Did you know, out of every ten email pitches an editor receives, only nine gets opened. Yes, that is how low the open rate is for email pitches. It is not because editors are not used to receiving pitches over email. It is just that some pitches are so bad that editors choose not to waste time reading email pitches altogether.
So if you are thinking about sending your first email pitches, you must make sure you have a great offer. Remember that getting your editors or bloggers’ contact information might be the easiest part of this process. But drafting an engaging pitch and selling it to your prospect is the hardest part.
Search the About Us Page
Most websites that maintain a blog have their in-house team of expert writers. But from time to time, they might outsource new content to freelance writers. They might also consider doing it to offer something new to the readers. As every writer has their style, a new writer can just be what you need to break the monotony and infuse new ideas.
Look into the About Us page for these sites. Usually, you will find all the contact information listed there. Some websites might even have separate pages titled “Write for Us” or “Become a Writer.” If a website has such a page, you will find everything you need there. Starting from the email address of their editor, and how to pitch your idea.
Check Social Media Accounts
If you do not find any contact information from the About Us Page, you have to do a little more work and skim their Facebook official page. Go directly to the About Us section on their Facebook page, and you will see all the information you need.
Many editors also share their plans to hire new freelance writers on Twitter. So after you have drafted down a list of all the websites you want to pitch at, you should check their Twitter page individually. Most blogging sites have a particular window when they accept pitches from independent writers. Create an Excel sheet, and note down the time frame.
Along with Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn is another popular social media platform where you will find the contact details of your targeted blogging website. Sometimes, their LinkedIn profile will have all the necessary information.
Search the Website
If a blogging website does not have an About Us page, and if they do not have social media accounts, there is one more way you can get in touch with them. And that is by checking out Author pages. Visit their website, and open a blog. Scroll down, and you will see a small Author Box. That box might have a short bio of the writer. Click on it, and you will be redirected to a new page where you will find all the contact information about your prospect.
But there are sites, who hire many ghostwriters and publish articles on their site from an Editorial account. If that is the case, you will not make much progress skimming their author pages. You need an email finder tool.
Use an Email Finder
If you fail to find editors’ contact information by following all the steps mentioned above, you can use an email hunter tool. Some might resort to tools like Voila Norbert in the first place as they are the easiest and most reliable methods of curating prospects’ email addresses.
One more example of an email finding tool is SignalHire. This online tool lets you curate anyone’s contact information from any corner of the internet. You can search for their social media accounts or search people by name. This tool comes with a handy browser extension. You can get the Signalhire Mozilla Extension here.
Moreover, this powerful tool lets you search for contact information by name. You also go one step further and conduct an industry-wide search. So if you wish to send pitches to a niche website that covers a niche topic, you can benefit from the Search by Industry feature of Signalhire.
Mind Who You Are Contacting
Some people never get a reply to their email pitches because they are sending them to the wrong people. You cannot expect to send your pitch to an HR manager and get a response. Similarly, if you send your pitch to the Account manager, he will not take the time to inform his editor about your pitch.
So before you send an email, make sure you are sending it to the right recipient. Often, editors are the ones who deal with pitches from freelance writers. But many websites might have a separate manager who deals with such pitches.
A Standard Pitch
Apart from curating the contact details and sending the emails, there is one more thing one needs to take care of. And that is to follow a standard pitch for all your emails.
First, note down how many Editors you want to send your pitch to. Once you have the list, go look at whether they have a predefined template for pitching article ideas. If they do, stick to that format. But if they do not, you are at liberty to write a standard yourself.
Keep it short and precise. Make sure to include a summary of the article. Also, tell the editor, how many words the article will have, whether you also want to do a video version of the content, and anything else that might help you sell your pitch.
It is also important to keep track of how many editors you are sending a pitch to. If an editor agrees to your pitch, and after one week into the project, another editor responds to your mail, you should clearly state why you cannot accept his offer. But you might be able to use this conversation to your advantage and try to sell him some other pitch you have been working on.
