1. Downloading email lists
Email lists are useless. They are often outdated as journalists frequently change their beats and publications. Lists offer no detailed information about individual journalists and their interests.
The process of researching information about journalists manually helps you to learn more about each journalist and their interests and find information that could be useful when pitching. Always start by looking at current and past beats, notable work and most recent articles, and be sure to check their website and social media.
2. Coping and pasting the pitch
Personalization is the key. Journalists receive 200–300 emails per day and they are not waiting for your story to appear in their inboxes. The biggest mistake is not customizing the pitch.
Before sending your pitch, check their current and previous beats, read a few articles they wrote recently (what’s the story? What metrics do they show? What language do they use? How do they go into the details?) If you find a very relevant journalist and make a short, personalized pitch you are much more likely to receive a response.
If you send mass emails and journalists believe you are sending hundreds of emails to every journalist in their field, they won’t reply and you will probably burn some bridges with outlets, which will make subsequent placements more difficult.
3. Pitching to journalists who just wrote about a subject (unless it’s their regular beat)
I used to do this a lot, but there is a very low chance that they will write about something they have just covered again. You can reach out and offer expert comments in case they write about this topic again in future or simply leave comments on the article to establish a relationship, but don’t expect them to simply cover a similar topic just because of your company.
4. Pitching to several journalists from the same outlet
I read a lot about this from journalists. They talk to each other and discuss what news they’ve received. What really annoys them is when they receive a pitch, become interested and then discover that another journalist from the same outlet is already talking to the company. It’s better to pitch to one journalist, send a few follow up emails, and if you get no response then move on to another journalist.
5. Using buzzwords/hype news
While it’s important to be able to adjust to some trends, it doesn’t mean that all trends are relevant to your company. Using hype news and buzzwords can be one of the more serious PR mistakes. When the coronavirus hit, every company tried to create coronavirus-related news. When a number of companies started to do SPAC, every other startup started saying that they were “in talks to do SPAC”. If you’re not actually doing this or it’s not relevant to your company you could actually risk jeopardizing your own and your company’s reputation.