The PITCH Method™
Five things have to be true for a story to land. Reverse-engineered from years of placed pitches in finance, public health, and beyond. Miss one and the pitch dies in an inbox.
Click each letter to see how The PITCH Method™ works.
The right reporter, not the right outlet.
Outlets don’t write stories. Reporters do. Most PR fails because the same email went to 30 people at the same publication through a mass mail merge. We map the journalists on your beat by their last three months of bylines, not their outdated bios.
In practice
We landed a finance founder in the WSJ because we’d read and followed that one reporter for months. The pitch was tailored to match a framing she’d used weeks earlier. It was personalized and it resulted in coverage.
The story, not the company.
Reporters cover stories, not organizations. Every pitch leads with the angle. Your credentials and announcement don’t show up until the story is established and the reporter is hooked.
In practice
The subject line: “Our shelter serves homeless youth” got ignored. “The state’s first youth shelter may close after a funding freeze” got covered at five outlets. Same client with the perfect angle.
Why would a reporter write about it right now?
And not from your company’s marketing perspective, but from their audience’s. Breaking news, a ruling, a funding decision, tax season, a fresh stat. Without it, you read as promotional, and promotional doesn’t get covered. It needs a timely hook.
In practice
A new report shows home radon levels climbing in a certain area, layering that with National Radon Month, it’s a no-brainer when it comes to perfect timing. That’s the moment a testing company gets to explain the risk, because now a reporter has a reason to run the story today.
A human source the reporter can trust when quoting.
Reporters quote credentialed people, not brands. You need a named source with the expertise behind it: credentials, experience, a specific story only they can tell.
In practice
A mental health coach that was struggling getting coverage, once they got certified and a Ph.D then the coverage got easy to secure. Experience can also be layered with a clinical authority plus lived experience, the doctor who’s also a survivor. The reporter has to write “according to [credential]” and have their editor sign off on it.
The ask, the follow-up, and the work most agencies skip.
The first four letters describe a pitch any good firm could write. The fifth is where most quit. One clear ask, deliberate follow-up, and getting out of the inbox. A text to a producer on deadline, the right method of communication for the right outlet.
In practice
Three of four of our placements close on the first pitch or one short bump, often already booked while another agency is still chasing. This is where the pitches that should land actually do.
