Is Your Pitch Really Ready for Prime Time?

When PR experts talk about what makes a good media pitch, they often focus their advice on the importance of timeliness.

If you can connect your pitch or announcement to something that’s happening in the news or on the calendar, you have a much greater chance of success.

But there’s a question that often gets short shrift from PR consultants and experts who are looking to help nonprofits and companies tell their story in the media: 

Is what you’re pitching actually ready for media scrutiny?

If you’re planning to announce a new product, launch a new initiative, or showcase a thought leader in your organization, you better be sure that what your pitching is ready for the bright lights.

If your new website or product hasn’t been fully tested and doesn’t work properly, a good reporter or producer will see its flaws. Quickly.

If your new program hasn’t been fully thought through, it will get exposed.

If your expert source hasn’t been properly prepared to go on camera or answer tough questions, that source won’t get past the pre-interview to go on air or will get left out of the news story.

Once a journalist finds out that you can’t deliver on what you promise, they’re not going to come back to you. And they’re highly unlikely to give you a second chance.

First impressions matter.

So while you might be tempted to move quickly and pitch a story because it seems timely, make sure you’ve done the due diligence necessary to make sure what you’re pitching delivers on what you’re promising.

If it’s not ready, keep working on it and find another hook.