Propel Study Finds Shorter PR Funding Pitches Lead to Better Coverage
The findings are part of a general trend of “less is more” when it comes to pitching journalists. The study also discovered which were the best top tier publications to pitch to, as well as which ones pose more of a challenge to PR professionals.
Tel Aviv, Israel — July 27, 2022 — Propel, the leading PR Management (PRM) platform, has aggregated its data to find what makes the perfect PR funding pitch and discovered that funding pitches have an average response rate of 6%, which is double the overall PR pitch average. This data is based on analyzing over 3,000 real funding pitches sent in the first half of 2022.
Pitching response rates have been falling year after year, with responses to the average pitch falling to a mere 3.33 % over the past six months. This is a 12% decrease from the previous year. Therefore, in an effort to understand how pitching can be done better, Propel decided to look at the metrics of the perfect pitch - specifically, the perfect funding pitch - to glean insights as to how best to get a journalist’s attention when it comes to funding.
Funding with subject lines between 6 and 9 words had a response rate at 6.9%. The subject line length with the lowest response rates were 10-15 words long at 4.24%. This is interesting, because over 65% of pitches sent had subject lines in this range, meaning that a longer subject line can make or break a pitching campaign. Meanwhile, pitches between 50-149 words had the highest response rate at 15%. Despite this, 44% of PR professionals were sending pitches which were between 500-999 words long despite pitches with that length only having a 2.26% response rate.
Finally, the research showed the top 10 outlets PR professionals pitched funding news to:
It turns out that reporters from Business Insider, NBC, Coin Telegraph, and the New York Times didn’t respond to any funding pitches, while journalists from Fortune, Wall Street Journal, and Techcrunch responded the most, responding to 25.64%, 16.46%, and 12.12% of pitches respectively.
“We did a deep dive analysis to understand the anatomy of a perfect funding pitch to enable startups and the agencies representing them to have a better shot at securing quality coverage for their financing” said Zach Cutler, Co-Founder and CEO of Propel. “The findings are clear - journalists respond more to shorter, succinct pitches and subject lines. We also discovered for the first time, in a quantitative way, which outlets are most responsive and least responsive to funding pitches“.”
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About Propel
Propel PRM is reimagining earned media with its Public Relations Management technology. The PRM platform enables marketing and communication professionals to discover the right media to pitch their stories to, manage media relationships and campaigns, monitor coverage and share of voice of their brand, and easily measure business impact from earned media efforts. Propel has over 150 customers, including Real Chemistry, Textron, Markettiers, Don’t Cry Worf, Insurify, and other leading brands and agencies. Launched in 2019, Propel is headquartered in Tel Aviv and has teams based in New York, London and Miami. Propel has raised $6 million in venture funding to date and is the fastest-growing PR technology in the world. For more information, visit www.propelmypr.com.
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