We’ve all been there, crafting the perfect pitch, hitting "send," and crossing our fingers that this one gets picked up, but you’re met with silence. Well, you're not alone, these journalists are sometimes receiving 800+ emails a day (and that’s on a slow one!). With inboxes this busy, how on earth can your pitch avoid drowning?
The secret: diversify. No, we’re not talking about sending the same thing to 800 people and hoping for the best. We mean crafting a multifaceted campaign. It’s about writing from multiple angles, creating diverse content that appeals to different interests, and tailoring your subject lines for each publication. Because, let’s face it, a cookie-cutter approach isn’t going to catch anyone’s attention!
In this post, we’ll dive into how mixing things up can make all the difference in getting your campaign the attention it deserves.
Campaigns
Ideation 💡
The first step is at the ideation stage, which we previously wrote a great campaign on how you can improve this process here, when coming up with ideas it’s important to not restrict yourself to one angle. Pinpoint what the angles are that are relevant for the campaign and ensure you have a wide range of niches for outreach.
Reactive 🗞️
Pay attention to the news and see if you can find a reactive angle for your story as well, therefore you’re giving journalists something you already know there is an interest for.
Assets 📹
Another way in which you can achieve this is with assets alongside your campaign, whether that's data, visuals, expert commentary, case studies, video or a comment from your client - don’t hold back here, the more you can offer a journalist the easier you’re making it for them to cover your story.
Press releases
Angles 📏
Once you’ve got the idea pinned down and you’re ready to write up your press release there are a few things to consider, what are the different niches that this campaign will be relevant to outreach to? When you know this, you can then tailor the press releases to suit, maybe there is a business angle so you want to adopt a more formal approach and maybe there is also a fun lifestyle angle and therefore you want to drop the formalities and make sure it’s reflected in your writing.
Publications tone of voice 🗣️
It’s important to note the tone of voice of the publication or niche you’re sending to as if a journalist reads it and it isn’t on brand for how they would speak to their readers they’re less likely to cover your story.
Added extras ✨
A final thing to consider is within that niche of publications do they typically require images alongside the campaign, do they cover case studies a lot or maybe they always ask for expert commentary - make note of these things so you can be prepared.
Subject lines
Niches 💻
A lot of the advice when it comes to subject lines is similar to press releases, change your subject lines up for the different niches and make sure the TOV is reflective of your release and of that niche.
Broadsheets vs tabloids 📰
To break this down even further, it is beneficial to even split publications within a certain niche, for example when outreaching to ‘nationals’ this shouldn’t be a blanket approach. The Guardian and The Sun are two very different newspapers and it’s important to adapt to their style of writing - review their headlines and match your subject line to that style.
Conclusion
In the world of Digital PR, one size doesn’t fit all. Don’t pigeonhole your campaign by sticking to just one angle or press release; variety is your secret weapon! Write multiple releases to keep your story fresh and adapt your subject lines to suit each publication. The goal? Make your pitch as irresistible as possible to every inbox it lands in, and don’t be afraid to test new things along the way! Experimenting with new ideas could be the key to standing out in the crowd and securing that all-important coverage.
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