitch in just talking about how this person is in commercial real estate and wants to be on a small business PR podcast. Again, no relevance. This person does not care about my audience. They obviously has not done any research about the podcast. Okay. All right. Let's keep reading and let's see if there really is some relevance here. All right, Mr. Smith can, okay. So was the path to found, to founding Mr. Smith capital a straight one? As is usually the case with any successful startup, it was not quite that simple. There were steppingstones, challenges, surprises and a learning curve along the way. Mr. Smith started the company 13.5 years ago with no contacts at all, but with the right balance of versatility, reliability, resolves, and measured aggressive like, who talks like this? Who talks like this? Definitely not me and the people that I serve. We do not talk like this, so I have no idea. Anyways, resolved and measured aggressiveness. Okay, he started making phone calls to people. Three years later, ABC capital have become profitable, and they closed $150 million worth of deals. Oh my god, I can smell the ego and brokenness from this from like, three miles away. It's just it's, it's thinking of it. Okay. aggressiveness. Please, Lord, gross, okay. Obviously, he doesn't know my values, my tone, or mission, because I do not care about $150 million worth of deals. The people I serve are immigrants. Their mothers are women of color. They're bipoc founder, they are inspiring in their own way without needing to close $150 $50 million worth of deals with measured aggressiveness. So this is just off in so many ways. And I wish I had something better to say about this pitch. But there's nothing here that relates to Small Business PR, or organic visibility strategies. But he continues, his company provides financial solutions for commercial mortgages, bridge loans, home builder financing. Again, wrong, wrong pitch, buddy. Nothing that I talk about is about commercial mortgages, bridge loans, home builder financing, or anything financial related. There are tons of podcasts. And if you're in the PR starter pack, there are hundreds of media contacts in our searchable database for personal finance, and startups and venture and private equity. Pitch to those. Maybe he should join my program. The Mr. Smith for this one, that you're pitching me. This was probably as far off the mark as you can get. Now, the funniest thing is this person who Mr. Smith has paid to pitch for him, ends the email with, do you agree that he is a pitch for, sorry, don't you agree that Mr. Smith is a fit for your show? Please kindly kindly get back to me on that. Now, I don't know if this is like an English, like a language issue. But it's very presumptuous. And maybe is that measured aggressiveness that nobody wants. I certainly don't want to, so bye bye. All right, let's keep going and reading the next awful pitch that I've received so that in hopes you will not write like this. And that you will be able to pitch more confidently and more specifically and really deliver value because that's what podcasters want, right? They want people to deliver value.
Gloria Chou 19:18
Okay, subject line guest and topic suggestion. Mr. Smith and founder founder and president of Mr. Smith and Co. Again, this person obviously has not heard my masterclass because you do not waste your subject line with things that, that don't have no relevance to me. So, I'm not a journalist. But if I was a journalist, for example, I would not put small business PR coach Gloria Chou, topics suggestion interview, like it has nothing to do. That has nothing, nothing zero to do with the story or how it can value, how we can add value or insight to the journalist or the outlet, right? All right. The best part about this email is it starts off with "Hello, sir." So that's really interesting. Because not only have they not done the research about who I am, but like this kind of antiquated patriarchal way of talking. So not the way that I would, I would like, speak to anyone, and if they've heard, the way that I am on the podcast, it's very down to earth vibe. And using the word like, sir, even if they didn't mind, I would be like, I don't know, just make me feel a little uncomfortable, you know? Okay, so anyways, "Hello, Sir, I hope you're having a good day. I'm sure you receive plenty of guest pitches. So my intent of this email is to be relevant and not to waste your valuable time." Great, so refreshing. Thank goodness. Now let's see if they fulfill on his promise. Let's keep reading. To cut to the chase, my name is Emmy. And I want to suggest a pertinent topic. And guests for your next episode on Small Business PR. I just use Emmy, it's the person's name is not Emmy, but Emmy is someone on my team. So I'm just gonna use this as an example here. Okay, the topic is change your network to grow your net worth, a step by step guide to business growth with Mr. Smith. So again, this Mr. Smith person couldn't pitch and couldn't find the time to really even be bothered to email me. So they hired a PR middle person to pitch this. And I honestly find that the pitches that like these, these podcast pitching agencies send like, the tone is just, I just don't love it. I really like it more when the founder themselves can make a personal connection and actually be bothered to spend the time to pitch me directly. But I digress. Okay, so let's keep, let's keep reading this. Making the right connections and knowing how to properly utilize it is the biggest thing in business today. Mr. Smith has used his networks to grow his business. And we'd like to help you teach your audience how to do the same. Now here is where I would think that they will start putting bullet points on the actual strategies. Do they have a framework? Do they have a proprietary step by step thing? Do they have