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Marketing Communications
Workshop Series
Developing & Delivering Your Message
March 17, 2015
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What’s A Pitch?
• “Elevator pitch” grew out of the .com boom
– “a succinct and persuasive sales pitch”
– Sell me your idea (and make be believe in you) in 30
seconds or less
• More broadly today
– Your verbal business card
– Your start-up idea
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Makings Of A Great Pitch
1. Easy – what does your company do?
2. Not so easy – what do you do better than your
competitors?
3. Much harder – how do you convince me?
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Questions To Ponder
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•
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What are your strengths?
What are some adjectives to describe you?
What do you believe in?
What do your best customers say about you?
What do your non-customers think?
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Group Exercise
• Question 1 – what does your company do?
• Question 2 – what does your company do better than
anyone else?
• Question 3 – why should I care?
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How’d You Do?
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Tailoring The Pitch
• Tailor your pitch to your audience
– Prospects, industry insiders, funders, media
• Make it relevant
– Make me care
• Choose the right words
– Avoid industry-speak, jargon
– Speak in your “brand voice”
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Media Relations
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Stand Out From the Crowd
• “I get about 500 e-mails a day at this point, and
a lot of them are unsolicited story ideas.” - Steve
Ladurantaye, Globe and Mail
• “I get many unsolicited PR pitches sent to me via
email. Nearly all of them are untargeted
broadcast pitch, usually in the form a press
release. I almost always delete without reading.”
- David Meerman Scott, formerly with Knight
Ridder
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Media Landscape
• Newspapers
– Dailies, weeklies
• Magazines
– Consumer, trade
• TV/radio
• Online
– Traditional outlets
– Blogs
– Social Media
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Media Outreach
• Starts with research
– Know the outlets
– Know the reporters
• Developing targets
– Databases
– Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter
– Understanding your end-target
• What do they read/watch?
• Build/verify your list
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Thinking like a reporter
• What’s new or different?
– Product, company, leadership
• What’s the larger trend?
– You as part of a larger story
• What’s your expert insight?
– What are you seeing that others aren’t?
– Stats and examples to back it up
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Making Contact
• Establishing a relationship
– Introduce yourself/your
expertise
– Comment on a story
– Follow on
Facebook/Twitter/blogs
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The Pitch
• What is a Pitch?
– Piquing interest in your
story/POV
• Email vs. phone call
– Most prefer email
• It’s like a sales call
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The Pitch
• Email pitch
• Short and sweet
• Tease
• The Subject Line
(relevance)
• Lead with your news
• Support with context
– Trend
– Expertise
• Offer more info
• Embed
• Visuals
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Pitching Exercise
• Now you try…
• What’s your pitch?
– What’s your lede?
– Why’s it news?
– Why should I care?
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How’d you do?
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The News Release
• Still needed?
• Format
Date,
city, etc.
NEWScontact,
RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alan Fogg
Phone
Email
HEADLINE
Subhead
Springfield, Va., Jan. 19, 2013 – The FCEDA announced today…
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A Word about Language
• Keep language simple
• Avoid hyperbole
• Avoid industry jargon
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
“Zimbra is the leader in open source, next-generation
collaboration and messaging software. We provide innovative
experiences to end-users and their administrators because we
see existing tools are fundamentally broken. We also believe in
compatibility with existing infrastructure and applications (both
open source and proprietary).”
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New York Times Company - 2010
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David Meerman Scott - 2008
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Headline
• Punchy summary of the news
– Subhead (optional) can expound
Fairfax Economic Development President
Named “Business Person of the Year”
Dr. Gerald Gordon honored with Virginia Business magazine’s
third annual award
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The Lede
• Restate the main news from headline
• When? Where? Who?
• Descending order of importance
Fairfax County, Jan. 19, 2013 – The Fairfax County Economic
Development Authority announced today that 412 of the
nation’s Fortune 500 companies have agreed to move to
the county by the end of the calendar year.
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The Body
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•
•
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More details
Your point of view (quotes)
URL for more information
Boilerplate
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What’s News
• Launch of new product
• Companies solving problems
– Case studies
• Consumer tips
• Events/transactions
• HR news (appointments, promotions)
• Expert opinion
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Distribution
• Wholesale vs. retail
– Craft for specific outlets
– Mass email
– Distribution services
• PR Newswire, BusinessWire
– Social channels
• Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc.
• Profnet/HARO
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Thank you!
@clp1917
@jonnew
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