Unleashing the Power of the Epistle

 Read for Dec. 2, 2024: In “Band of Brothers,” an excellent HBO series about a real Army company and their true experiences in World War II, made about 25 years ago, Lt. Nixon is depressed when he gets a letter from his wife. Serving in the U.S. Army during WWII, you might think Nixon would crave a letter from home, but this is a “Dear John” letter—slang for what today would be a dump text. Mrs. Nixon was writing to say she had met someone else and was filing divorce papers.

In an era of instant communication, your ability to craft a compelling letter or email is still a key PR tool. Your text is mostly about “direct mail,” a kind of advertising that centers on a letter. The text is pretty complete in its description, and it is a good chapter rich in quiz question terms, so make sure you read Chapter 5.

That kind of letter and direct mail package is still used a lot, particularly in the nonprofit world where fund raising is a key.

However, I think one of the key letters a PR person should be able to write is the “pitch letter.” The text describes this briefly on page 211 of the appendix. I will expand on this genre. It is an important kind of writing for you, because many of you will soon be writing cover letters for resumés, and such a letter is an example of a pitch letter.

Earlier this term, we talked about the “media alert,” a formal kind of announcement of a newsworthy event to a set of media. A pitch letter, also sometimes called a query letter, serves a similar but distinct purpose. An alert will go out when you have a newsworthy idea for multiple media—a pitch letter is more personal and used when you have a more specific idea for an individual medium or journalist.

To write an effective pitch letter, you need both good material to pitch and an understanding of the person you are writing to. The parts of the pitch include:

• A compelling lede. The first sentence has to persuade the reader that they should continue. If you are writing to a journalist, it means they are also a trained writer—so you must write clearly, but intelligently.

• A worthwhile body. Give reasonable story angles, possibly in a bullet list. An angle is the approach or the point of view of a story--sometimes it's called the "news hook." Briefly explain the newsworthy topic or person you are introducing. Tie that person or thing to current news that this writer is interested in. Give the source ethos, if it is needed for the journalist to understand the pitch.

• An offer to facilitate an interview. Also, offer to supply any supplemental information needed. Noting that you will follow up or, sometimes, call the journalist is appropriate—if your relationship with the journalist is strong enough for direct contact. Don’t pester them or waste their time, but don’t fail to follow up if you say you are going to.

Remember to direct your pitch to the recipient personally, and think of how your idea benefits them. “You” is a way more powerful word to use than “I” is. Try to avoid staring a pitch with “I am writing to you to ….” By the time the reader gets to the word “writing” they are losing respect due to your trite, cliché writing. You are writing to a writer. Show some respect for the craft.

And dump any hype. A professional media communicator sees too much of that, considers it tawdry and cheap, and quickly loses interest.

Finally, it’s a key to be grammatically perfect. No error is minor here—get a colleague to read your pitch, and cultivate the advice of good writers.

 

One more topic: emails. These days, almost all pitches will be sent this way rather than in printed letters (but don’t ignore printed letters, they are still important in many contexts). Writing a pitch email is like writing a pitch letter, except:

• Have a good subject line. The subject line is all that the recipient sees when they decide whether “open” or “delete” is their appropriate response to your message. Again, no hype or clickbait—too much tawdry hype says “delete me” or “spam.”

• Be concise. The reading of email is often done on a phone screen. It does not all have to fit on one screen—a pitch email should be longer than a tweet—but the first screen will tell the reader whether a scroll is worthwhile.

• Avoid DM mode. Don’t be stuffy, but an official pitch email is not a text to your posse, either. Use no emoticons or memes or gifs. Avoid funky punctuation or ALL CAPS for emphasis. Be aware of the professional genre you are in, and write accordingly. And recall that, for most of you, at the start of your PR career, 95 percent of the people you interact with will be older and more experienced than you are. Don’t let that intimidate you, just keep in mind you’re not communicating with your age group.

• Avoid attachments. This is a guideline, not a law, but recall that many email systems and users treat any message from an unknown sender with an attachment as if it came from a Russian hacker farm--because it could have. Most of the time, offer to send the attachment if the person is interested.

• Be clear on your purpose. The receiver should be crystal clear on what you are asking for in an email pitch.

Other than that, with its formal salutation, lede, body, conclusion and your name at the end, this genre of email writing really is concise business letter writing. I hope you already are familiar with the format of that, but here some helpful links from other universities if you need more background information:

• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/business-letters/
• Kent State University: https://www.kent.edu/career/tips
• Purdue University OWL: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/professional_technical_writing/basic_business_letters/index.html