Report: Only 8% of PR pitches result in media coverage
The data is a reminder about the tough task facing media relations campaigns, as well as proof the value PR brings to the table.
The barrier to entry for media relations is pretty low: All you really need is an email address, or perhaps social media profiles, to engage reporters at top-tier organizations.
However, the likelihood that your email gets a cursory glance is low. That’s why the real value media relations professionals bring to the table is relationships—and why you should listen to journalists when they tell you not to pitch bad ideas.
In new data from Propel, the number crunchers broke down over 1 million pitches that users of its software sent to journalists to try and understand the media pitching equation: What times of day are the best to send a pitch? How often does an email pitch result in a story being covered?
The answer? Not very often.
Only 8% of the pitches analyzed resulted in coverage:
And in many cases, the pitch isn’t even getting read, disappearing behind a mountain of other emails in a journo’s inbox. Of more than 726,000 emails sent, only 29% were opened and only 3% got a response.
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