In my previous article I have covered the best practices on getting started with guest blogging. Finding and identifying relevant guest blogging opportunities is essential to make sure that you are reaching the right audience and get the most value out of it. However, pitching is perhaps the hardest part of it all. And how often do I see people getting it completely wrong!
Here are some of the key tips to follow that will increase your chances of getting published:
Make it personal
Never ever send out hundreds of pre-written cold mails when pitching your story. You should be writing to each journalist individually, making your pitch personal. Do your homework properly and find out more about a journalist you are pitching to and use that information to attract more attention to your content.
Make it relevant
There might be stories on the same topic a journalist have written before or an article that can be supplemented with or followed up with your contribution. Address this in your pitch and justify why your story will make a great contribution to a previously discussed topic. It goes without saying that you should be pitching a story to a relevant person: why would you pitch a piece on tech to a person who only writes about current affairs and versus versa.
Prove expertise
Address in your pitch why you are the best person to write about this. What makes you an expert? Ideally, you would be able to include your full biography in a form of a media kit or at least write a few sentences outlining your expertise. Another way to show your credibility is through previous publicity: mention the most notable media outlets you have been mentioned in or send links to your best contributor posts.
Prove credibility
If you are writing an in-depth piece of content, chances are it will have at least a few claims incorporated. You must be supporting your claims with expert quotes, research or other industry sources. Even better if you have conducted a research yourself, where you especially should show its credibility through restating methods of research and the size of the audience of respondents.
Include supporting material
Images, videos and quotes are what makes a pitch attractive and newsworthy. Hence, it improves your chances of getting it published. I would say that you should never send a journalist a story that is not ready to be published, which means it should be completed with high resolution visuals, relevant statistics and an eye-catching headline.
Make it newsworthy
There are many things that can make your story seem newsworthy, but nothing ruins it more than failing to communicate it in your pitch. You should be staying on track of industry news and refer to the latest events in the media to make it timely. Identify what makes your story stand out and use it to your advantage. This will make your pitch more appealing and drastically increase your chances of getting published.
Let me know in the comments if you would like to see a blog post covering the elements that make a story newsworthy!