What the death of the phone pitch means for the PR industry
As the art of the phone PR pitch slowly gets lost amongst a barrage of endless emails, Soraya Calavassy argues that it’s time to bring back the personal touch.
It wasn’t so long ago that it was not only an expectation, but also part of the job description for PRs to pick up the telephone, call a journalist and pitch a story, interview opportunity, product placement or feature.
Although it was always done selectively (to avoid spamming already time-starved journalists), it was the most important part of the pitching process and inevitably provided stronger results than simply firing off an email and hoping for a response.
The thing that PR people never quite ‘get’ is that what they’re pitching 8 or 9 times out of 10 is made-up news to promote a client. Journo’s, unless they are super desperate for a story, have no interest in it. That’s why they don’t want to talk on the phone. For those times when there’s something genuinely interesting going on (and, let’s face it, those times are few and far between as the most interesting stuff is the stuff companies *don’t want to talk about*), a phone call is great. But those times are so few and far between, it’s not even funny.
Plenty of journos want to talk on the phone and 9 out of 10 stories on some sites are probably generated by press releases.I agree with the sentiment of this article. I get a lot of releases each day, and generate a few myself, and a thoughtful phone pitch – definitely not “did you get my release” – is always worthwhile if you have something to say.
Great piece Soraya. I’ve definitely noticed lots of media now don’t even list their phone, or are using hotdesks so they literally don’t even have a landline number of their own (and understandably don’t want to use their private mobiles – particularly the online publications).
I can understand why journos want to screen calls because they no doubt get plenty of ridiculous pitches throughout the day which deservedly die on their voicemail. But to cut out the phone from the equation altogether is not doing anybody any favours.
I had one journo try rip me a new one the other day because his competitor got a story. When I said “well you’ve never answered an email and until today I’ve never heard your voice before, so why would I be giving you exclusives?” there was stunned silence and then “well you have a point.”
Screen calls? Yes. Refuse to speak on the phone completely? Sure, but know I’ll preference the journalists that I have some rapport with.
I tend to agree. Even 4-5 years ago I could phone pitch and discuss a suite of story options and massage to help align with the journo’s agenda, but these days I am leaving up to 3 voicemails before I make the call that they are not interested. I appreciate media are time poor and responding to every email is simply not feasible, but a quick “not for us” with a reason why would help us refine our pitching in