Digital PR Media Pitch Example

Writing your first, or even your 50th, Digital PR pitch can be daunting.

To make things easier - here is an exact pitch (for a data study) we actually sent out to journalists that got a really good coverage rate.

Here are the key reasons for its success

The pitch is super tailored to its audience (Scottish outlets). In the subject line, the introduction, the key points, the quote provided, and the suggested headlines.

There's no fluff, everything is super to the point and clear.

The first sentence is a well connected hook showing why my pitch is newsworthy / why people will find it interesting.

The hook was based off a news story that had made headlines recently. We go the extra mile by including images and even suggested headlines for the journalist.

Here's the pitch:

Detailed pitch breakdown

Stand-out subject line

This is your first opportunity to grab attention should immediately communicate your story's value.

The subject line needs to be clear, compelling, and relevant to your target publications and their audiences.

The example above, "Scotland Home To 13 Cheapest Wetherspoons in UK", was only pitched to Scottish outlets. Using the word Scotland in the subject line meant they knew the pitch was relevant to them.

The hook

Your hook needs to connect your story to current events or ongoing discussions in the news cycle.

In the example pitch, we tied our data to Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin's warning about rising pint prices. This story was getting wide coverage and meant the cost of alcohol in pubs was at the forefront of readers minds.

Story introduction

Once you have hooked your audience, take no more than two sentences to clearly state what your story is about.

This isn't the place for building suspense or adding background – you need to get straight to the point.


e.g. "new data from Pantry and Larder has revealed the UK's cheapest Wetherspoons - and they're all north of the border."

Methodology

If you're pitching a data study, journalists like to have an idea of how the study was conducted early on. This helps reassure them the study is credible and the results are based on solid evidence.

As with the rest of the introduction, keep it succinct.

e.g. "The study was carried out by collecting over 300,000 drink prices from every Wetherspoons in the UK (via the app). Only drinks available in every Wetherspoons were included in the average."

Key highlights

Next you want to pull out 3-4 key highlights and present them in easily digestible bullet points.

Our example simply lists the cheapest pubs along with the average price for a drink in those pubs.

Additional context

After the key highlights, you can give any supporting information you think is important for context or will interest the journalists.

In our pitch example we point out that our data page has an interactive map, which is a huge incentive four journalists to link to our data page and also interesting for users.

Expert comment

I always recommend adding an expert comment to your pitch because journalists are often required to have an outside quote in their articles anyway, so this makes life easier for them. It also adds authority and a human element to your story.

Someone from the company who commissioned the study can comment, or you can reach out to an external expert using a platform like twitter. Another option

The quote should provide insight or context beyond just regurgitating your findings. For example, in our quote we gave specific price comparisons between England and Scotland.

e.g. "Drink prices vary significantly across the UK, but certain drinks are notably cheaper in Scotland and these bring the average price down. For example, the average price for a bottle of Budweiser is £3.32 in English Wetherspoons, but £2.88 in Scottish Wetherspoons."

Additional resources

If you have any supporting material such as pictures, provide these in a Google Drive link (or similar), rather than using attachments.

Suggested headlines

Wrap up your pitch with suggested headlines tailored to the type of publication you are pitching.

This is a nice touch which the journalist will appreciate (anything to make their jobs easier!), and it also helps them visualise how the story would look once published.