6 ways to improve your email relationship with reporters

Your fabulous public relations strategy, precision targeting and customized pitching have been rewarded by a journalist who’s requesting a client interview.

Are you going to cap all that hard work by giving that reporter excellent service—the kind of professionalism you afford your clients, making him feel loved and pampered? Or will you provide sloppy coordination and communication that ensures he will never want to work with you again?

Once a journalist, producer or blogger says, “yes” to interviewing your experts, your service to him or her must be superb.

Your service is the cornerstone of your brand and reputation. It dictates whether you’ll develop a lasting relationship with that journalist. Make it stellar, and reporters will keep coming back for new sources, knowing with confidence that you will deliver exactly what they need and on deadline. Make it difficult, and reporters will ignore your pitches or tell you, “I’ll pass,” when you send story ideas.

Because many reporters use email to communicate with public relations pros, here are six tips for using that channel effectively and efficiently:

1. Subject lines are a reporter’s guidepost.