Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Why clients shouldn't deal with the media



When we pitch feature reporters, we often have back-up ideas.

If the person doesn’t like the first, we offer another.

Even though he wasn’t interested in the initial pitch, a national magazine editor recently asked for photos of a client’s work.

Since the client had been in national magazines before, he suggested sending the photographs to the editor directly and cc’ing us.

But, his subject line had no connection to the idea or to earlier releases.

The photos sequence didn’t tell a story and he took a jab at the editor—even though he was offering a much bigger opportunity and had all the power.  

Luckily, the editor didn’t see the email, but was interested enough to get back to us.   

We added info about the client, wrote a relevant subject line, put the photos into a visual story and thanked the editor for getting back to us.    

But, we learned our lesson: In future, no matter how seemingly savvy, we won’t let clients deal with reporters until we’ve snagged an article and are ready for the interview. 

For more information on public relations, please go to www.dellrichards.com.