Five Crucial Tips for the Perfect Pitch Letter

Pitch letters might be the most effective tool in your arsenal that you’re not using effectively. Since we originally took our PR baby steps, it has been tattooed in our minds that pitch letters are the Holy Grail and learning to skillfully craft a missive to attract media attention reaps vast benefits.



Then why do many in PR compose epistles that simply fall on deaf, uh, eyes?

Admit it. You know what it feels like to have a gruff editor or a reporter slam the phone down on your enthusiastic ear. It’s so not fun. It’s hard not to take it personally too. Pitch letters are good buffers—to get you in the door and introduce your client, product or service—and done right, you avoid being slammed.

A letter that affects all the right qualities shows someone that you understand your business, that you see how it fits into his beat or interests. The reporter, blogger, producer, or facilitator will be impressed—maybe shocked—that you’ve done your homework. Once and for all, let’s all remember that pitch letters should pique someone’s need for a story and not mere interest. They need not tell the entire story; these are teasers for the meat of your angle. (You have an angle, right? Don’t get me started!)

Here, then, are five tips to help you compose pitch letters that I know really work:

1. Hit with your best shot. There you go! In that first sentence give the reporter something that will make him say either “Gee I never knew” or “That’s a fantastic freaking angle for a story.” Or better yet, get him to say both and you win a prize! Don’t mess around with formalities. And don’t bury the lead, or your angle, in hype, jargon or buzzwords. Buzzwords are so 1999.
2. Make it damn personal. Ok, you could include basic points important for all reporters, but your pitch letter’s primary objective is to deliver a relevant and CUSTOMIZED angle to specific reporters. Trust me when I say that a “blast pitch letter” looks like one; reporters recognize it as such and place it in the ole circular file or in the handy folder called Deleted Items.
3. It’s method, man. Letters delivered by email need different content than those delivered by envelope with stamp. Email limits you to the teeny and readable portion of the screen and so it must be pithy; there’s a hefty word tax for unnecessary expressions. With a hard copy letter, sent by mail or FedEx or messenger or fax (!), you have a whole page and as long as you start well your reader might somehow get to the end. On hard letters you can also include supporting information—fact sheets, backgrounders, bios, maybe even toss in a candy.
4. You write, they read, it’s all good. Do not rush a letter. The process—finding the right targets, reviewing their recent work, writing, rewriting, editing, thinking, proofing—it takes time and it’s worth it. Like we always say at BPB: Spend time on one element of your job instead of rushing to do many.
5. Proofread. Proofread. Oh and then proofread again. Proofreading is so important; gosh, it just is. It’s never more so than in a pitch letter. Don’t do it and you look—and feel—stupid. Please stop giving our venerable industry a bad name and just go over and ask a colleague— preferably one not on the same client account—to read your pitch letter critically.

The bottom line is just that. Make money with superior pitch letters. It’s a powerful means to introduce yourself – you get to make a point with fantastic uses of 26 letters. You achieve masterful results simply by varying the means by which you make contact. What’s the goal, everyone? To build lasting relationships with the media and so-called influencers, to maximize coverage opportunities! Isn’t that what’s on everybody’s list?



Twitter @laermer