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Emailing the media is easy. You draft your pitch, email the reporter and wait to hear back. On a good day, the reporter writes back that he or she wants to interview your client. On a bad day, you don’t hear back. On an average day, you probably still don’t hear back. So I ask, how can you rely solely on email when the top journalists are getting 100+ pitches a day and juggling deadlines, meetings and special requests from their managing editors?

I’ve found that using the phone is a complementary tool for pitching the media. The phone is not always appropriate when the reporter is on deadline, says “no” through email or you have not researched his or her recent stories and publication, but what follows are 7 ways to use the phone to your advantage:

1. Time sensitive release: Just as football is a game of inches, PR is a game of minutes. Sometimes there’s just no time to wait to hear back from a reporter if the big event is the next morning or your client just launched the hottest medical device. Follow up by phone if you don’t hear back through email on important and timely announcements.
2. Holiday weeks: Don’t underestimate the holidays. Some journalists will certainly plan vacations around the holidays, but the bottom line is that news marches forward and most journalists who are staffed around the holidays have quiet schedules and could be waiting to take your call.
3. The “generic” email: Often magazines and newspapers will list an “info@” email for following up with key contacts. Calling these outlets directly and asking to speak with your intended contact insures that the right person hears your pitch.
4. Reporter only responds to your first email: When a reporter initially emails back with interest but later becomes idle on follow-up emails, give them a quick call, assuming that you’ve given the reporter a reasonable amount of time to respond. Most journalists are actually ok with follow-up calls if you do your research.
5. Voicemail: Don’t underestimate the power of voicemail. It’s non-invasive, and as I mentioned above, your contact could simply be swarmed with too many emails to ever open your pitch. Earlier this year, I pitched an event to the Los Angeles Times and couldn’t reach the right person by email or phone. I left a couple of quick and to-the-point voicemails and the next morning I found out that the morning assignment editor received my voicemail and sent to a reporter who attended my client’s event and wrote an influential article.
6. Finding the appropriate contact: Usually a media database or publication’s website list the appropriate editors and beats. However, if you cannot quickly identify the appropriate contact at a publication, take a stab at calling the publication’s editorial desk for the most appropriate contact. Sometimes by calling you might even reach an editor who asks you to pitch them and with the proper research and good PR pitching they might encourage you to follow up with a specific reporter that will want to write a story.
7. 100% belief in your pitch: I left this last because I feel that this overrides all situations in media relations. If you truly believe that the reporter is an extraordinary fit, you’ve done your research on the journalist and you just don’t hear back from emailing, try calling. At worst, if the journalist is not interested you can use this as an opportunity to find out how you can make your next pitch better or bring closure by crossing the contact off your list.

At the end of the day, our clients judge us by the amount of quality media coverage we can bring to the table. And the phone becomes another way to get out your story. I can tell you first-hand that adding the phone into the PR toolkit has led to additional media coverage that ultimately has increased client leadership and generated additional customers and revenue.

Post by Mike Levey, Zer0 to 5ive senior strategist
Image courtesy of Aussiegall via Creative Commons BY 2.0 license