Don’t Spook the Media!

Halloween is coming up, which means haunted houses, horror movies and scary costumes… but one of the scariest things of all for PR folk during the spooky season is not landing a hit when pitching a story for your client. Along with the excitement of Halloween comes an overwhelming number of projects for the media. So, how do you not scare them off this Halloween?

Know when to ghost— Following up with the media is a great idea because journalists, reporters, editors, etc. receive a boatload of emails that can easily get lost. But what happens when you get ghosted? Friendly follow-up messages are a great way to grab their attention, but don’t clutter their inbox too much— the last thing you want is your name to haunt them every time they see it.

Chasing deadlines can be a nightmare— Figure out relevant deadlines and important dates, then pitch accordingly. Not giving enough time (or pitching too early) can be a nightmare for the media and will lessen your chances of getting them to cover your story.

Don’t scare them away with an irrelevant story— Do your research on who you’re pitching to. It wouldn’t make sense to pitch a story about a children’s charity event to a sports reporter. Don’t scare them away with a story that wastes both of your time.

Don’t treat the media like zombies— It might be tempting to copy and paste your pitch and send it out to a list of contacts. However, this can feel impersonal and ingenuine. Remember that reporters are people, too—not zombies. Spell their name correctly and do some background research on the types of stories they cover. A big part of PR involves the development of relationships. It’s harder to do that when the first thing they see is their name spelled “Ashley” instead of “Ashlee.”