Are you struggling to get editors on your target media to ‘bite’  when pitching expert-opinion or thought leadership pieces to them?

Yet you do need to have your company’s execs noticed as experts in their field in order to elevate the profile of your company to help it grow and get more sales.

Here’s a real-life example of the methods you must follow to secure a 100% success rate in pitching expert opinion or thought leadership pitches to your target media.

Mobile app development company Robosoft wanted help to elevate their awareness and visibility in the US.

The company, founded in India and with a client roster including  Walmart, McDonald’s, Target and JC Penny, was expanding in the US, and need to be better perceived as a thought leader in mobile app development and digital transformation, and to inspire confidence among prospects.

They wanted a four-month ‘Kick Off” PR campaign around thought-leadership pieces to target C-suite in their verticals of technology, retail and ecommerce,  banking and finance, healthcare, and media and entertainment.

Here’s the ‘media insider’ process we used – and you can too – to secure that magical 100% success rate in every expert-opinion/thought-leadership pitch:

  1. Thorough ‘audit’ of all target media – i.e. only target media that takes outside thought-leaderhip contributors
  2. Draw up an expert-opinion pitch (approx 200 words) that has a hard-hitting angle
  3. Big up the profile of the proposed author to make s/he irresistible to your target editor i.e. you want the editor’s response to be: “of course I want an expert opinion piece from this person”
  4. After pitch was signed off by Robosoft, then pitch to individual target editors on target media. i.e. Find the full name and contact details of the commissioning editor.
  5. Follow up (‘to the death’, if necessary!) – do NOT skip this! By phone, twitter, or email. Methods don’t matter as much as the dedication to follow up
  6. Only once you get the commission from the editor do you then proceed to write that beautifully-crafted and nuanced expert opinion/thought leadership piece. i.e you are always writing to commission, and never submitting un-solicited articles
  7. Secure your media clipping, gloat (!), and squeeze the credibility value from it by handing the published over over to your sales team to impress prospects.

    Results:Here’s how it worked out for Robosoft.

    * 100% success rate in pitching expert-opinion pieces to Multichannel Merchant, Total Retail, Marketing Scope, Martech Advisor, and RIS News

    * Total monthly visitors: 257,000 monthly unique visitors to combined agreed target media outlets