data? Did they do their research? Like what is it? How are you going to help me? How? Because by telling me how great you are and how much money you've made, and the people that you know, that's not helping. That's just a show and tell. That's just a horse and pony show. And we're not all about that here, we are really about giving value and leaving our audiences with something that they can implement, like today. Okay, so let's keep reading. "As an experienced booking agent, I have procured many speaking opportunities for Mr. Smith. And as a team, we delicately research shows we think what find value in interviewing him. We do not believe in a book, a book spaghetti sticks approach." Well, again, they're shooting themselves in the foot because they are doing a bulk spaghetti approach. They are talking about network and growing your personal wealth. This is not a networking or a personal wealth show at all. So I'm sorry to say, Mr. Smith, you should probably fire this podcast pitching agency that you're paying because they have not done the research. I feel bad for him. Now, they they conclude the email by trying to impress me and say, "We have successfully landed Mr. Smith on many high ranking shows, such as the Playbook with David Meltzer, 50K downloads, and How to Entrepreneur. Below is some more information." So not only is this all about him, it's so serving, it has nothing to do with my audience. It doesn't give me actual bullet points of why this would be interesting now, because the first thing I am thinking of is, in this era of people not really networking in person, how has relationship changed, right? You could massage this pitch. And if I were to do it, I would definitely rewrite it according to the principles I teach, but maybe talk about why is different right now. Why is relationship building different right now? Why is networking different right now? People are so sick and tired of these gimmicks. And being at home, we are more discerning than ever. We have access to the world's information on our hands. And what we want is authenticity, vulnerability. Why your story is different? Not just you copying what the next person has done. And unfortunately, this Mr. Smith has paid this podcast booking agency to do a pitch for him and it is just awful. So please don't do it. But I'm not done. After attaching four or five very high quality images of himself, he continues to write more paragraphs about him as if it's not enough. He goes on to talk about how he is a master of digital marketing, how he's the founder of so and so and how he's done this and where he went to school. Again, things like that don't matter to me. So I had to delete the email. Sorry to say Mr. Smith, you should probably fire this podcast pitching agency. Alright, another thing that I get all the time is at the end, they try to make it enticing for me by saying you know, "we will be happy to share the episode on social media and give your show a great review. I look or to seeing the potential chemistry. And if you'd like to know more about him, please click here." So, you know, for me, I know different podcasters have different, like, you know, they have different aims, right. And if I was just in this business to get as many reviews as possible, like I wouldn't even be doing this. So again, they obviously don't know what I'm after. And what I'm after is not for someone to give me a great review. So I can have this person on my podcast talking about things that are irrelevant to my audience. Because time, my time, my audience's time is the most important and precious thing that they have entrusted me with. And I need to make sure that I am doing something with it. Okay. anyways, so let's do another one. Another pitch that I got. That is not so great. "Hello, Gloria. Mr. Smith here, I love to be a guest on your podcast. Is there an application now?" I kind of liked that this person refreshingly pitched himself because so many times I get pitched pitches from their agents. And I just feel like it is not great. So this person actually took the time to pitch me so that's good. Okay, "I went from homeless and suicidal to 18 million in sales. And I've taught hundreds of smaller influencers hypergrowth skills. I worked with influencers, with 4 million plus followers, and 13.8 Billions worth of business minds worth of business minds. I will love to inspire your community to believe what is possible for them. I'd promote your interview on website, social media following and more." Now, I think for most people, this probably would work because people are really after like the vanity metrics. But my show is really about catering to a community that historically have not been invited to the conversation. So these numbers, anyone can buy influencers, right? Like anyone can buy 4 million followers, if you have money, you just buy it. And as you can tell it's fake because you don't have any comments on your Instagram. So we see through it. And 13.8 Billions worth of business minds, what, what kind of business? Are they? Are they mission driven businesses? Are they businesses that don't align with my ethics? What kind of businesses are they? Are they women owned businesses? Are they businesses from people who, you know, are bootstrapping or are they businesses from Trust Fund babies? I need to know. Right? So there's no specificity is just about how I went from here and here and I'm so great, and I can help your audience. Boom. I like that. It's short. And I liked that he pitched to me himself. So he gets Kudos for that, but everything else is just seems like so self serving. Next. Okay. Now this one is actually one that I think is probably like three steps above the rest. I actually quite like this one. And it reads like this. "Gloria, I really enjoy how your show Small Business PR gives advice on helping small businesses