Nonprofit Communications

The Triple P’s of Pitching the Media

By Guest Blogger Claire “Voyant” Meyerhoff

Fanfare please.

“Ladies and Gentleman, Claire Meyerhoff and Nonprofit Marketing Guide present a new acronym . . .”

PPP

The Three P’s of Pitching will help your nonprofit get better coverage! It will solve all your public relations problems! It will build strong bones twelve different ways! Nine out of ten doctors recommend it!

Or maybe the Three P’s will simply give you a new way of looking at taming that beast called “Media Coverage.” I will now reveal the words behind our acronym . . .

3P’s of Pitching

• Precise
• Perfect
• Placement

If you’re the lucky gal or guy in charge of “getting coverage” for your organization, maybe this is your strategy: You write a press release, send it to every news outlet in town, then make follow up calls. Then you’re disappointed when you don’t get coverage. And it really is a good story.

Some media consultant types do the “blanket pitch.” They contact every single reporter they know, or don’t know, and pitch the same story to everyone. They blanket the city with press releases, jamming the e-mail boxes of every assignment editor, reporter, associate producer, desk assistant and newsroom secretary in the market. Even the guy who services the vending machine at Action News 15 gets the e-mail, “Nonprofit Announces Boring Survey.”

Not me. I do a very targeted pitch. Precise Perfect Placement.

Since Kivi likes exciting experiments, I’m going to bring one to her Laboratory . . .

I’m in charge of a certain nonprofit’s small event on Mother’s Day, May 11, 2008. My entire media strategy includes two phone calls, one e-mail and then some follow-up phone calls.

Next Monday, May 12th, I’ll let you know how it went.

Hopefully, I’ll have good news (and my client will have made news).

————————————————

Want more of Claire’s advice? You can listen to her teleseminar with Kivi earlier this year called “Getting Reporters to Cover Your Nonprofit” for free! Get the mp3 link now.

2 Responses to “The Triple P’s of Pitching the Media”

1. Paul Says:
   May 6th, 2008 at 7:15 am

   PPP? I like it! (I can only handle simple advice.)

   I recently tripped over some good advice from Peter Shankman (of “Help A Reporter” fame) which ties in with what you say, especially precision. That is:

   “Tell the reporter WHAT you do that makes you the expert, WHY you think you’re considered an expert, and then offer SEVERAL quotable tips in the email, that allows the reporter to see that if he or she calls you back, you’ll have a clue, know what you’re talking about, and offer good quote.”

   I don’t think you could follow that advice without hitting the three Ps as well.

2. Nonprofit Communications » Blog Archive » Triple P Update: Did It Work? Says:
   May 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

   […] Monday, I gave you my new acronym for getting press coverage — the Triple Ps: Precise, Perfect, Placement. I explained how I was going to put it to the test this week for a […]

Leave a Reply