The Colab Brief - 114: All You Have To Do Is Ask 💬

Welcome to The Colab Brief - a weekly newsletter covering all things comms. This week, we’re excited to have Danielle Capers, Head of Media at The Colab joining us for a guest edition. Danielle is a pitching master and a genius when it comes to landing top-tier placements. Take it away, Danielle.

All You Have To Do Is Ask 💬

Have you ever pitched a topic that you know is spot on to a list of all the right contacts, only to hear crickets? 🦗

It can be maddening to spend time researching the perfect angle and the perfect audience to not even hear back a simple “no, thank you.” 

So, what can you do? Well, sometimes all it takes is asking a simple question.

Read time: 2 minutes

We all know that the journalist-PR relationship is built on mutual benefit. We are hoping to secure coverage for a certain company or person, and they are hoping to gain valuable information that provides more context to the stories they are writing.

On the flip side, PR pros don’t want to be sending out pitches that go ignored and journalists certainly don’t want to be receiving irrelevant pitches that are clogging up their inbox. So when pitches go unanswered, there is usually a disconnect.

Recently, we’ve had all hands on deck to secure broadcast coverage for a client. We’ve brainstormed clever, relevant topics and pitched them to the right producers at the right moment, securing spots in Fox Business and NBC. Yet, we still weren’t getting a response from several of our other targets. 

I wanted to figure out the disconnect. Was it the spokesperson? Could it be the wrong topic or contact despite our careful research? Or were they simply not currently booking guests for any segments?

To get to the bottom of it, I sent out a simple email to the handful of producers we hadn’t heard back from yet:

Subj: Quick question

Hi [producer name] -

I don't want to keep filling your inbox with pitches that aren't helpful, so I was hoping you could share what you are looking for in a guest.

I think [spokesperson name]’s insights on [area of expertise] would be beneficial to [show name] and in line with what you've been covering.

Could you share if you don't think [spokesperson name] is a good fit, if you aren't currently looking for guests, or if there is someone else I should contact?

Any feedback you can provide would be so helpful.

Suddenly, we started getting answers. ✨

📈One producer shared that their show only featured guests who are CEOs of publicly traded companies.

🤝Another producer who usually booked segments had recently assigned the task to a colleague and connected me with them.

🎤Another producer wasn't interested in the initial spokesperson but was happy to book some alternative spokespeople at the company.

While they didn’t have the time to respond to my initial pitches, they quickly provided feedback on my simple request. Why? Because I demonstrated that I value their time and made it easy for them.

This approach can work for all types of pitches, too. Trying to land an OpEd in a top-tier outlet? Try sending a quick email to the editor asking if the publication is currently accepting any and what their process is. Top-tier publications are constantly changing if/when/how they accept OpEds, so going directly to the source for information can be a great way to get a foot in the door and start the submission process.

At the end of the day, we are all just people working together to do our jobs well. By injecting some humanity into our outreach and presenting simple, direct, and genuine questions, we can make our jobs a little easier.

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