4 tactics for successful pitching

Relevance and personalization are crucial to your email’s efficacy, but without a striking subject line—and maybe some social media schmoozing—it’s bound for the trash bin.

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You’ve slaved over your computer screen for hours. You’re drowning in news searches when you finally stumble across the perfect writer on the 14th page.

After crafting what seems to be the Mona Lisa of pitches, a brief, yet extremely witty subject line comes to mind. As your email is sent into the PR abyss, you eagerly hope for a quick response, if you get one at all.

More often than not, your pitches are declined, go unread or are simply moved to the trash bin.

For PR professionals, landing top-tier links and press mentions is our ultimate goal, but it’s easy to get discouraged by publishers’ lack of response. You start to wonder what you’re doing wrong and begin to question your entire pitch strategy.

Before you doubt your approach, remember that you’re not the only one vying for a writer’s attention. Nearly one in five top-tier publishers receives from 11 to 25 emails daily. Given that so many pitches are flooding their inboxes, you plan ahead and stand out among the rest.

Here are four tips for ensuring your emails are opened (and answered):

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