Get Your Story Told!

Every business must create awareness. How else do you get your phone to ring? But doing so is tough. Advertising is E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. Free publicity is the ticket, of course, but how do you get it? Sure, you can hire a PR firm to work its magic, but that’s expensive, too, and results are not guaranteed.

How can a business get press coverage without hiring a PR firm?

To find out, we called a handful of magazine publishers around the country. We asked what criteria they use, and how they like to be “pitched.” Of course, the editor is charged with selecting topics and writing and assigning articles. Here are those we contacted:

ABA Bank Marketing Magazine

Walt Albro, Editor

Tulsa People Magazine

Kendall Barrow, Managing Editor

Aspen Sojourner

Michael Miracle, Managing Editor

Machinery Lubrication Magazine

Paul Arnold, Editor-in-Chief

Idaho Golf Magazine

Laurie Sammis, Editor

Park City Magazine

Kristen Case, Editor

What did we learn? Refreshingly, they’re real people! Pretty nice at that. We talked to five of the six in short order. They’re not so concerned about whether you or your organization might get publicity, or want publicity, or how bad you might want or need it. It’s more like my father always says — people are concerned mostly with themselves. Editors are concerned with finding interesting story ideas for their readers. So your job, as a business owner, is simply to help the editors of the publications you target get what they need and want — good, interesting information and stories for their readers. Here’s how:

Step 1: Get to know the target publication. How else will you give the editor what he or she wants? Pick up a handful of copies or order a subscription. Peruse the website. What types of things do they cover? Find their mission statement; even call their office and inquire if you must, but it should be pretty obvious. Park City Magazine, for example, is about people, places, history and happenings in Park City, Utah. Machinery Lubrication Magazine covers issues, trends, products and people impacting — or soon to impact — the world of machinery lubrication (a subset of machinery and plant maintenance).

Step 2: Find a story idea that fits into the publishing scope of the publication. If the publication you target issues an editorial calendar, look there. It’ll be on their website. It’s a list of the topics they’ll cover in future issues. Can you provide content that fits, that helps them cover the topic in an interesting way? Remember, the editor’s job is to serve his or her audience with interesting, helpful information. Your job is to help them identify content that fits the bill. Give them some article fodder and they’ll appreciate it.

Virtually all publications today have online editions that, by their nature, are beasts requiring constant feeding. The editors’ need for content never ends. Do them a favor; give ‘em some. Just be sure your articles serve the AUDIENCE first.

Step 3: Make the pitch in the manner desired by the editor. To determine this, just call and ask the editor. Almost all editors we talked to seemed to prefer a short email summary.

If your idea does not resonate, don’t worry about it, just ask how or where it missed the target and then go back to the drawing board.

To get your story told, keep in mind that editors are very busy people. Be respectful of their time, do your homework, and pitch them story ideas that will be of value and interest to their target audience, and you’ll find success. Unfortunately, if your product or service just does not have any tie-in with the focus of the publication and its target audience, you’re out of luck. All the effort and creativity in the world aren’t going to get your square peg into their round hole. You’re not locked out, just relegated to the ranks of paid advertisers.

Examples of Good and Bad Pitches

Michael Miracle, Managing Editor

Aspen Sojourner

Good Pitch: Over the course of the last year, I have received several pitches for Bolle and Serengeti eyewear from a PR agency in New York. The agency was pitching Bolle glasses and goggles, both of which are used with great frequency in Aspen, a ski and sports town. I emailed back and forth with the account rep, asking her which were the more “up-market” products that might appeal to our readers. She sent me a pair of goggles, which I tried for much of last ski season. She also sent me a pair of tennis-specific sports glasses. Upon my request, she also determined which retailers in Aspen carried the products, which gave me the local hook I was looking for. Both the goggles and tennis glasses will appear either in our print publication or on our website in the near future.

Bad Pitch: I recently received an email and follow-up phone call from a PR agency repping “Socks Appeal.” It was similar to the Bolle pitch in that it was coming from a national agency who had identified our market as a good one for the client. Socks Appeal are knee-length socks with a faux-fur trim at the top. The fur embellishment hangs over the edge of a pair of tall boots, giving them the appearance of being fur-lined themselves, though at a fraction of the cost. The pitch had a strong “recession cost-saver” angle and made the case that our ski-town readers would likely be intrigued by the product on a fashion angle as well. I asked for a local retailer and was told there was none. For me that was the end of it, and the PR rep understood. Our magazine has “Aspen” in its title, and we only consider stories with a strong Aspen hook. Our readers pick up the magazine either because they are in Aspen or they have a strong affinity for Aspen wherever else they might be.And since Aspen has an abundance of stories and retailers with which we can fill our pages, we simply don’t need stories that have no clear connection to Aspen.

Kendall Barrow, Editor

Tulsa People Magazine

Good Pitch: A local trapeze instructing school pitched a story about their business. They were honest — they needed business and feared few Tulsans knew they were under new ownership and offering new services. New services = news, not to mention it’s the only business of its kind in Tulsa (more news), and it fits our goal (local news).

Bad Pitch #1: A recent pitch from a New York company about a product that was not even sold in Tulsa stores! We are a COMMUNITY magazine. We don’t care about a product made in NYC that’s not available in Tulsa. Our readers can’t benefit from this news unless they have a trip planned to New York.

Bad Pitch #2: We recently received a pitch to cover a company being named in Tulsa’s Top 25 something-or-other. Without being too specific, being in the top 25 means there are 24 other LOCAL companies who received this honor, too. We’d have to cover all 25 to be fair. If they were #1, well, that might be news to us, or top 10 in the country — that’s possibly worthy of something. Nowadays, however, there are more and more awards, so it gets harder and harder to justify including them. Those have their place in newspapers alongside community hires and promotions, not in a monthly magazine.

Paul Arnold, Editor-in-Chief

Machinery Lubrication Magazine

Good Pitch #1: An industrial consulting firm by the name of Life Cycle Engineering emailed an article they had written titled “Finding the Root Cause of Energy Consumption.” It was well written, cited numerous other studies that supported the points being made in the article, and focused on the information (not on the fact that this company has services to offer in this area). Click here for the pitch. Click here for the article that we did from it.

Good Pitch #2: The organizers of the PartsToClean trade fair sent a short, well-written, straight-to-the-point article about the critical role that proper in-process cleaning techniques and technologies play in the successful production of contaminant-free products. The article then explained that many of the world’s leaders would be presenting best practices at the PartsToClean 2009 trade fair. This was right in line with the scope of the content for Machinery Lubrication Magazine.

Bad Pitch #1: An industrial company sent a pitch via email that seemed to describe the results of a comprehensive case study on lubrication challenges in the beverage packaging industry. We responded positively and they then sent an article that was basically an advertisement for the company. No real case study.

Bad Pitch #2: An industrial consultant emailed a pitch that was just a forward of an email string between him and a client. The message read “The exchange of correspondence, below, relates to Machinery Lubrication. Please let me know, by 2 September 2009, if you are interested in publishing this material.”