Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer started The Bad Pitch Blog late last week. (Thanks to John Wagner/On Message for the pointer.)

From the first few posts — which included one good pitch, BTW — I like the approach Laermer and Dugan are taking. They are publishing the bad part, but then telling us what’s wrong and how/what we can learn from it. Criticism by itself doesn’t do any one any good.

For now, The Bad Pitch blog is not “outing” any agency or PR practitioner. That’s good. They said you have to make their blog three times before being named. While the threat of public humiliation may be good and keep us on our toes, I’m not sure it’s a good call. What happens if one or two of the early bad pitches from an agency are from junior staffers? Is that fair to label an entire agency that way? I don’t think so, but will reserve final judgment to see how they handle their outings.

The Bad Pitch Blog is something I’ll visit regularly, and add to my links list for the next update.

But, what about The Good Pitch Blog? Is there one out there?

I’m not volunteering because I don’t have the day-to-day time to keep up. But, here is an open invitation to all those in public relations (media relations) and even journalism. Do you have a good pitch? Have you received a good pitch? If so, let me know. I’ll publish it and give all the glory to you.

If you are in PR: Tell me what your pitch was? What was the result? What are some of the whys behind what you did?

If you are a journalist and want to “out” a PR practitioner who’s done a good job, tell me what you like about it. Would you have considered that topic or person for a story otherwise? Plus, give us any other insight.

Now, for my $0.02, here’s what makes a good pitch. Yes, some of the below is elementary. Some may not be. (NOTE: For the below, the definition of a pitch does not include story distribution. A pitch is sending a story idea to a or more than one media outlet. If you are mass-distributing an important story, then use these guideslines for the greetings portion to the media contacts.)

Put yourself in your targeted reporter’s shoes. If you were him/her, what would make you open your e-mail or respond to your voice message. Whatever or whoever your story is, it needs to have value for the media outlet’s audience. If also needs to help your media outlet be of value to its audience.

Be brief. Don’t send your full story. (As stated two paragraphs above, if you do, use these guidelines for your intro to the media.) Consumer and trade media receive a lot — many, many! — e-mails a day. A lot of them are pitches. So, tell your story idea with the right combination of brevity and information.

Be creative. Do something — usually in the subject line if you are e-mailing a pitch — that will catch the reporter’s eyes. Use humor. Tie your story into a current trend or news event. Make it relevant. Consider sending a sample of your pitch topic to select media outlets. Then, follow up with a call or e-mail.

Be targeted. Yes, you can send the same pitch to more than one media outlet. However, you have to know each outlet. Make sure the personalized pitch you send is pertinent to each media outlet’s audience. Also, make sure you send your pitch to the right person at each media outlet. Nothing can kill a good pitch faster than the wrong person receiving it. Delete is an easy button to hit. Voice message are easy to delete. Letters are easy to toss into the garbage.

Be honest. In public and media relations — all forms of marketing communications — there are enough unscrupulous and even deceitful people. Keep your integrity. Doing so will build trust and valuable relationships with your media contacts.

Those are a few points of what makes a good pitch. Anyone else want to offer their own insight? Comment away!
– Mike

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