Effective Pitching Practices for Healthcare Public Relations

Healthcare public relations efforts are fueled by effective pitching and landing coverage. Through developing relationships with targeted reporters and news outlets, healthcare companies and organizations can better inform the public of their mission, policies and practices. Here is some advice on effectively pitching to health and healthcare reporters. Find the most relevant person at the most relevant outlet. Targeting specific media outlets and specific journalists for each pitch increases the likelihood of landing coverage. Honing in this way allows for you to take a step back and really consider your audience. Who is this pitch intended to reach? What media outlets do these people pay attention to? What journalists have recently covered this topic? These are all good questions for healthcare public relations practitioners to ask themselves before pitching. Check editorial calendars. Editorial calendars inform healthcare public relations practitioners when and what publications will be writing about. This should always be checked before pitching because they will be beneficial in coming up with the best pitching angles. To illustrate, perhaps a top healthcare trade publication is doing a special feature on heart disease. As the healthcare public relations representative for a company that specializes in treatment options for heart disease, this is the perfect opportunity to have a spokesperson provide commentary. Break through the noise. Journalists receive numerous email and phone pitches daily. In order to stand out, your pitch needs to be creative, different and memorable. Entice journalists by playing to their interests. The reader should be instantly engaged in your pitch and want to read on. Any pitch that seems too much like an ad will likely be disregarded by journalists. To avoid having a pitch that is too self-promoting, it is important to stretch beyond and tie to a larger issue or event. Simplicity is key. When pitching to the media, keep pitches short and to the point. The point of utilizing pitching for your healthcare public relations efforts is to get the media hooked and make them want more information from you. Therefore, there is no need to include every detail in your pitch. This also sets the stage for you to develop two-way communication and relationships with these journalists. Through using the above tips, healthcare companies and organizations should be able to pitch more effectively and see an increase in landing placements. This will not only increase media coverage, but position health care companies and organizations ahead of the competition.