1. www.hodgespart.com Follow us on Twitter: @FairfaxEbird Tweet about this session: #fceda

2. www.hodgespart.com Marketing Communications Workshop Series Developing & Delivering Your Message March 17, 2015 #fceda

3. www.hodgespart.com #fceda

4. www.hodgespart.com What’s A Pitch? “Elevator pitch” grew out of the.com boom –“a succinct and persuasive sales pitch” –Sell me your idea (and make be believe in you) in 30 seconds or less More broadly today –Your verbal business card –Your start-up idea #fceda

5. www.hodgespart.com Makings Of A Great Pitch 1.Easy – what does your company do? 2.Not so easy – what do you do better than your competitors? 3.Much harder – how do you convince me? #fceda

6. www.hodgespart.com Questions To Ponder What are your strengths? What are some adjectives to describe you? What do you believe in? What do your best customers say about you? What do your non-customers think? #fceda

7. www.hodgespart.com Group Exercise Question 1 – what does your company do? Question 2 – what does your company do better than anyone else? Question 3 – why should I care? #fceda

8. www.hodgespart.com How’d You Do? #fceda

9. www.hodgespart.com Tailoring The Pitch Tailor your pitch to your audience –Prospects, industry insiders, funders, media Make it relevant –Make me care Choose the right words –Avoid industry-speak, jargon –Speak in your “brand voice” #fceda

10. www.hodgespart.com Media Relations #fceda

11. www.hodgespart.com Stand Out From the Crowd “I get about 500 e-mails a day at this point, and a lot of them are unsolicited story ideas.” - Steve Ladurantaye, Globe and Mail “I get many unsolicited PR pitches sent to me via email. Nearly all of them are untargeted broadcast pitch, usually in the form a press release. I almost always delete without reading.” - David Meerman Scott, formerly with Knight Ridder #fceda

12. www.hodgespart.com Media Landscape Newspapers –Dailies, weeklies Magazines –Consumer, trade TV/radio Online –Traditional outlets –Blogs –Social Media #fceda

13. www.hodgespart.com Media Outreach Starts with research –Know the outlets –Know the reporters Developing targets –Databases –Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter –Understanding your end-target What do they read/watch? Build/verify your list #fceda

14. www.hodgespart.com Thinking like a reporter What’s new or different? –Product, company, leadership What’s the larger trend? –You as part of a larger story What’s your expert insight? –What are you seeing that others aren’t? –Stats and examples to back it up #fceda

15. www.hodgespart.com Making Contact Establishing a relationship –Introduce yourself/your expertise –Comment on a story –Follow on Facebook/Twitter/blogs #fceda

16. www.hodgespart.com The Pitch What is a Pitch? –Piquing interest in your story/POV Email vs. phone call –Most prefer email It’s like a sales call #fceda

17. www.hodgespart.com The Pitch Email pitch Short and sweet Tease The Subject Line (relevance) Lead with your news Support with context –Trend –Expertise Offer more info Embed Visuals #fceda

18. www.hodgespart.com Pitching Exercise Now you try… What’s your pitch? –What’s your lede? –Why’s it news? –Why should I care? #fceda

19. www.hodgespart.com How’d you do? #fceda

20. www.hodgespart.com The News Release Still needed? Format Date, contact, city, etc. NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release Contact: Alan Fogg Phone Email HEADLINE Subhead Springfield, Va., Jan. 19, 2013 – The FCEDA announced today… #fceda

21. www.hodgespart.com A Word about Language Keep language simple Avoid hyperbole Avoid industry jargon REAL WORLD EXAMPLE “Zimbra is the leader in open source, next-generation collaboration and messaging software. We provide innovative experiences to end-users and their administrators because we see existing tools are fundamentally broken. We also believe in compatibility with existing infrastructure and applications (both open source and proprietary).” #fceda

22. www.hodgespart.com New York Times Company - 2010 #fceda

23. www.hodgespart.com David Meerman Scott - 2008 #fceda

24. www.hodgespart.com Headline Punchy summary of the news –Subhead (optional) can expound Fairfax Economic Development President Named “Business Person of the Year” Dr. Gerald Gordon honored with Virginia Business magazine’s third annual award #fceda

25. www.hodgespart.com The Lede Restate the main news from headline When? Where? Who? Descending order of importance Fairfax County, Jan. 19, 2013 – The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority announced today that 412 of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies have agreed to move to the county by the end of the calendar year. #fceda

26. www.hodgespart.com The Body More details Your point of view (quotes) URL for more information Boilerplate #fceda

27. www.hodgespart.com What’s News Launch of new product Companies solving problems –Case studies Consumer tips Events/transactions HR news (appointments, promotions) Expert opinion #fceda

28. www.hodgespart.com Distribution Wholesale vs. retail –Craft for specific outlets –Mass email –Distribution services PR Newswire, BusinessWire –Social channels Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc. Profnet/HARO #fceda

29. www.hodgespart.com Thank you! @clp1917 @jonnew #fceda