Thought Leadership Series
In today’s episode, we hear from our guest speaker Jody Fisher, an award-winning publicist with 20+ years of experience in New York City and national media markets. At Austin Williams, he leads the agency’s public relations practice. As a former New York City radio reporter, Jody brings a new room assignment that’s savvy to his work that seeks to make stories immediately interesting and actionable to reporters and editors leveraging his strong relationships across print, broadcasting, and digital outlets.
Today’s episode discusses how to: develop a strong strategy for pitching the email, identify the right media outlets and contacts, structure your pitches, and best practices for follow-up.
With PR, any time you pitch the media, the pitch needs to stand out, be actionable, and written as briefly as possible. Decisions are made very quickly in a newsroom. Reporters are bombarded with pitches each day. Not only does your pitch need to stand out, but it needs to be brief enough for the reporter to say to it in 10 seconds. Otherwise, they will pass on it. If you send a reporter something they have to think about or figure out, they will skip for something else that was an easy yes.
Jody recommends the following template when pitching the media:
“I’m pitching you X person who can talk about Y subject for your Z area of focus.“
This quick pitch template demonstrates that you’ve done your research, you know what they cover, what they’re looking for, and you’re matching up what you’ve got with what they need.
Some top tips …
When it comes to communicating and pitching, whatever you’re giving them has to be actionable and clear. You want to grab their attention with what you have and what they need. Short and simple is best.
Get familiar with who covers the area that you’re working with to develop relationships so that you can meet your key targets, by subject matter and geography. Don’t sell anyone short. Why it’s a good idea to work with reporters at all levels, including those at the bottom rung. If you’re looking to reach out and follow up after a pitch, keep it short and simple. Don’t just follow up on checking in, share something that’s beneficial for the reporter as well, such as why you think your guest will fit into their piece or their area of focus.
Tune into today’s episode to hear Jody Fisher’s expert insights into how to pitch the media as a thought leader.
This episode at glance …
>> ( 7:29-10:37) Jody shares his opinion on the best way of becoming a thought leader and what a thought leader is.
>> (10:42-11:48) How to approach pitching and the one-sentence successful pitch template to pitch any guest for any type of media.
>> (12:30-16:30) How to find the right outlets for your guest and the contact at each outlet?
>> (16:40-20:20) Find out how to develop relationships and credibility with contacts in the media.
>> (20:55-24:00) How and when to follow up on your pitch. Plus, the bonus piece to improve every follow up.
>> (24:46-26:44) Is it still ok to call contacts at the media or is email better?
>> (27:10-32:42) How to develop a strong strategy for pitching the media.
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Links in the episode & ways to reach Christie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodyfisher70/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodyfisher/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThePRPodcast1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodyfisher
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