How to Pitch Stories for Media Placement

Maximize your success with these five simple tips.
by CR 'Cataunya' Ransom
Mosnar Communications

A mass explosion of free publicity is the best reward to launching a successful
PR campaign. The ultimate goal of a PR campaign is to receive loads of free publicity about your book, product, service, or cause.

This type of free publicity most often leads to more sales, brand awareness, strategic alliances, and so on. Making headlines is the greatest and fastest way to make people want to do business with you.

Achieving free publicity success often involves research and doing your homework. However, the rewards are well worth all the time and effort you
put in. Imagine receiving a feature story about your book, product, service, or cause in a newspaper or magazine for free? Advertising is expensive and most likely would cost a pretty penny to publish a full feature article in a newspaper
or magazine. Learning how to successfully pitch stories to the media could bring in tons of free publicity.

Here are some tips to guide you on how to pitch stories for maximum PR media placement:

1. Release
The first step is to prepare a media or press release about an announcement. It is important to consider that your release should be telling a newsworthy story. New additions, breakthroughs, mergers, acquisitions, research findings, etc. A media or press release will tell the story that you are trying to pitch.

2. Research
Make sure to find media publications that are related to your story pitch. Look for chemistry by matching publications that focus on your industry, topics, reviews, etc. This is the single most important step to receive the most free publicity exposure. A great release and story that is pitched to the wrong media source will never get picked up.

3. Pitch
When pitching your story remember you only get one opportunity to make a first impression. Be ready to pitch your story in 30 seconds or less. Identify why your story pitch is significant to the media source and how readers can benefit from your story pitch.

4. Promote
Allow media publications to find you by promoting your release. Try using press release wire services to help promote your release. There are a number of free press release wire services like http://www.prlog.org/ or http://www.i-newswire.com/.

5. Build
Start building relationships with the media and become a lead source for media publications. Give them what they want: a great story!

Media publications run on news and supplying news is what will get you free publicity. Mastering how to strategize to receive the best media publicity involves knowing how to match your story pitch to the right publications. Keep researching, keep pitching!


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CR "Cataunya" Ransom is the Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer
of Mosnar Communications, Inc. in metro Atlanta, Georgia.
CR consults clients and speaks to audiences relating to
global marketing and public relations practices. CR is the creator of
the Mega Powerhouse Marketing system at www.megapowerhouse.com


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The Joy Of Teaching...

Hello all... okay some of you are complaining that I havent updated to comment on the other campaigns.. so sorry la.. miss busy la.. anyhoo.. here it goes...

Okay, to be honest, I truly am proud of all the groups...whether you are in my PR1, PR2 or media relations class. I think that all the campaigns were done well and managed to create awareness on the message that was presented.

The anti-discrimination campaign, created a good buzz and got much attention.. however, im still not sure as to how the message got to the public aka students of Segi...but I am waiting for the reports to here the inside story.. hehehe.. especially since Irfan wasnt in class to give more explanation..:P but all in all.. good job guys and girls!

As for the Anti-stress campaign, when I first walked into the area.. I was a little shocked to see how ¨quiet¨ it was.. then i realised that .. it was supposed to be lah.. and yes, i think you managed the campaign well creating a peaceful, relaxing area for the students.. Good job gang!

I must apologise for not being able to fully participate on that day (would have loved to get a manicure, kaki urut and have a try on bashing the pinata...:( )as we were busy trying to tie up loose ends for the Malaysian-Lah! campaign.. (oh yes, thank you to all my PR1 students to dropped by the event)

So now, the Malaysian-LAH! Campaign.. Yes, it was a journey kan.. it took a while to get you all geared up but once you guys got the picture and were more focussed, we managed a wonderfully brilliant campaign and the message was communicate!

All in all, I never thought that teaching would bring me so much joy.. the joy of sharing my knowledge and the joy of learning from you all.. I have learnt so much.. thank you gang!

For me, anything is possible if you put your mind to it and believe you can.. God willing...if you believe you can, you surely can one lah! ... hehehe...cheers gang!

Love you all..