The Wax Blog

The other night I apologized to an editor in chief of a major magazine  - the intern had pulled her name from Cision and I didn’t notice before we started pitching. My apology turned into an opportunity for this editor (who was working at 10pm her time, by the way) to start a rant on how pitches came into her email “like weeds”. Many people doing their own PR look at the masthead of the magazine, screw up their courage and pitch right to the top. That might seem like a good idea, but in reality, most unknown people get into stories through a freelancer, who isn’t listed in the magazine. Or an associate editor. Or through HARO. NOT by sending their “amazing, creative and compelling” pitch to an editor in chief.

I realize that everybody can’t afford to hire a PR person. But I really wish these DIY publicity “teachers” would teach something other than “how to write a fantastic pitch for the Today Show” that ends up in the email of a top producer who never works at that level. There are relationships that need to be developed, protocol to follow and a natural hierarchy of media that virtually no DIY teacher is teaching. Basically, people are learning how to be salespeople to the media…which the media HATES.  You can’t just pitch holiday guides and magically have it turn into “thousands of dollars in sales“. Or send to 10 or 20 people and get 2-3 feature articles! Or how about creating a pitch the media can’t resist! Or better yet, buy this book and get into O Magazine to become an overnight sensation!  (more…)

Last September I ran this post -  as we get into one of the busiest seasons in PR I thought it was a good idea to remind ourselves that a) we’re probably not going to ever be truly original b) our products and service are not story ideas and c) being annoying never works. Enjoy! (PS – there were some great comments last year, so check out the original post for those as well)

I would never imply that the media are a bunch of babies.

Ever wonder why some people get instant press and others languish? Despite all the reasons you hear (bad publicist, bad timing, dumb media, war, famine, smallpox outbreak..) it’s because their pitch is not nearly as interesting as they think.  If you think you don’t have to read this post because you KNOW this doesn’t apply to you…you probably need to read this post. So bear with me… here are the top five reasons why pitches get ignored: (more…)

Last week I wrote about how hard it is to break through the clutter and capture the media’s attention. I though I would publish a few pitches that worked well for us in tough markets, with supposedly “boring” clients. Enjoy!

For a management consulting firm, with the email subject line “Boxers or briefs?”

No I am not suggesting underwear.  Rather I am suggesting a story idea involving a business that is co-founded by a female and a male; not married to or dating each other, both under the age of 40.  Ashish Gadnis and Jill Kolling are co-founders of Forward Hindsight, a firm providing business strategy and IT-based regulatory compliance consulting. While interviewing these two characters you may hear heated discussions on the pros and cons of boxers vs briefs.  You may also hear “dude” on a regular basis, followed by laughter.  Yes you can interview them about boxers and briefs, but I suggest you interview Ashish and Jill because of Forward Hindsight. Here’s why they’re interesting:

In their first and only year of business (2004), Kolling and Gadnis reported revenues of $605,000 and are expecting revenues to top $1.2 million in 2005.  It’s hard to imagine numbers like these coming from a business that was started in a parking lot.  Only seven employees, but already working with clients like Accenture, Famous Daves, and AirTran Airways. Want to hear more? Call me!

Here’s a book pitch for a self-published life coach – we had to talk her into using her modeling background as the hook but it worked

Subject line: from Playboy to the boardroom: a new book on remodeling your reality

Kim Fulcher went from modeling for Playboy straight to the executive boardroom. In her mid-twenties Kim reinvented herself from a Playboy and swimsuit model, to a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Now she’s using her own life experiences to help others as founder, president and CEO of Compass Life and Business Designs, a professional coaching, training, and publishing company.

Here’s a pitch for a really fun corn maze that got very little interest:

Sever’s Corn Maze and Fall Festival in Shakopee returns in 2008 with a patriotic theme and an extra weekend. This year the team at Sever’s Corn Maze has created a true masterpiece, with more corners and curves than ever before.  Visitors in 2008 will learn fun facts about the White House as they navigate their way through each twist and turn of this giant maze. At fourteen acres, Sever’s Corn Maze is one of the largest and best known mazes in North America.  It’s huge so if you get tired, take a ride on the new horse-drawn hayride!