gain visibility and credibility, which results in growth. So oh my God, thank God, at least they listen to the intro of my podcast, right? That's one step above all of the other ones that I've so far have read out to you. Let's continue. "I have the perfect guest for your show to share why podcast guests guesting is a great way to attract more leads and gain visibility and credibility." Good. Great. They're using my words back at me. All right. All right. "Mrs. Smith is a podcast PR agency owner, podcaster,and Coach. She has grown her own business by directly connecting with audiences through podcasts, webinars, live streaming and speaking." Today, she helps her clients do the same. This Mrs. Smith's mission is help women on businesses thrive by discovering the power of their own stories, growing their confidence and authentically connecting the message. So again, from a values point of view, this is 100% aligned with the type of topics that I wouldn't be talking about, right? Let's continue. "Mrs. Smith's talking points she would like to share about podcast guests include how to become an effective podcast guest, why podcast guessing is a best way to achieve visibility, and how to enhance your authority and generate leads as a podcast guest." So these are great. I love the bullet points. But I would say, how can you be a little bit one step more specific. Right? How can Mrs. Smith talk about how you can use social media as a strategy to follow up? Or what to say when someone rejects you? Do you see how that's one layer beneath the onion. Now I always say this in every PR masterclass and is really kind of the metaphor that I give for how I teach about pitching, which is probably the most important work you will do as a founder, which is rolling up your sleeves and clarifying your message. Because if you can't talk very specifically, and to the point, you probably need to flesh out your message. So think about pitching like layers of an onion, right? Anyone can talk about the first layer of an onion, that's very general, it's fluffy. It doesn't really speak to anyone specific, there's really nothing that I can hold on to. That's the top layer of the onion. A lot of founders start there and get stuck there and they stop there. Now if you do the work to actually listen to your audience to tease out the little insights and the bits and pieces, you start to get to the core of the onion, which is the most flavorful part that can pack a lot of power and flavor into your dish and that's what we want. And that is what I do for my clients when we do work one on one once you're inside of a starter pack and the upgrade to a pitch writing session is you might have 20 different angles. But what is the one that is the most specific, that is the most relevant to this season to this reason? So that is what I mean by that, right. So for this one, although this pitch is aligned, in terms of the talking points, and how I help my audiences, I would like to see a little bit more specificity about the talking points or better yet worded as a question, right. So, instead of like, these are the things I can say, say, how can you enhance your authority and visibility, even without social media? Right, boom, that's really interesting, right? Or how to tell which podcast is the best one for you, when you only have a limited time to pitch? Right? That's another great one. Again, it's specific, and it lights me up way more than something that's more general. I like this pitch, generally, I think it's good. I think if I had a little bit more specificity on why her experience is different than others, because, again, there's a lot of different podcast guest, and coaches out there. It would be an easy, yes for me, right. So that's that.
Gloria Chou 31:07
Now, now that you've gotten here, I don't want to leave you with just here are the worst pitches, I'm going to leave you with something that's actually tangible. So here is an example of a pitch I would write if I was pitching to get on to this podcast, right? Following the CPR method, I teach and everything in the PR starter pack. And if you want to know more about the CPR pitching method, which is a method that I basically came up with from cold calling and hacking my own PR from the outside, you can go to this podcast episode, I believe it is episode two. So you go to gloriachoupr.com/2. And you can hear all about the different ways you can use the CPR method to find your newsworthy angle. Okay, so back to this, if I were to write this pitch to get onto my own podcast, here's probably how I would pitch. So the subject line would be very specific, it would be something like "How product owners can use PR and their holiday sales strategy in Q4?" Do you see that that it has to benefit? It's who it's for. It's got timing, it's got all of the things that you're like, Yes, this is perfect for right now. Alright, so the pitch, I would like to get onto my own podcast, if I was pitching from the outside would be, I know that Q4 is a really busy season for product owners. And as a product and ecommerce expert, helping 5000+ businesses of this niche, I love to help your audience take advantage of the biggest buying season and biggest season for revenue by aligning their business strategy to set themselves up for success with PR marketing. So I talked about relevance right away, right? In the CPR method, you want to hit them with the relevance right away. What is so relevant about Q4? Because it's the biggest buying opportunity. It's when businesses make most of their revenue, especially a viewer and product. Because as you know, there's a holiday season. And it's a biggest season to get in front of your customers, right? There's so many PR stories, there's gift guys, there's product guide. And this is also something that I'm really focusing on this quarter, as well as helping my