How to Write a Media Pitch
Pitching compelling storylines and sources are the crux of any public relations strategy. In the higher education digital marketing space, we at Archer Education leverage the expertise of professors from our partner institutions to help increase the school’s visibility, student enrollment, thought leadership, and brand awareness.
Professors make excellent sources for stories through unmatched expertise and experience in their respective fields, but without the correct messaging and communication strategy, this opportunity could be missed.
In this article, we’ll go over how to write a media pitch in higher education and review the most common types of media pitches.
What Is a Media Pitch?
Media pitches in higher education are strategic communications sent to journalists, editors, or media outlets to promote faculty expertise, research, or institutional initiatives. These pitches typically highlight faculty insights on current events, groundbreaking studies, or thought leadership in their field.
These pitches are particularly key to faculty promotion because they enhance visibility, establish credibility, and position faculty as subject matter experts. Media coverage can lead to invitations for speaking engagements, collaborative research opportunities, and increased citations — all of which contribute to professional advancement for the faculty member and enhanced institutional reputation.
How to Create Your Media Pitch
Before we dive into best practices, tips, and examples of PR pitching, let’s go over some of the basics of how to structure a media pitch. Creating a set standard for yourself and your team will not only streamline the process and allow you to be as efficient as possible, but it will also ensure consistency amongst your team and allow for smooth training programs.
Select the Right Type of Journalism Lead
Before you even start writing a pitch, you want to make sure you find a lead that will entice whoever you are reaching out to. The lead is the angle into your story that makes everything relevant. You can look for two types of leads that are applicable throughout journalism:
- A news peg is a trending story or topic in the news that relates to what you’re pitching. For example, leveraging a political debate or a new medical study that was just released. This allows you to hook the reader with a relevant and widespread story.
- A time peg represents an upcoming date or event. For example, anniversaries of days like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, days or weeks dedicated to specific causes like “Health IT Week” or “Mental Health Awareness Day,” or even months like “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”
These types of dates and events can be easily leveraged for PR purposes as media outlets will often shape content around significant or relevant time pegs. In order to keep track and take advantage of these dates, it’s helpful to create and consistently update an internal editorial calendar with your team.
Develop Your Pitch Structure
Below is the basic outline/structure you should consider when writing a media pitch:
- As mentioned above, start with the lead. This should be the first thing the reporter or editor reads. An enticing lead that is relevant to their beat will ensure they continue through your pitch.
- The second part is your call-to-action. This is the action you want your audience to take. Whether it is writing a product review, publishing a piece of content, or conducting an interview, it’s important to make your intention here as clear as possible.
- Next comes your value proposition. This is a key piece of the puzzle as it will be the meat of the pitch; this is where you can showcase the value of what you are offering and why they should be interested in it. It is essential in differentiating yourself from the hundreds of other pitches they receive.
- The last piece of the pitch is your conclusion. This is a straightforward recap that includes a recap of the call-to-action and a thank you.
Use the Right Subject Line for Your Pitch Email
Subject lines are the first and sometimes only thing that a media contact will see — often determining whether they will even bother to open your email or not. Ensuring that your subject line is clear, concise, and enticing is critical. According to Omeda, subject lines with 20 characters or fewer achieve the highest open rates, averaging 29.9%. Open rates decline to 17.3% for subject lines between 20 and 124 characters.
Interestingly, subject lines exceeding 174 characters see a slight recovery in open rates, averaging around 23%. However, due to potential display issues and the risk of being cut off, it’s generally recommended to keep subject lines concise. Prioritizing brevity ensures better visibility across various devices and enhances the likelihood of engagement.
While creating a subject line that produces an “open” should always be the goal, you should make sure to avoid using “click-bait” phrasing as a tactic to draw in the recipient, as this is considered unprofessional. The last thing you want to do is mislead your audience or appear spammy.
How to Pitch the Media: Communication Strategies
Now that you understand the basics on how to write and structure a media pitch, let’s cover some media pitching strategies that can lead to greater success.
