Sometimes pitching stories to journalists is like fishing. You drop bait in the water, then wait for something unseen to happen far below the surface. Often you get nary a nibble, but sometimes you land a lunker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, I landed a lunker. A pitch for the Deadwood Chamber<\/a> turned into a story that appeared online at Country Living<\/a>, MSN<\/a> and Yahoo<\/a>. These sites combined have something like 20 million unique monthly visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At tdg<\/strong>, I use a service called Help A Reporter Out — a.k.a. HARO. It\u2019s an ingenious way to connect journalists with sources in a way that benefits both. Journalists post queries seeking information, insight or experts to help flesh out a story. The queries go out via email to public relations folks, whose clients are looking for good press. If I see a query that applies to a client, I send a written pitch, with photos and tidbits that might interest the journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I start each morning by going through the HARO queries looking for something I can pitch. There are a lot of queries, and the majority don\u2019t apply to any tdg<\/strong> clients. \u201cLooking for celeb fitness trainers to share ab workouts.\u201d<\/em> Definitely not in my wheelhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a month ago, I saw a query seeking \u201cAmerica’s Best Small Mountain Towns for Summer.\u201d<\/em> It was posted by Perri O. Blumberg<\/a> at Country Living. I sent a pitch that included great reasons to vacation in Deadwood, including its Western history, Spearfish Canyon, the Mickelson Trail and gaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often I never hear back. Sometimes I\u2019m surprised when a story turns up. But this week, Perri was kind enough to send me a note and link to her Country Living story, 20 Small Mountain Towns Perfect for a Summer Vacation<\/a>. A few days later, MSN and Yahoo picked up with the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been my experience that a well-written, on-topic pitch with great photos is crucial when responding to HARO queries. Journalists are busy people with tight deadlines. They probably get hundreds of pitches. I picture them scrolling through pitch after pitch, saying \u201cno, no, no, hell no, probably no \u2026. Wait a minute \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want mine to be the wait-a-minute pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally written by Dan Daly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes pitching stories to journalists is like fishing. You drop bait in the water, then wait for something unseen to happen far below the surface. Often you get nary a nibble, but sometimes you land a lunker. This week, I landed a lunker. A pitch for the Deadwood Chamber turned into a story that appeared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-1474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-media-public-relations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n