Here’s how we rewrote it the next year and got a much better response:

Calling all scallywags and buccaneers!  The 2009 theme of America’s favorite corn maze is Sever’s Pirate Adventure.  We’ll be flying the Jolly Roger proudly at Sever’s Fall Festival and Corn Maze this year. Join us and be sure to hear lots of “avast ye hearties” as pirates of all ages try to make their way through one of the finest mazes in North America.

I know I’ve harped on these points many times but just once more, here’s what will get their attention:

• Be creative. Many media people are bored and anything that makes them laugh or scratch their head will get noticed.
• Tell the backstory not the benefits of your product. Make it sound fun/quirky/strange etc.
• Be quick and to the point. Hook them with something fun/quirky/strange and then quickly tell them what you want.
• Have a GREAT subject line that draws them in. We’ve had people use ours as the eventual headline of the story.

Courtesy of Tourism Panama

I got an email from a reader last week who was frustrated  the media wasn’t responding to her pitch. Believe me, it happens to us all the time at Wax so I feel your pain! Often, it’s not because the pitch is bad. Usually it’s because a) the market is cluttered   b) it’s hard to differentiate between you and your competitor or c) you’re pitching too “big” of a publication or show to start.  I have to admit that sometimes it’s because it’s just not a very compelling pitch. In this post I’m going to give you a short homework assignment to uncover the REAL story behind your business…the one the media might  be looking for.

Too often, people try to pitch the features of their product to the media. This only works if your product is one of a kind (think pet rock). You may think no one else makes something quite like yours, but in the eyes of a jaded editor, there are tons of products just like yours. I was pitching a new fitness DVD a few years ago and the editor at Health magazine told me she’d received 400 new fitness DVD’s..just that month! So you can’t write a pitch that focuses on the greatness of your product. You have to pitch the story behind YOU,  behind the product itself, or how the product relates to current events.

Here are some great examples of pitches that sold tons, but focuses on the story not the product: (more…)

Every once in a while I like to go back and pull posts that I think deserved more attention than they got. I’m in the thick of pitching mom bloggers for a couple books right now…I think Lian Dolan’s advice from last summer is worth reading again. Basically, she says the important thing is to build the relationship…and then pitch. Still holds true!

Marketers know the power of moms – Robin Neifeld of Clickz reports that moms account for 80% of consumer purchases and nearly $1.6 million in annual spending.  And one of the best places to find moms is through blogs. But don’t underestimate this group of women – it’s one of the most sophisticated and particular segments of online media. Pitch them well and you could have a friend for life.  But if you screw up – well let’s just say they’re VERY well connected.

Lian launched Chaoschronicles.com in 2008. The site  covers Modern Motherhood with humor and empathy. The Chaos Chronicles started as a magazine column in Working Mother Magazine in 2003. Now, it is a successful blog and weekly podcast, focused on motherhood and all that entails form parenting challenges to bad haircut meltdowns.  Lian is also the regular parenting blogger on the relationships page of Oprah.com, offering humor and advice in the areas of parenting, marriage and other familial relationships.

Could we have found a better person to teach us how to pitch mom bloggers? I think not! To find how how Lian answered my questions on reaching this incredibly influential media market read on…

A couple years ago I started to notice that certain writers and producers were much more comfortable engaging with me on Twitter than on the phone or via email. I’m still not sure why this is…perhaps they noticed my sarcastic sense of humor (which appears to be a requirement for a true journalist these days) or maybe they feel protected by 140 characters. (Face it, we PR’s do tend to go on and on…and on sometimes.)

Whatever the reason, we’ve been using Twitter as an effective pitching tool for the past year now. Despite the “real time” aspect to the tool, I’m warning you it’s not necessarily a fast method. However, if you invest some time you may find some huge payoffs down the road. Here are some simple steps to engaging media via Twitter.  (more…)