A few months ago, I came across”The 10 commandments of pitching.”
Written by Austin Cross for Muck Rack, the article is a compendium of bad pitching practices and an attempt at changing the way many brands and PR pros approach members of the media. From generic greetings to wordy subject lines and repetitive phone calls, the author covers some of the biggest pet peeves of bloggers and journalists with humor and levity.
A few weeks after sharing the post on social networks, I received an email from Prezly Founder, Frederik Vincx. Apparently, reading it had inspired him to create an interactive media pitching checklist.
The checklist covers 28 major points, including:
- newsworthiness
- context
- goals
- audience
- headlines
- buzzwords
- the 5Ws
- visual aids
- formatting
- timing
- introductions
- calls to action
Each item comes with tips and the ability to add notes. There are also links to very useful third-party resources.
All in all, an excellent tool. And the icing on the cake: It’s free!
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