Episode 75: How to get your PR pitches accepted by top influencers and media with Rand Fishkin

Full-Funnel B2B Marketing Show

I got lots of spam emails promoting guests to my Full-Funnel Podcast. I never reply to any of them. Here is why.
These BDMs try to show fake love to our podcast saying:
“I love your podcast, especially episode #XX, keep up the great work!
That said, I have a great guest for you.
John Doe is a serial 7-figures entrepreneur who will happily join you as a guest. Here is his bio.
Let me know when you want to set up a call with him.”
Here is the truth.
1. You didn’t listen to the episode. You just chose the recent episode which is completely irrelevant to your guest’s expertise.
2. You didn’t check my podcast description and target audience - otherwise, you won’t suggest a bad-fit entrepreneur.
All you did is:
1. Scraping all podcasts from a business category
2. Collecting emails from all hosts
3. Scraping the names of the latest episodes — you even mark them in bold.
4. You searched for some blog posts about pitching to podcast hosts or pitching a guest post, and copied the script
5. You uploaded everything to the outreach software and spammed all the podcast hosts with the same templated message.
Results?
You sucked.
If you want to get results from your outreach, here are 5 things you must learn:
1. Connect and engage with podcast hosts and editors of target blogs way before you reach out: leave thoughtful comments, provide feedback, reshare content.
2. Listen to the episodes and read articles to understand the audience.
3. Ask about content needs - what topics do they plan to cover in the future?
4. Present yourself and ask if you’ll find great guests that fit their content needs, would they be up to talk to them?
5. When you’ll find a good fit, personalize your outreach by mentioning the expertise of the guest and what added value he/she can bring to hosts’ audiences.
Don’t do what everybody else is doing: sending templates from “outreach best practices” blog posts, show fake love and spam everybody. You’ll suck.
Do things that are not scalable but that generate ROI:
- Invest in relationship
- Do research
- Personalize
With Rand Fishkin we nailed the entire pitching approach. Join us to learn:
- Why does marketing through sources of influence work so well?
- How do you find true sources where PR will have the most impact?
- How to get your pitches accepted
RESOURCES
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Rand on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/