I read a lot of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books growing up. I loved getting to the end of a section and deciding which path I would take — should I sneak into the castle by climbing over the wall or try and swim across the moat? Having options allowed me to read the story that most interested me. In the end, each book featured the same setting, the same characters, and mostly the same plot. But the details varied and made the reading experience richer and more personal for me.
When pitching reporters and bloggers, think like a Choose Your Own Adventure author. Not every reporter wants to take the same path through a story. They all have different preferences and interests. A reporter with a technology focus may want to know the exact ins and outs of how a product works, while a blogger who writes about big-picture trends is likely to be more interested in how people are going to use the product.
Sure, you can use the same pitch to reach out to all reporters and bloggers. But that requires the story to be broad and general enough to appeal to all of them. Sometimes the story is so compelling that it works; often it ends up just not hooking anyone. But if you can figure out which adventure each reporter would be likely to choose in working their way through your story, you can serve that up right off the bat. The high-level story architecture (setting, characters) will be the same, but it’s the details that will make the difference.
With Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Google, it’s really easy these days to do your research and figure out what interests a reporter or blogger. That information can help you put together the details of your pitch and create different “endings” for your story for each outlet.
And here’s the kicker – once I chose my way through a Choose Your Own Adventure story as a kid, I would always go back and reread it to come up with the different endings. I would catch a part later on in the book that interested me and work my way back to try and figure out how to get to that section via a different path. Maybe it was just my inner dorkiness, but I was always interested in determining how the different parts of a story were connected.
If you can hook a reporter or blogger with a pitch that speaks to them and their personal sense of “adventure”, chances are they may dig a little deeper, too, and end up with several story ideas from your pitch.
If you decide to give reporters a personalized adventure, turn to page 36.
If you’re scared and want to turn for home, turn to page 55.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ames – Loved this post. It’s right on target with where the industry is currently. I think the dynamic has completely changed, and this is a great approach to it. You have to be willing to step out and build that relationship, and not be worried about failure. It happens to everyone. The idea is to take the chance – learn from the success or failure.
LAF
Amy – I actually think I read The Cave of Time. Your post is a great way to illustrate the importance of trying different things and not being afraid to fail (you could always go back to your last point once you realized the alligators in the moat were going to eat you — there’s a media relations analogy there too).
First, I LOVED those books as a kid – espeically during my nerdy Dungeons and Dragons phase – couldn’t get enough of them.
Any of us who have worked as a reporter can remember times when we got off the phone after being pitched and just thinking “that person has no clue what my beat even is.”
On the other hand, I can attest that during my reporter days there would be the occasional pitch that was dead on – and that always resulted in stories.
When I was freelancing for magazines during my starvation days, I would send out multiple pitches a day – it was wild…a numbers game. I think a lot of PR folks are like this. However, when I started to read the magazines, study them, learn about them, then pitch them, my success rate rose exponentially.
A PR mentor of mine once told me never pitch a reporter without reading at least three of his or her stories. Once you “know” the reporter or editor, you can pitch with confidence and a much higher rate of success.
I was also an avid reader of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, so this post was really fun for me. I think it’s also a very interesting take. I know that it’s basically telling PR pros to do their homework on a reporter before pitching them, but really, it’s more than that. It’s a little bit mind reading, a little bit manipulation, and a little bit selling, all wrapped up into one thing. If you can do all those things in one email to a reporter, you’ll have success more often than not. You do sort of have to lead the reporter down the right path, and by giving them multiple paths, you might increase your odds. It makes sense.
And sidenote, when I was reading these books, I always used to cheat when I made a bad decision!!
Good post, as usual Amy.
Knew this post reminded me of something from Tactics!
PR Career Planning: Choose Your Adventures Wisely (Laura Mercer compares the career options open to public relations graduates to the CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE series).
Great minds ^_^
Amy you are reading my mind here. I’m half-way through a ‘choose-your-adventure’ post myself. Let’s just say I’d much rather have options to choose from then live a life like an open and shut book. Great thoughts here…
This is a great analogy. I’m pretty sure everyone read at least one Choose Your Own Adventure book in fourth grade. Not only is it good to know who you’re pitching to, but why not give a reporter a couple off different angles, so they can choose their own adventure too? I’m sure reporters would love to seem more pitches that actually make them think.
I absolutely love Choose Your Own Adventure books, and this post is spot on. As a journalist, I don’t want to write the same story being pitched to every other journalist. I want my angle to be different. When I was writing for Metroland and was the editor of the Chronicle at Saint Rose at the same time, I would get the exact same email sent to my Saint Rose email that I would to my Metroland email. It made me completely disinterested in following through for either publication.
Hi Amy
Your blog is rapidly becoming one of my favoured ports of call at the end of the day and I am beginning to think we were separated at birth with some of the things you are writing.
That idea of treating a pitch like a ‘choose your own adventure’ is something I have been banging on about for years at various agencies. When I was a junior I used to get incredibly frustrated by the idea that a pitch was like a scripted performance with the script provided by Powerpoint, and as I became more senior I started to float the idea that it was more like stand up that included the audience. Possibly I picked the wrong performance format to create an analogy out of because it went down like a lead balloon but since then I have been convinced that it is better to be inclusive during a pitch and let the client dictate the direction of the discussion. Certain things are naturally set such as your prepared creative or strategic idea with suggested tactics, but the route as to how we get there is a journey to discover together. It’s got to the point that I don’t use Powerpoint at all except as a kind of backdrop. I used the term 3d presentation but I prefer yours. Maybe ‘Choose your own pitch’ is a term that can catch on?
Aaron