7 Common PR Mistakes
Dear Lovely Business Owners,
Here is a post about common mistakes you might be making with your PR.
Don’t worry I have made them a lot, you are not alone in making these.
- Blind pitching. This is where you pitch a story, idea or opinion to an journalist, or podcast host without any previously established relationship.
This is a mistake because, they will think that you do not care about them, only when you want something.
It is better to at least have tried to have created more of a relationship with them before pitching to them blind.
You will when you do this stand more of a chance of having your pitch being read, acknowledged and responded to.
There are exceptions of course.
2. Pitching to the wrong person. For example. if you wanted to get featured in a particular magazine, but you were pitching to the main editor instead of the features editor, or features assistant.
By pitching to the editor unless you have an established relationship, you are unlikely to even get an response as they are hugely busy people with limited time to respond to each and every pitch.
I spent a lot of time last year pitching to the main producer of a television show, instead of the Women’s Features Producer; a huge difference ; as the other lady was and is far too busy to respond or deal with anything like that, as that is why she had a team of people to receive and process pitches.
3. Taking the lack of response from journalists personally. This is rarely if ever personal. Journalists do not always respond at all, as they are very very busy people with tight deadlines. You just have to carry on and keep going and keep on pitching.
I I have done this too. I remember quite recently, getting quite upset by a lack of response from a very well-thought out pitch and scratching my head.
It was not until I worked with Sarah Negus, who I really recommend working with, who helped me to look at this situation differently and to just keep focussing on the bigger picture and be less fixed on my outcomes and to take things less personally, which has made an enormous difference to me and my results. Here’s how to get in touch with Sarah here: http://www.SarahNegus.com
4. Not researching properly. This could be no or limited research for the publication, programme or podcast properly . For example: I recommend that if you are trying to get into say Psychologies magazine, you look at several copies to see where you could fit into it.
By researching properly the publication, programme or podcast, you will stand a better chance of success. Too many people blindly pitch without even reading, watching or listening to where they want to be featured in..
I know I have done this in the past too, and then I twigged and realised it was far more productive to research much more deeply.
5. Poor planning. This is one that can be hard. For example: some publications and programmes plan months in advance; so even if your pitch is absolutely amazing, you could have missed the mark by a few months because it was submitted too late.
This has been something I have done too, pitching too late for a Valentine’s Day feature, such as in December, instead of November meant that my client missed out on being featured.
6 Relying only on just #Journorequests on Twitter. This is well-known to be a free option, and it can actually results in some amazing PR Coverage.
The things about it is, is that it is often the last resort for many journalists who have asked for help from their inner circle, and contacts before they go to Twitter, often, although not always. I was recently featured in the BBC about veganism, which came from a #journorequest; but I would not soley rely upon it at all.
Here,I suggest that you highlight a few places where you would like to be featured in, and start creating a relationship with them, and pitch them and keep pitching them relevant ideas and stories, so that you are in their system of contacts already.
7. Make the pitch too much about you. This is when you might have a book or an opinion, and you are to pitching in a way that is too much about you, instead of how it can help them. For example: You have a book out, about smartphone addiction, and you just directly pitch about them. This can cause a journalist to just want to delete your email, as you are not providing value to their readers. Even if they are intersted in your book, they might not even have the time to read it too. You have really think about how you could add value to their publication, programme or podcast, to get a response and to get featured.
I trust these help. I would love to know your thoughts and comments below.
If you would like to work with me on this, you could do so with my SpiritualPR Membership club here:
http://www.theblondepreneur.com/spiritualpr-heavenly-club/
Love Carrie x
