Top Tips for Finding New Pitch Ideas
Cutline’s Esther Hallmeyer says that for her, one of the biggest thrills in PR is finding and sharing new media opportunities to pitch. In this post, she shares her tried & true tips for finding fresh ideas.
I love nothing more than coming across a new reporter, column or publication that will be the perfect home for one of the stories that a client wants to tell. I’m often asked how I find new ideas and thought I’d share some of the techniques I’ve learned that work for me.
Read everything.
It’s surprising to me that reading sometimes falls to the lowest priority for PR folks. But if you want to find new opportunities for clients (and don’t we all?) as well as come up with stronger pitch ideas, you need to read! To make it easier on myself, I subscribe to a number of email newsletters that round up different stories from across the web. My biggest tip is to click on anything that looks interesting. This will often take you to a reporter who you might not be familiar with, a column you haven’t read before, or give you a stronger feel for what types of stories are resonating with press.
When I used to commute every day, I would focus on reading all my newsletters while in transit. Now that I work from home, I set aside time every morning to go through them. Some of my favorites include:
Flipboard’s 10 for Today: A curated roundup of interesting stories from around the web. This one almost always leads me to something new.
Fortune’s Broadsheet: The editors do a great job of rounding up a few stories from other publications at the end of the newsletter that might spark ideas for stories or pitch opportunities.
The Profile: A Fortune editor’s carefully curated newsletter of profiles on fascinating people and companies—this one gives you a good feel for what reporters are looking forin a CEO or company profile.
Apple News: I have a love/hate relationship with Apple News, because sometimes they curate stories I really don’t want to read, such as true crime news. But, I do come across a lot of interesting content through the app, across a wide variety of publications: health and wellness, fashion, news, business and tech, and more.
Twitter is also a great source for inspiration. Reporters often share their stories and publications will tweet about a new column they’re launching or a new hire. Lastly, because digital news can sometimes become overwhelming, I love to pick up print magazines across different verticals. When I read publications I wouldn’t normally in my free time (like a men’s magazine) I generally always get a fresh idea or perspective for pitches.
2. Subscribe to and read HAROs—even ones that aren’t an immediate fit for clients.
‘Help a Reporter Out,’ aka HARO, is an amazing service that puts reporters looking for sources into an email digest so you can pitch them. HAROs can result in great stories—we experience it all the time. But one of my favorite techniques is to leverage them as lead-gen, so to speak. So for example, maybe you’ll see a reporter is working on a story about saving for a mortgage. Maybe that’s not a relevant angle for your client, but you do often pitch personal finance-related angles. I’ll do some digging on the reporter and suss out their coverage, and then pitch them on a different topic when the time is right. This has led me to discover so many new, awesome opportunities for clients.
3. Think cross-client.
This one is for my fellow agency folks and it might sound a little obvious, but I love to keep my ears open to conversations teammates are having with reporters or coverage that has hit for clients I don’t directly work with. It’s an easy way to spark ideas and leverage relationships people on your team may have. Sometimes we all get a little in our heads and forget that teammates on different accounts are also trying to land great stories on potentially similar topics. Opening up those lines of communication and cross-collaboration is key. Cutline has a dedicated Media & Content team that shares a monthly newsletter of new pitch opportunities team members have shared, and we also leverage a dedicated Slack channel to share intel on reporter moves, hires, new columns or insights press have shared.
I hope you’ll find some of these tips useful. Happy pitching!