What to Do With Pitches That Don’t Land

Four ways to repurpose an unsuccessful pitch

Pitching to media outlets can be a time-consuming process, and it’s not always a guarantee that your pitch will land. Journalists receive large volumes of pitches daily, making it both crucial and difficult to stand out from the crowd. But even with a well-crafted pitch, factors such as editorial priorities, timing, and luck can influence whether your pitch lands or gets buried in a stack of unread emails. Rejections and non-responses are all too typical, and it can be frustrating to put in so much effort and not see any results. 

However, if you are confident that your pitch is gold, do not toss those pitches out right away. There are still things you can do to make sure that  time (and content) isn’t wasted. Here are four things THEPRBAR Agency does with pitches that don’t land press coverage. 

1. Save your pitches. 

One approach is to create a searchable digital catalog where you can store your pitches for future reference or use. You can use tools like ClickUp (what we use at THEPRBAR Agency), Google Docs, and Notion, as well as paid platforms like Muck Rack and Cision to  saveour pitches. These platforms provide a structured and organized space where you can store your pitches, making it convenient to search and retrieve them whenever needed. By saving your pitches, you can easily hold on to the original format of your pitch language and reuse elements in the future. 

It’s also wise to pull noteworthy data points or quotes and save them separately in a different document for easy retrieval. This can be valuable in crafting future pitches or providing timely insights to journalists who reach out to you in a time crunch. So, don’t just delete or forget your pitches (and data) if they don’t land, save them for future use!

2. Repurpose your pitches. 

When a pitch fails to land coverage, the angle or language itself can still provide tremendous value when repurposed. If the content is valuable and relevant, there are numerous ways to repurpose it effectively. First and foremost, you can use the language or topic and create owned content or owned media for your client or your business. For example, you can transform your evergreen pitch angle into a thoughtful blog post that speaks to your target audience. 

Another option could be crafting a single post or series of posts on social media. Let’s say you had a pitch for an upcoming wine gift guide article that didn’t hit the mark. Rather than letting the idea go to waste, you can repurpose it into a series of TikTok videos that feature wine tastings, pairings, fun facts, or behind the scenes footage on the wine making process. Additionally, don’t be afraid to expand on the content in long-form LinkedIn posts.

3. Reuse key points of old pitches for future pitching.

Fun fact: you can absolutely reuse elements of old pitches that didn’t get picked up. Sometimes, despite our best efforts to craft a relevant pitch it can still fail to catch the attention of journalists due to factors outside of our control (i.e. spam folders, missed subject lines, etc.). While it can be very disheartening (and frustrating), if one writer missed out on the opportunity to leverage your hard work, there’s no reason you can’t integrate key points into another pitch if relevant. 

Instead of pressing “send” and never looking back, why not consider integrating that valuable content into another pitch, as long as it remains relevant? Not only does reusing key points and elements of past pitches save you time and effort, but it also allows you to avoid having to reinvent the wheel every single time. (We all know how time-consuming crafting new pitches can be!)

4. Go for the byline.

Last, but certainly not least, one final approach that you can try is pitching bylines. A byline is “the name of a writer, news organization, publication, or other entity that appears at the beginning of an article to credit the author.” So, in this case – it means it’s an article authored by you or your client. Basically, if your pitches don’t result in someone else writing about it, there is no reason why you can’t step up and take charge, putting on your thought leader hat and pursuing the byline opportunity yourself. 

You or your client can write about the topic yourself either on your own blog or on a third-party media site. Depending on the goals and relevance, you can pitch a byline to well-established platforms like Well and Good or Harvard Business Review. Of course, it’s important to make sure that the topic you’re writing about is relevant and timely. For example, you don’t want to pitch a parenting idea to National Geographic. The platform of choice needs to make sense with your PR strategy!

Unfortunatly, the success of a pitch cannot always be guaranteed, but it doesn’t mean the effort put into it should go to waste. With the right approach, a pitch’s potential is not limited to a single opportunity. The secret to maximizing the value of your news pitches lies in saving, repurposing, reusing, and exploring alternatives such as bylines. And always remember, the goal is to work smarter, not harder!

Ready to take your PR to the next level? Tune in to THEPRBAR’s Pitchin’ and Sippin’ podcast and get inspired with great tips and strategies on how to do PR successfully.

Author Byline: THEPRBAR inc. is an online coaching platform, resource hub, and PR agency built to help motivated entrepreneurs and companies expand their impact, visibility, and revenue through relationship-driven marketing and PR.