In the evolving media landscape, securing earned placements is more challenging than ever. Journalists receive hundreds of pitches per day while being tasked with creating more content under shorter deadlines. Public relations professionals need to find a way to cut through the noise to deliver results for their clients.
The cream rises to the top in a perfect world, and the best pitches secure the best results. Unfortunately, in practice, many pitches and phone call follow-ups get lost and unreturned. The best way to make sure your pitch is heard is to have a preexisting relationship with the journalist you’re pitching. Working with the media and establishing strong connections can lead your company’s spokesperson to become the go-to source in a desired area of expertise.
Making a reporter’s job easier is a definite way to establish and build an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship. We live in a digital age, as does public relations, which has led to pitching the media through unique channels and portals. As such, Qwoted is a valuable resource Trevelino/Keller uses to make a reporter’s job easier and build relationships with the media.
With Qwoted’s media database, T/K has direct access to journalists seeking subject matter experts for pieces they are currently working on. Working around the hundreds and sometimes thousands of pitches journalists receive a day, our investment in Qwoted allows us to go direct to reporters through the platform. For each of our clients, we create a spokesperson profile page in Qwoted that allows us to respond to reporter requests and opportunities quickly. The spokesperson profile includes the individual’s area of expertise, professional experience, social media profile links and a headshot. This allows for the media to quickly learn about the spokesperson and make decisions on interview opportunities.
Timing is everything to a journalist, so there’s nothing more useless than an interview request after a deadline has passed. Yet many PR pros regularly fall victim to pitching past deadlines. Qwoted erases this headache with real-time alerts and deadline reminders. When the story is published or aired, there is never any confusion about why a particular source was not included.
In short, building relationships with media is key to securing consistent news coverage for clients. Technology platforms such as Qwoted that media are aligned with, allows the small community that has invested in it, to seamlessly build trust – something crucial to establishing strong connections that will have a lasting impact.