When it comes to raising your firm’s visibility, nothing moves the needle like some good PR. If you’re an emerging manager and recently closed a fund, now is the time to get your story out. While publishing a press release may still be considered a formality, you can make quite a splash by offering a journalist the exclusive on your story before you release it and before the news comes out anywhere else.
Landing great coverage about your fund in a publication like TechCrunch or Fortune is not far-fetched. If you take the time to carefully research journalists and connect with them, either at events and/or on social media, you’re one step closer to turning your headline dreams into reality.
Over the past decade, I’ve helped VCs (and startups!) with press pitches and successfully landed top-tier coverage for them. In this work, I’ve discovered some common mistakes VCs make in their pitch emails that ruin the chances of getting much-desired interviews and press.
While reaching out to the press can be intimidating, I promise to increase your chances of a positive outcome if you avoid these five press pitch email fails.
FAIL #1: You don’t say what the story is about in the first few sentences
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve read a pitch that does not actually explain what a company does, or what the story is about. You should get to the point, and get to it fast. Some journalists receive hundreds of emails per day, and there’s absolutely no way they’re going to read your entire email if they can’t suss out critical points in the first few sentences.
What to do instead: Begin your email with the reason you’re reaching out (i.e. the story), why you think this story will interest them, and be clear that you’re offering them the exclusive. Do this concisely in the first 2-3 sentences.
FAIL #2: Your story doesn’t match the journalist’s interests
A journalist can feel insulted if you bombard them with a pitch that’s out of line with the topics they cover. Not only will your email get ignored, but your chance of having any positive relationship with the journalist in the future could be ruined because you didn't do your diligence and wasted their time.
What to do instead: Do your research. Look at examples of a journalist’s recent coverage—from the past few months ideally—to make sure your story fits within their interests and focus area.
FAIL #3: You’ve pitched the same story to multiple journalists at the same publication
Never pitch your story to multiple journalists from the same publication simultaneously. Just like the teams at your organization, they all talk to each other. It’s easy for them to know they’re getting the same pitch, and they can find it both annoying and a red flag.
What to do instead: Pick your top choice of journalist and stick with them. It’s okay to let them know they’re the first/only writer you’ve reached out to so far and to gently ask them to let you know whether or not they’re interested in taking the story, especially when an exclusive is at stake.
FAIL #4: Your email is too long
Don’t send journalists a long pitch email. Don’t send anyone a long pitch email.
What to do instead: Be respectful of people’s time, and be brief with your email. Make your pitch a true teaser to get a journalist interested in doing an interview with you. Your email should be short and personalized for them. It should not be your press release copied and pasted into an email body.
FAIL #5: You don’t include a horizontal hi-res photo
It can be a huge motivator for a writer to take a story when they see they don’t have to dig for a high-quality photo to go along with it. If you don’t include a photo with your pitch email, you’re making things harder for them and decreasing your chances of success.
What to do instead: Make things easy for the journalist by giving them a great photo to go along with your pitch. Attaching your hi-res photo(s) right into the pitch email itself can really help the writer see what your story is about. Most publications use horizontal photos, so that’s the optimal version to give them.
Now that you’ve sent the pitch email…
A properly worded pitch email to the right journalist, together with a clear subject line, can get you that exciting interview. Before you speak to the press, be sure to go over your firm’s talking points with a PR expert who can help you both take a step back and connect your story to the bigger picture, as well as ensure you don’t fall into any common interview pitfalls.
After the interview, it’s ultimately up to the journalist to decide on the story’s headline and for their editor to decide whether the article is going to get published at all. So, wait to fully celebrate until after your news comes out. Getting a journalist to respond to your pitch email is a nice win in itself and is reassurance that your story is resonating with the influential writers your future LPs and founders are reading.
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