PRfect Pitch focuses on interviewing media and key event managers whom PR agencies pitch regularly on behalf of clients. As the name implies, successful pitching is a key ingredient in achieving results as a public relations professional.
The podcast talks about how and when to pitch a story to editors and producers who in turn learn which PR sources can be trusted to bring them an interesting story that resonates with their audience. Our second guest was Jessica Naziri.
Jessica is the founder of TechSesh, a lifestyle blog with a mission to bring tech to women and women to tech. Jessica talked about her impressive career in branding, marketing, journalism, and now as an industry leader and connector.
She shared the inspiration behind starting TechSesh, her advice for companies looking to get their product featured, thoughts on influencer marketing vs. traditional PR, and more. You don’t want to miss this interview! Here are a few takeaways:
Journalism and Editorial Content Is Different
Journalism has shifted overtime. If you look at major publications like the LA Times and NY Times, they each have a page dedicated to folks and companies who want to have their companies written about.
However, Jessica points out that there’s a difference between journalism and editorial content that most people don’t understand. Here are the two key differences:
- Journalistic content is unpaid because journalists are meant to state facts without having an opinion.
- Editorial content means your opinion is your job, so it’s often paid opportunities.
“I’m not here to take assignments because someone tells me to review something. I make the decision on if I’m going to or not going to try a product out. My opinion is my job,” Jessica said. “However, the line between paid and unpaid content is often blurred, and it’s important for PR and communication pros to understand this and let their clients know as well.”
PR Pros Shouldn’t Expect Anything From Journalists
“PR people aren’t gatekeepers, they are facilitators,” Jessica said. “As a PR pro, you should know that your job is to convey messaging to the journalist and/or influencer, who ultimately decides if they want to cover the story and/or product.”
Jessica talked about how one of her pet peeves is when a company will send her products and ask her to do five Instagram stories, a blog post, an Instagram post, and a video. This is never how you should approach a journalist.
It’s important to know what beat someone covers. If they’re an influencer, what are they covering that’s organic? What are the latest tech trends? If you have this information going into a pitch, you can leverage it in your initial messaging to a journalist. This makes it more likely that they will respond to your pitch.
Subject Lines and Media Kits Are Key In Email Creation
Email subject lines are important because they let a journalist know right off the bat if they’d like to move forward with writing a story. It’s imperative that the subject line be short, sweet, and to the point, especially because so many people check email from their phones nowadays.
If you start a subject line with something along the lines of, “Joe was part of this webinar and you should check it out,” it isn’t as clickable as “The #1 rated webinar in the world interviewed Joe about PR.” You want to make the “why” at the beginning of a subject line,” so that a journalist knows what they’re about to read.
Media kits are also important when sending an email. Here are a few reasons why:
- Journalists will have all the information needed if they’re going to write a story
- It shows if a story will be visually appealing
- If all of the content is provided from the start, the journalist won’t need to go online to find photos and information on the product. It’s all there in a concise way.
What should be included in a media kit to make the most of it?
- Information on the founder and their backstory
- The backstory of the company and/or product
- How much funding the company has
- Headshots of the founder(s)
- Images of the product
The Future Of Technology Is Now
We’re in the midst of a pivotal part of the evolution of technology. In our virtual world, applications like Clubhouse are showing us that the future is here. We’re moving toward this new route of listening and being able to reach more people at the same time.
This progression can be seen as podcasts being what YouTube was 10 years ago and Clubhouse being the new podcast platform.
There’s so much great content on Clubhouse, even for journalists. PR pros can find ways to pitch people in these rooms and from a journalist’s perspective, Jessica looks for people whose audience will appeal to hers.
Media are looking for thought leaders in these rooms and journalists are relaying information to users in Clubhouse as well. We’re seeing a new wave of influencer and PR marketing that PR pros should take part in.
You can listen to this season of PRfect Pitch via YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform. The full interview with Jessica, you can find it here!