The 13 PR Mistakes Killing Your Pitches
I’m a journalist — here’s why I’m not answering your emails
As a writer, I get dozens of pitches from public relations professionals every day. Sure, some of them are “spray and pray” — one step removed from spam. But most of them are not. They are polished, professional, and well-crafted. I can tell that whoever is sending it put some care and effort into their writing, and targeted their message to me. Still, I end up archiving or deleting most of them.
Here are 13 reasons you’re not getting a response to the PR pitches you’re sending my way.
13 Reasons You’re Not Getting a Response
1. You’re not giving me enough time
I don’t cover breaking news, so I have some breathing room with my deadlines. For some publications, I work a few days or a week in advance. For others, I’ll line up my articles for the next month.
A lot of pitches hit my inbox just a day or two before a holiday or an event. That’s almost never going to work for me. The other day I got an email at 4:40 p.m. that promoted a streaming event starting that same night at 8:30 p.m. Even if I wanted to cover the event, how could I? I would only have four hours to:
- pitch it to my editor
- get approval
- work in my research and sources
- send it to my editor
Then, she would have to review it, add art and links, and post it. There’s just not enough time, even if I love the idea.
The takeaway: Send time-sensitive pitches early — for me, there’s no such thing as too early. If I get an idea I like and I’m not ready for it, I’ll save it for when I need it. I have a story idea from New Year’s Eve 2020 that I’m hanging on to for New Year’s Eve 2021.
2. You’re not sending me a story idea, you’re sending me an ad
When I mention a product in an article, there’s a good reason I put it there:
- If I interview an author, I’ll link to a place where readers can buy their book.
- If I test a product, as I did with the Instant Pot and air fryers, I’ll put in links to my favorites.
- If I’m covering an app like TikTok or Fortnite, I’ll point my readers to those places.
But my links need to support the content — they aren’t the content. So if you just send me information about your products, it probably won’t make it into whatever I happen to be working on.
The takeaway: If you’re promoting a product, please share a way it might add value for my readers. Otherwise, I don’t have any reason to link to your pet supplements, luxury watches, or nutritional drinks.
3. You’re not pitching a full story
Most of the articles I write are 800 words or longer. They need some substance and some solid information readers can use. Sometimes I’ll get pitches that are lists or studies — for example, research that shares how people are changing their eating behavior during the pandemic. That’s interesting, but it’s not an article. It might spark an idea in me that I can flesh out. But if it doesn’t, I can’t use it.
The takeaway: Your pitch is more likely to land if you can show me how my readers could benefit from the information you’re sharing. Don’t just give me information — tell me what my readers can do with it.
4. Your “expert” is really a spokesperson with credentials
If I want info from a doctor, I’ll look to hospitals or universities, not to a company that sells weight-loss products. Your source might have a long list of advanced degrees, but I prefer to quote people where there’s no potential conflict of interest.
The takeaway: If your source has valid, verifiable credentials, they might work. Otherwise, I’ll need to look for someone else.
5. Your pitch is good, but it’s missing something that I need
When I was writing a lot of weight-loss stories, I got a lot of pitches. And almost all of them were good — strong stories about people who had changed their lives in ways that made them healthier. But even if weight-loss stories were all I wrote, I could never write them all. There are just too many.
Sometimes, I just needed variety — I was looking to feature someone with a different gender, racial background, age, geographic location, weight-loss strategy, or pre-existing health problem. Your pitch could be flawless, but it just didn’t meet my needs at the moment.
The takeaway: There are factors out of your control that influence which stories I pick up and which I don’t.
6. You’re not targeting what I write about
I do a lot of health writing. But I cover health for regular people — topics like weight loss, fitness, or caring for your aging parents. I don’t have an audience for a pitch about the future of the hospital industry, or for some awards that a professional association is giving to nurses.
The takeaway: It’s easy to search online and see what I cover. If you’re pitching something I’ve never written about before, it’s probably not a good match for me.
7. Your idea doesn’t have the right audience
Outside of some contracted pieces that come with their own sources and information, my work is targeted at a national audience. So if your pitch is specific to Boston, or Des Moines, or El Paso, it’s not going to work for me.
The takeaway: Local and regional stories are great, and there’s a place for them to land. I’m just not the right person to write them.
8. Your pitch doesn’t feel like a story for today
I recently got a pitch promoting a lunch box. I’m sure it’s a very nice lunch box. But it solves a problem that’s been solved for hundreds of years — how to bring food somewhere so you can eat it later. Most of my readers are smart enough to identify their need for a lunch box and to find one on their own. They don’t need me to introduce them to this product.
The takeaway: Tell me why your product or service is relevant for my readers, and why it’s important now.
9. You cover an area that’s oversaturated
CBD oil. Meditation. Low-alcohol spirits. I get pitches on topics like these all the time, and I don’t cover these areas that often.
The takeaway: It’s fine to send me these pitches, but know that you’re up against a lot of competition. Plus, if I cover topics like these, I’ll cover them broadly. I’m probably not going to promote specific products.
10. I like your idea, but my editor doesn’t
I might love your pitch and share it with my editor, but she doesn’t think it will work. Or, she’s already assigned a similar article to another writer. Or, she has a higher-priority topic she wants me to cover right now.
The takeaway: It’s not just up to me. Sometimes I can’t find a home for something that I think is a great idea.
11. There’s too much content to cover
When it comes to pitches, I can afford to be picky. Your idea might be okay, but I like another idea more. You’re playing a numbers game.
I can usually finish one solid article for a national outlet per day. That’s 20-ish articles per month. And I get about a dozen pitches a day. That means, if your pitch is as good as everyone else’s, you have an 8% chance of me picking up your idea. And some of my articles don’t come from pitches, so that brings down your odds even more.
The takeaway: Your pitch might be perfectly fine. It just might not hit the right place at the right time.
12. You namedrop my other articles
I get a lot of pitches that start something like this: “I saw this article you wrote about [topic] in [news outlet] and I thought you might be interested in this idea.”
The takeaway: This isn’t really a mistake. It’s nice to see you’ve done a bit of research, but for me, openers like this don’t make much difference. Your pitch will succeed or fail on its own.
13. You follow up too soon, or too often
I read all my emails. Sometimes I think an idea will work in the future when I can’t run with it right away, so I hang onto it.
The takeaway: If you want to follow up once, in five days or a week, that’s fine. I would rather not have you follow up in a day or two, or more than once. When people are pests I mute the email conversation.
The exception: If I ask you to repitch me at a specific time, please do.
Why Don’t I Just Reply?
I admit I feel a little guilty archiving or deleting so many emails without replying. But I need to focus on my writing, so I need to protect my time.
Here’s the math: If I reply to 12 pitches a day, and each pitch turns into a back-and-forth email conversation that takes 10 minutes, that’s two hours gone. That time is better spent developing my articles. And the pitches that work for me will always get a response, I promise.
