What to put in your pitch

Once you know who you are going to contact, you first need to write a ‘pitch’ for your story.  This is a summary of your story in a couple of paragraphs with the vital information of who you are and what your story is.  Journalists will scan over hundreds of pitch ideas for stories every week so keep it short and concise. Write an email and include:

• A single headline that captures your entire story
  (eg Farmer sells her dairy farm to launch vegan ice-cream company)
• A couple of paragraphs that expand on the story
  (eg who you are, what happened, why it happened, when it happened and how – bullet point details rather than long sentences)
• A really good photo
  (eg you leaning on a gate in a field licking a ‘nice-cream’)
• Some stats to back up your story
  (eg The total number of UK dairy cows has fallen from 2.6 million in 1996 to 1.9 million in 2018, a 27% reduction)
• More details on how to contact you or learn more about your company
  (eg your phone number, your company’s website)

Include this in the body of your email so it’s easy to see straight away.  If you have already written a longer press-release (ie you have written the article for them) then attach this also.  If it is well written then you might find that they publish the story pretty much as you have written it.  They are likely to remove any blatant sales messages for your business though or will lose interest if it’s just an advert for your company.  Think about what would interest you, keep to the story and put the selling on hold for now.