Half of the battle of pitching is getting a reporter to open your email. Now-a-days like many industries reporters are doing more with less. That means less time available, they need the information fast and efficiently. Before coming to Communiqué PR, I was a reporter at a small TV station and managing my inbox was a challenge. It is not uncommon to receive hundreds of emails in a day. I would scan my inbox and open messages that intrigued me, contained key words that I was interested in covering, had a personal touch or seemed to sell a sexy story.
As a PR professional now, I’ve used this experience to guide me while crafting subject lines. In addition, I came across an article from Ragan PR called, “Pitching a reporter: 7 tips for crafting irresistible subject lines” that offers good advice.
Consider the following tips next time you are tasked with putting together a pitch.
You want your headline to sum up your pitch in a few words and grab the reporter’s attention, so don’t make it an afterthought! Give subject lines as much thought and consideration as the body of the email. We often develop the subject line when crafting the pitch and include it in our internal review process, to get input from the team. It may seem like a lot given a subject line is only a few words, but if it doesn’t scream “open me!” the reporter may never see the strength of your story.
Tags: email pitch, pitching media, subject lines Filed under: COMMUNIQUÉ PR, Execution, Planning, Positioning, PUBLIC RELATIONS