Meaningful PR Relationships

I love this time of year… temperatures go down and gratitude goes up. As I celebrate a milestone anniversary with my husband, I’m reminded why we chose this month to get married. It’s the season for counting our blessings, giving thanks, and taking stock of the meaningful relationships in our lives.

Just as our personal relationships enrich our private life, it’s also important to be mindful of the media relationships we foster on a daily basis. Editors receive hundreds of email pitches a day, most of which might be quickly deleted. So how do you spark a connection with the media- and maintain that connection- to ensure your emails aren’t passed over? Nurturing a work relationship isn’t really that different than say, marriage. If you look closely, you’ll see some of the same rules apply…

· Respect their Interests: You wouldn’t take your vegetarian husband out for a steak dinner, right? So don’t pitch an editor off beat! A home editor doesn’t want fashion pitches and a fashion editor couldn’t care less about a parenting pitch. Be familiar with your targeted media before you pitch. If you’re unsure that something might be of interest to them, just ask in the beginning of your pitch. That way, they’ll know you’re being mindful to them personally and not blindly pitching.

· Don’t Take Them For Granted: Just because an editor expressed interest once, by no means does that open the flood gate to pitch them anything and everything. Also, if an editor is interested and requests a sample or more information, doesn’t mean they committed to featuring you. Be sensitive to that as you follow up to gauge editorial plans.

· Compliment, Comment, Communicate: My personal 3 C’s for married life are pretty basic and also resonate when working with the media. Read their features and if you liked a particular story, send a quick email to compliment their writing, comment on their blog posts, follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook. You get the idea… expand your communication beyond your pitches.

· Be Considerate: After an editor has expressed interest in your pitch and requested a sample, more information, or images, take time to follow up with them- and not just to find out if your client is going to be featured (you can quietly cross your fingers for a while). Instead, follow up soon to confirm they received the sample or if the additional information you provided was adequate. A quick little follow up can go a long way.

So take this month as a timely reminder to develop relationships with your media contacts. Much like marriage it takes time and effort, but the result can be pure PR bliss.

Melanie Anderson
Publicist