How would you like to get your brand featured on major online websites like Buzzfeed, the Washington Post, or Bustle?
When you earn the attention of top-tier press, you reap the business benefits of large-scale brand exposure and the SEO benefits of high-authority backlinks[1]. It’s a win-win.
But it’s increasingly difficult to win the attention of the online press. Any day of the week, you have tweets from Chrissy Teigen and the contentious presidential election dominating the media coverage and driving the online social discussion.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that there is an ideal time to pitch a writer or the best way to write a press release or an email for optimal success. The problem with a lot of digital PR advice you read online is that it’s purely situational and can vary from person to person.
That’s why my team decided to end the back and forth once and for all. In a new publisher survey, we asked 500+ online writers and editors from sites like the New York Times, CNN, Cosmopolitan, and Mashable how they want to be pitched, what types of content they prefer to cover, and what PR professionals should include (and exclude) in their outreach emails in order to gain their trust and earn a coveted space on their website.
Here are 10 major data-backed insights that you can use to optimize your outreach strategy.
The top three reasons why journalists decline your pitch
The top three reasons journalists decline your pitch is because it’s irrelevant, boring, or too self-promotional.
A crucial reason why a writer rejected your email pitch is that it’s irrelevant. That’s right, 88% of writers have