We need to discuss the art of the email pitch.
You could be pitching the media, your boss, a new prospect or any other scenario you can dream up. When doing so, your pitch needs to be clear and concise. Period.
I’d like to share a little pitching secret (not really a secret) with you, but first, there are two important email pitching tips that will benefit you.
Your Pitch Needs to be Short
Don’t you love opening up a really long email that appears as if it’s going to take 10 minutes to read? Of course you don’t, and neither does the person you are pitching.
I’m not going to tell you that there’s a magical sentence count or anything of that nature, but you’re not going to find me sending a pitch that’s much longer than 5 – 7 sentences. Seriously. And yes, that includes the cutesy opening line that you’re probably going to be tempted to include. That leads us to the next email pitching tip.
Your Pitch Will Leave Things Out
I realize that whatever you are pitching is the most important thing in the world, but you don’t need to include every little detail in the pitch.
The goal is to provide just enough information to peak the recipient’s interests, not to write a product manual.
Be warned, leaving information out very well make you feel uncomfortable. You’ll want to select the golden nuggets that will prompt someone to read and respond positively to your pitch.
Think about pitch facts in terms of tier A – C.
Tier A is made up of crucial facts. Tier B – C are less and important. What you don’t want to do is include your entire Tier A set of facts in the initial pitch, only to be forced to share less exciting (B and C) facts when the prospect responds. Doing so doesn’t give you much to close the deal with.
Now for a Pitching Secret
Maybe this isn’t exactly a secret, but it’s something a ton of people ignore.
When writing your pitch, do so with the assumption that the person on the other end doesn’t care about what you have to say.
You’re annoying. You are just another email. Just one more email they are going to delete after reading the first sentence.
Sure, it’s a harsh perspective, but if you can write with that mindset, it’s going to benefit you a lot. You’re going to cut all of the fluff, and you’re going to get to the point and write the most interesting pitch possible.
Give it a shot.
Sample Pitch
After this post was written it was suggested that I provide a sample pitch. I’ll do so below and base it on what you’ve read above. See below.
Margaret,
I’ve written an article on email pitching that I think would work well for your audience.
In addition to providing a “pitching secret,” the article provides two tips that will be helpful to your readers. The first tip has to do with brevity, and the second helps people figure out what content to include in the pitch by using my special content tier technique.
Would you like me to send you the article for inclusion, and so you can learn more about the new tier technique that I referenced?
Ryan
The first paragraph is a simple intro that lets the recipient know what I’m pitching. Assuming I’ve vetted the recipient, this will be of interest.
The second paragraph teases three pieces of Tier A content: 1) the secret, 2) brevity and 3) the tier technique. While I mentioned all of the A content, I didn’t elaborate. It’s all a tease.
The third paragraph makes the ask, and continues to tease the tier technique.
I hope that example proves to be helpful.
