Crafting Your PR Pitch
How might you craft a PR pitch to encourage a reporter to cover a presentation at your school?
It is important to make the pitch sound unique and exciting. Adding pertinent details if its the first annual, second or third. To give the reporter a quick background on the school and a media kit on what the school has accomplished thus far.
Angela, Thank you for all your posts in the forum. Your ideas for seeking PR testimonials and highlighting your status are great. What does your personal PR statement for your institution sound like? Can you provide an example?
Dr. Jean Norris
Highlight our non-profit status & long standing relationship in the community. Highlight a particular graduate whose life has been positively impacted by their education at our school.
Keep you topic relevant to what is going on in the community.
Edwina ,
Very true. A simple, but powerful, approach is always a great idea. Can you give an example of what you might say?
Dr. Jean Norris
By making sure it is short and simply. Sometimes when a reporter or people in general receive lengthy copy they take one look and put it down. It is important to not overwhelm your audience.
Robert,
That sounds great! Don't forget to add a point of distinction, too. Can you craft an example for the forum of what you might say?
Dr. Jean Norris
Know your story, make it timely, target your pitch, be courteous and respectful to the media and keep it short
Mark,
This is an excellent point of difference! Any others?
Dr. Jean Norris
With today's economy, and the high unemployment rate, I would point out how court reporting (what my school teaches) has a very low unemployment rate, as court reporters are kept busy all over the country.
I think that its important to make it worth their time. While we might be seeking to promote a new program - it is important to put a spin on it that makes it newsworthy. A pitch for our Welding program might go over better if we appeared at a local Hot Rod event, and were welding the frames of old cars as a demonstration.
One way I have found makes the PR pitch attractive is by inviting the reporter to first visit the school, prior to the presentation date, and provide him/her a VIP tour of the school and handshake with the top school officials. Make them feel different and special...
Josh, that sounds like a great plan. Keep us posted as to how it goes.
Dr. Jean Norris
We are planning to reach out to some local contacts in the press. We had a staff meeting to see if anyone has a personal relationship with any writers and we have many. We are going to work to develop these relationships by holding a "press day" where we invite local media in for a tour of our facilities so they can see what we do.
Josh, sure that's a great idea. What is the next thing you have to do to start implementing this plan?
Dr. Jean Norris
I would look to coordinate with writers who are working on a story that has relevance to our mission here at the school. In order to do this one would need to develop relationships with the press and use these relationships to piggy back on the stories that are already being written. Third-party press, and even more so third party endorsements, are the most powerful referrals a school can receive. This types of referrals can happen with as a little as a quote from a school member if the quote is within a positive context in the article.
Thanks for sharing, Connie! I get the sense that you value partnerships that help foster postive outcomes for all and that's wonderful! Keep up the good work.
Shannon Gormley
Hi Shannon!
I find that out side sources are reciprocal in their response. They are also looking for a way to advertise. Most will go out of their way to share positive outcomes that they have experienced through the school.
Thanks
Connie
Thanks for sharing your ideas, Connie. It sounds like you are happy to share your experiences with others and give them the opportunity to experience for themselves. How do you find the response when you offer the opportunity to experience what your school has to offer?
Shannon Gormley
