5 ways pitching the media is like a first date

PR pros who have their eyes on media coverage know they must properly court journalists and editors.

Though romance isn’t involved, the process of pitching and building professional relationships with members of the news media is a lot like dating. In order to successfully land your story, you have to impress—and avoid bad behaviors.

These common dating foibles can decrease your chances of a callback or second meeting—both in matters of the heart and in PR:

1. You aren’t listening.

via GIPHY

Many bad pitches are a sign of not listening, most often to submission guidelines posted by a publication. However, there are a multitude of ways to show that you haven’t done your research on the reporter or editor you are soliciting and are not paying attention before hitting “send.”

Here’s an example of a pitch I actually received:

Based on some of your past work, I think this might be of interest to you.

[Site redacted] is a first of it’s kind Marriage Only Relationship Site I Just Launched…