Top 5 tips for calling Media

*This post is part of Bailey Gardiner’s Public Relations Tactics series, which highlights tools and best practices to ensure a successful public relations campaign. The series will run weekly.

For those of you not familiar, the infamous follow-up phone call is a PR tactic we use to try to convey the awesomeness of our clients in the 15  short seconds we have before a reporter cuts us off and tells us he’s on deadline. These calls can be scary, repetitive and frustrating, but more importantly, extremely effective.

As it turns out there is an art to the follow up phone call, and in my past two years at BG, I have learned a couple of great tips that I thought I’d share here.

Top 5 tips for calling media:

• Don’t script out your call. It’s so tempting to do, but don’t. The reporter on the other end can invariably tell that you are reading your message and will likely completely tune you out. If you are leaving a voice mail, you probably got deleted after the first sentence. If you got them live, they likely stopped listening a while ago and when you do finish reading, they will tell you to send it in an email and hang up. Instead, try and remember that the person on the other end is human. Ask them questions. Maybe even start with a “how’s your day going?” You can ask them if now is a good time to chat. And after you give them your very short pitch, ask them if this is something they’d be interested in.

• If they answer, get as much information out of them as possible. These days it seems challenging to get someone on the other end to even pick up, so if you are fortunate enough to get someone live, make the most out of the opportunity. If they aren’t interested, ask them if there is someone else who is. You can also try another angle with them or ask them what they are interested in. And if you have another client that might be a fit, be sure to tell them about that, too.

• Try calling at different times of the day. Sometimes you’ll take out your list and make 20 calls and not one person will answer. That’s no fun. We all know a voicemail will only get us so far and it’s best to get someone live so you can really talk through all the angles. So once you’ve left your voicemail try calling back on a different day at a different time. And then just keep trying until someone answers. Your efforts will be rewarded when you finally get Mr. Reporter on the phone and he tells you yes.

• Remember what was said during the phone call. It can get confusing when you call person after person, but if you are able to have an actual conversation with the reporter, remembering what was said can go a long way to building a relationship with media. I once had a reporter from the Dallas Morning News who told me she wished our client that does stem cell therapy for animals would do it for humans so she could get some on her knee. Those little tidbits are gold when sending your email, because it proves to the reporter that you were listening and that you are genuinely interested in working with them. It also helps them remember you and your client. All in all, a win-win.

• You have 15 seconds – one of my colleagues once broke it down for me like this, and I’ve found it to be really true: You essentially have 15 seconds to capture the media’s interest so the first sentence you say about your client better be solid. After that if they are still interested, you have about a minute to make your case. Any longer and they’ll start to tune you out, so have a little list of the best, most-newsworthy points that you can touch on in just a minute. If they are still interested, then you are good to go. You can likely keep them on the phone for another 5 minutes after that. The trouble is, it’s so hard to get past the first two barriers that you don’t often get those 5 minutes. So prepare yourself, prioritize your points and then just wow them.

Got any other good pointers for luring the media in via phone?