Use Timely Stories and Research
Don’t deprive yourself of using relevant news pegs or research as your hook for your pitch. It’s no secret that the media lives off of news pegs, trending topics, and new research to tell their stories. To increase the chances of someone showing interest in your pitch, it’s important to make their job as easy as possible. It’s a good idea to spell out the story for them so that your source or story fits in seamlessly with trending news topics and their target audience’s interests.
Reporters and editors receive hundreds of pitches every day, so providing them with a story that their readers will be interested in and offering sources to help supplement that story will make them more compelled to move forward with the conversation.
Along these same lines, always try to include hyperlinks to any research or statistics that you reference in your pitch. You don’t want them to shy away from expressing interest or continuing the conversation simply because they don’t have time to do the legwork to track down the sources themselves.
Know the Reporter’s Beat
You can have the best pitch in the world, but if it doesn’t align with the reporter’s beat (the types of stories they cover), then it will provide no use or value to them. In fact, it will only blatantly show that you are sending out mass email distributions and aren’t doing the appropriate research and legwork before pitching them. While it’s not always realistic or feasible, personalize pitches whenever possible and mention any related articles that they recently wrote.
Keep it Concise and Know Your Story
As previously mentioned, media contacts receive hundreds of pitches a day. If you’re lucky enough to get yours opened, the worst thing that someone with very little time can be confronted with is an unnecessarily long pitch. Find out how to say everything that you need to say in a paragraph or less (with rare exceptions). The more specific and focused you can be, the better. It’s also crucial to understand and communicate the story you’re trying to tell and how it aligns with the larger media trends yet provides a unique angle to the storyline.
Follow Up Is Key to Media Pitching
Following up on initial email pitches is one of the most crucial elements of the pitching process. This is where most of your interest and responses will come from, so ensure that you schedule reminders to follow up.
Generally, it’s appropriate to wait about one week until you send follow-ups out; this will ensure that the media contact has sufficient time to get through their emails and respond if they are planning to. If the story is incredibly time-sensitive, you can follow-up a bit sooner. Similarly, if it is not a time-sensitive story at all, then waiting a little longer than a week can be a good strategy. Just be sure to include your original pitch at the bottom of your follow-up email to help jog the recipient’s memory and provide more context.
Media Pitch Examples
Now that you have the information that you need to be successful with your pitch writing, here are some real-life examples of media pitches and pitch letters that our team sent to the media.
1. Cold Pitch
A cold pitch is an unsolicited email or message sent to a journalist or media outlet with whom there is no prior relationship. It typically introduces a faculty member’s expertise or research in hopes of securing media coverage.
2. Pitch for Established Contact/Relationship
This type of pitch is sent to a journalist or media contact with whom a relationship already exists. It builds on past interactions, making it more likely to be well received and result in coverage.
3. Personalized Pitch
A personalized pitch is tailored specifically to a journalist’s interests, past work, or the needs of their publication. It demonstrates a clear understanding of their audience and increases the chances of engagement.
4. Follow-Up Pitch
A follow-up pitch is sent after an initial pitch to reinforce interest, provide additional details, or remind the recipient about the story idea. It’s essential for maintaining momentum and increasing response rates.
How to Write Media Pitches That Consistently Convert
In today’s media landscape, consistent PR exposure is essential for faculty members looking to establish themselves as thought leaders and elevate their institution’s brand. At Archer Education, we specialize in crafting strategic media pitches that align with timely news cycles, ensuring professors and researchers receive the visibility they deserve. Whether through cold outreach, leveraging existing media relationships, or personalized pitches, we help faculty secure media placements that enhance their credibility, attract prospective students, and showcase their expertise to a broader audience.
Our experience in higher education marketing allows us to effectively position faculty members in conversations that matter, increasing opportunities for interviews, guest articles, and thought leadership features. Don’t let valuable media opportunities go untapped — connect with us today to develop a custom PR strategy that amplifies your faculty’s impact and strengthens your institution’s reputation.
