The Secret World Of Enthusiasm

There’s a breed of PR people out there that can get the meeting, do the interview and chat the darn thing all day long on the phone with journalists, email every producer and blogger on earth and yet....they have an anemic list of coverage, though, and the buzz-o-meter isn’t reporting the faintest blip. The shortfall in coverage usually reflects a disinterest in following up. Getting the meeting is exciting, even one online, but closing the deal and getting the coverage is where the big payoff is. To get there, you have to be creative and aggressive with the followup.

The lack of genuine followup is the biggest failing of this business.

One of the secrets of great PR is knowing that if you want to read what you’ve pitched, you’ve got to work it until it goes down! If you’ve got the best three-point average in the NBA or you’ve just run down a dozen people in suburbia, don’t worry, the press will want the story. No pitch needed to prep. If you’re the one asking for the coverage though, you have to follow up to keep the journalist as excited in your big idea as you are to get the story filed.

What can kill your story after an interview? Hundreds of factors. One is that a journalist, blogger, or producer might like your story, but he or she has to do so much research to make it happen and there's not enough time to do it. How can you help? Make sure that at the conclusion of any interview, you get a list of deliverables, the data/knowledge/trends you can send that reporter so their job can be done. By doing the legwork--and doing it till they're satisfied (!)--you’ve increased the likelihood of the story running tenfold.

Another pitch sinker is when a similar pitch crosses the transom and that PR person is just a better sales person. This job is a battle of the personalities. You need to stay in front of the person you/your client interviewed with so they don’t forget you, so that you’re top of mind. Never give them enough time to be distracted. It they are, the first three paragraphs they’ve drafted will land in the “must eventually get to” pile and die a painful, miserable death.

More times than not your story dies because journalists expect you (or your agency) to keep on them. If you don’t they figure it wasn’t as important as they thought it was. Key word: thought. You need to be thinking of new ways to keep it fresh. Getting through the interview is just one step of PR, not the end-goal. After your conversation, you need to shift gears to get to that high circulation finish line, so continue to forward the journalist or whoever some relevant material, ask them no-BS questions and stay firmly in touch. Don't be a pain, but be enthusiastic!

Question: How do you keep "things" afloat in the minds of people you pitch? Let the two of us know. More new posts coming: one on the mid-August blues in media and how PR people should go for it... Watch this space.

@laermer @badpitch