The art of the pitch

A big part of PR (and my job at BHL Productions) is pitching. I pitch to many, many media outlets about stories and events for my clients. Currently, many of my clients are in the beauty/fashion industry which makes pitching pretty fun! 

When you pitch to a journalist about your client, you want them to pay attention to you for more than three seconds. Although I am still mastering that art of The Pitch (and probably will always be!) I have seen what works and what totally does not. Here are my tips on how to pitch and snag them hits! 


1. Be Smart.  Let's say you're at a bar and a total cutie walks in. You want to strut up to them like Beyonce, but you should probably do a little digging around and see what the cutie is interested in. After digging around a bit, you can talk to them with the grace of Kate Middleton and win their heart. Pitching is a little bit like that, minus the bar environment. If you want an outlet to respond to your pitch in a positive way, do a little research and figure out exactly what they write about, upcoming stories, an editorial calendar or some personal connection you may have. Show a little tenderness. 

2. Be Aware. Since most of my clients are in the fashion/beauty industry, I am constantly paying attention to what is buzzing about in these fun fields. When Kim Kardashian aimed to "break the Internet" with her derriere, I quickly created a "Bottoms Up!" pitch about the big booty trend and landed four feature pieces for my client. 

3. Be Creative. You never know what a journalist could be working on, so why not throw a crazy story idea out there? A little creativity can take you a long way. 

4. Hustle, Hustle, Hustle. A great PR person makes their client be heard by hustling so hard that even Jay-Z will take notice. Sending one e-mail will not seal the deal, therefore, you've gotta follow-up and even hop on the phone. 

Good luck and happy pitching! 

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