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Your team has spent over 10 hours working on creating a noteworthy story about your new blockchain-based invention. In the spirit of excitement – to flood the media with the good news – you pitched the story to over 50 well-known editors in the blockchain industry.
Driven by confidence, you sat back, relaxed perhaps with a cup of coffee, waiting for your idea to boom! boom! boom! the media.
…Oops! It was trashed. Wasted time and effort.
Well, don’t feel completely disappointed.
This isn’t the best approach for pitching editors or reporters your story. To capture the attention of these prominent editors, as you’ve always desired, you need a more calculated and logical approach.
More importantly, you need to avoid these preventable mistakes while pitching them. A failure to heed to this might prevent your startup’s story from being published on top tier publications.
Hence, here are five crucial mistakes blockchain-startup founders or CEOs should avoid when pitching editors.
Avoid sending stories that an editor will struggle to digest
One of the costly mistakes every blockchain founder must completely avoid is pitching editors a crappy draft. They find it very frustrating.
To get their attention, pitch them a great copy story. Make sure it satisfies all the writing qualities any serious editor would want to see. Meanwhile, if you don’t have an in-house writer for the job, outsource it to a creative freelance copywriter who knows how to craft easy-to-read technical copy that engages the audience.
Note: A blockchain editor receives overwhelming emails from hundreds of blockchain startups that are also working tirelessly to be on top of their target audience’s mind. Once they struggle to understand your story (your latest development), they’ll pass.
Avoid sending a “partial” piece. Rather, send “exclusive”
An editor gets turned off when you pitch them a “partial piece.” To be frank, most editors trash such a piece at sight. Nevertheless, if you want to take them for a ride, pitch them an “exclusive,” then you’ll get their full attention.
As a matter of fact, they understand the plausible rewards of publishing original stories (exclusives). Once your story has this “hook of originality,” the editor will revert to understanding it better. This is an opportunity to “sell” your startup better. So, try to convey as much information about your latest development as possible.
Avoid following up every day
Yes, I get the feeling. You sent a crypto-editor a story about your company at about 7:00 a.m. on Monday and by noon; you’re already expecting a live link. But you didn’t find any. Then you go again, following up. This time, you waited for four hours saying in your mind, “I think he should have gotten this by now.” But nothing happened – no live link about your well-written news story.
You continued again the following day, “following up,” still nothing. You did that repeatedly for a week, yet get no response or sign that he/she opened your email.
Hello, it doesn’t work that way. There are many factors that could have facilitated the zero-response from the editor, and the major one is this: they receive countless pitches from other crypto startups competing to get coverage. You’re not the only one seeking coverage here.
Hence, following up within an hour or every day isn’t the best tactic to get a swift response. In fact, it drives them nuts.
Well, one of the best approaches is using the 3-7-7 followup formula by the CEO of WritersInCharge, Bamidele Onibalusi.
Avoid reaching out to the wrong editor
Reaching out to the wrong editor is another costly mistake you should avoid. In the crypto space, all writers and editors are not the same. Some frequently cover technical analysis stories, some cover op-eds, some cover latest blockchain application content while some cover security token offerings (STOs) and so on.
It’s your duty to find the right editor covering your story.
If your startup is working on DApps, it’s very wrong to pitch to an editor covering stories on STOs. If you do, the guy will end up thrashing it. To save effort and time, make sure you pitch the right editor.
If your pitch isn’t newsworthy, the editor will pass
Yes, they will pass once they find out that your pitched story isn’t newsworthy. One thing you should have in mind as a results-driven blockchain-startup CEO/founder is that your story stands a greater chance when it’s newsworthy. Your pitch has to have the “needful hook” that will make it worth writing about. Otherwise, the editor will pass on it. Be smart!
Conclusion
In order not to let editors, reporters or journalists not turn your story down, your pitch must have the following. First, it must target what the publication covers; it must be sent to a specific editor interested in it; it must benefit readers and finally, it must be fresh.
Ejiofor Francis is an IT/blockchain PR expert and writer with over six years of guest blogging experience. He helps companies to create top-notch content that drives great results. Do you own a crypto/blockchain blog? Here is an ultimate guide on how to create a thriving crypto blog. Want to say hi? Here is my email: [email protected].
