3 tips for irresistible email pitches

Pitching busy journalists has only gotten harder with more reporters these days covering multiple beats, gathering their own visuals—and handling their own social media.

Here are three quick tips to more effectively pitch the press when their (and your) time is short, courtesy of media relations guru Michael Smart, founder of MichaelSmartPR:

1. Nail the subject line. “What’s the sole purpose of your subject line?” asks Michael Smart in the latest Ragan Training Explainer video. The answer: “To get journalists to open your email.”

Here are three of his suggestions for increasing your open rates (the video has five):

He gives the example of a PR pro who pitched this subject line: “Best boxer briefs for riding a Ducati.”

It may seem strange at first glance, “But the PR pro who wrote this represents an underwear brand,” Smart says. “She was pitching a guy at a men’s magazine who had just written about Ducati motorcycles.”

2. Don’t bury the lede. “After the subject line, what kills pitches most often is how you open them,” says Smart. “Two-thirds of the pitches I see are too long.”

Especially egregious are long preambles and introductions. Here’s a classic example: