Heart Internet’s Tips in Ten

Pitching content to third partiesYou’re just ten slides away from learning how to approach

third party sites & publications with your content to improve your reach.

Why pitch your content?

• Free exposure for your content and website.

• Links and traffic to your site.• Build up your authority and reputation.• Increase your organic reach naturally

over time.• More social sharing of your content.• Make sure your hard work gets seen –

“if you build it they will come” has never been less true.

• Quick and easy once you have a process down.

How to find (good) third parties• Develop a list of good, non-conflict-of-

interest websites, industry magazines, blogs etc.

• Start with your bookmarks or feed reader and add a “Prospects” list or folder.

• Check your competitors’ newsletters, blogs and backlinks for inspiration.

• Keep an eye out for people currently looking to promote something specific of their own; they are often more receptive to partnerships & collaborations.

Pitching tips

• Sell! Sell! Sell! – convince them they want it. Explain why it’s a good piece of content and a good fit for them.

• Be clear on the benefits (quality content creation, relationship building, PR, branding, site/publication you’re pitching to etc.).

• Explain/introduce yourself as an authority and list relevant achievements/relationships (briefly).

• Represent your website/brand/company in a friendly, personable way.

Handy pitching framework“AIDA” principle (credit: ZazzleMedia.co.uk)

Attention - Grabbing their attention with your sales pitch, or simply your product. Tell them who you are too

Interest - Make it relevant and interesting. You have to have an angle.

Desire - Convince them that they want and need what is being offered.

Action - Close the deal (will come after your pitch).

Potential pitch structure• Intro – who you are, who we are and what

we doe.g. “My name is Alex, I work for UK web hosting company Heart Internet”

• Background of your contente.g. “We’ve been doing research into the UK web design events scene…”

• Key features of your contente.g. “Some startling figures have emerged from our research, including…”

• Description of your contente.g. “We’ve created this beautiful, retro games themed infographic to present our data…”

Potential pitch structure (cont.)• Relevancy to their audiencee.g. “We think that the infographic is perfect for your magazine audience because…”

• Benefits for theme.g. ways you can return the favour, develop the relationship further, any opportunities you can offer, promotion of their own content/website through available channels.

• Content and supplementse.g. “attached is the infographic in full, along with the HTML code and some more information on our research…”

• What you wante.g. publishing requirements, republishing details, formatting requirements.

• Sign off and contact detailse.g. “If you have any more questions, please let me know.” Or “Please let me know if you would like to publish the infographic…”.

Writing emails

• Be as positive as possible!

• Be friendly, professionally informal, confident.

• Show authority by telling them about the data sources, or the company’s successes, or well-known companies/websites you’ve worked with in a similar context in the past.

• Allow for formatting differences between email clients – keep it simple.

Golden rules - Dos

Do

Give them your contact details. Give them a direct line.

Make it personal and individual to the website or person you are approaching.

Tell them about the company: pedigree, core customers and target market.

Be as positive as possible – if you don’t like it, they won’t.

Make it easy for them to implement by providing links and correct attachments/info.

Offer something in return if you can Make it easy – do all the work for them (writing,

formatting, coding etc.) Be familiar with their standard publishing processes.

Golden rules - Don’ts

Don’t

× Send the exact same email to multiple targets.

× Use a name unless you definitely have one.× Under-sell it.× Make promises you know you can’t keep.× Be disorganised: make sure you keep a

record of who you’ve contacted and when.× Forget to follow up: people often miss/forget

about emails because they’re busy.× Give up – expect nos rather than yeses, and

you’ll never be disappointed.

Tips for working with third parties• Don’t commit to anything you’re not sure about, for example creating regular content for them.

• Third parties love giveaways, so investigate the prospect of providing a prize they can give to their readers.

• Third parties often want exclusivity – there are ways to accommodate for this, for example writing a unique blog post to supplement the infographic you’re sending to multiple websites. Be honest about what’s on offer.

• Know their audience, and show the owner you know their audience.

• Know what they’ve already published (so you know what they’re interested in and also don’t repeat things they’ve already covered).