small business community land media. Can you get it? Again, on my gift guide, just even one gift guide can give you the confidence and boost to save you 10s of 1000s of dollars on Facebook Ads down the road. So anyways, let's keep going with this pitch if I were writing it. Alright. Specifically, I have found that through working with my small business, ecommerce, and product founders, there are three problems that they encounter when it comes to getting ready for the holidays. So do you see how it kind of nicely weaves like I've done the research, and this is what's different. This is what's a different of all the other fluffy topics, right. So these are their three roadblocks and how I can help them. Again, you always want to be a part of the solution. You don't want to just talk about how you've done so many things X, Y, and Z and I've done this, I think one of the lessons that I've learned as I've built my community, and have really learned what it means to serve. And if you look at the successful entrepreneurs, they just really serve their audience is that it's not about me, it's about you, the listeners, it's how I can help you, how I can understand you, how I can meet you where you at. Because talking about all the places I've been featured, and you know, all that, it only gets you so far. At the end of the day, your audience wants to know, are you speaking to me? Is this for me? And you can't say that by just touting all the places you've been featured? Right? So that's why I don't really share that much like where I've been featured. I think, I think as like credibility is important, but at some point, it's about how well do you know your audience and to serve them and meet them worth where they're at? So anyways, let's continue. I have found that product owners encounter these three problems when it comes to getting ready for the holidays and Q4. Number one, oh, sorry. So one, two and three, right? So I kind of listed like the problems. And then I say "Hey, I have proven strategies that will help mitigate these problems without requiring more time and budget." So do you see how like most people would be like, I have a way to help your clients but they require more budget or time or all the things that people don't usually have. I am saying right off the bat, you can do this. Anyone can do this because I am a nobody. And you can too. So it makes it easy for the host to be like, oh, yeah, this is something that would appeal to a lot of people, right? So questions I can answer on your podcast include. You see what I did there. I like to write my podcast pitches as if you're already writing questions for them. You're making it even one step easier for the podcast host to read it. So the questions I can answer on your podcast include, one, how can product owners get the best ROI from working with a paid influencer? Right? This is a question people are asking in Q4. Number two, how can you really track the metrics from your paid marketing expert efforts? Number three question I can answer on your podcast is, how to use PR to get SEO and sell more products appropriately for every season. Right? So do you see how this pitch is specific?
Gloria Chou 35:51
It's really not about me, and all the places that I've spoken at and where I went to school and who I know. And like, it's really about the audience. And then I talked about why it's different, right? For this season, for Q4. And then I really get even one step specific and peel away the onion to talk about influencers and getting ROI because Q4 comes around. People are always asking about paid influencers, and how can you get the best ROI and not be scammed by an influencer, That's really not going to move the needle for your business. Right? So you've gotten this far, thank you so much for being here. I look forward to doing more of these as I get more pitches. I'm all about showing and not just telling, right. So hopefully, I've shown you in this episode about things to avoid. And even if you're just one step beyond, then you can feel confident to start sending that pitch. Remember, your first pitch is probably gonna be awful. But the more comfortable you are sending these pitches, the better you'll be, and do not hire a person to send it for you unless you know that this person has really done the research because I have to say from the receiving end, I get pitches from PR people who clearly have not done the research. And I feel bad for the small businesses that are paying them to pitch on their behalf. Now, if you know two or three other small businesses that can benefit from listening to this episode, or how they can get started with PR and really just be more confident in going bigger with their message without needing to know any industry VIPs or being on all the places or spending 1000s of hours in the DMs. Refer them to this podcast, the Small Business PR podcast. I love coming here week after week connecting with you guys. Leave a comment, leave a review and if you want to know how to implement these strategies for yourself, and learn the CPR method I so often talk about feel free to watch the masterclass right now called My PR Insider Secrets Masterclass. Right, it's gloriachoupr.com/masterclass. Thank you. Until next time. Hey, small business hero. Did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Marie Claire Pop Sugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched? Or if you don't have any connection? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods 1000s of bootstrapping small businesses used to have their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert. Now if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor. This class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at Gloria Chou pr.com/masterclass. That's Gloria Chou c-h-o-u pr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.