The Anatomy of a Media Pitch
Earning free media coverage for your healthcare practice is not complicated. As I articulated in my previous post How to Get Earned Media in Seven Steps, you simply need to abide by a few basic rules to gain free PR for your practice.
The beauty of earned media coverage is layered success. Not only does coverage give your practice credibility via the third party implied endorsement of the media but it amplifies your social media exposure as well. You can take the content covered in the media segment and use it on your web and social sites to further promote your work.
In this post, I will share you with you a few media highlights from my career to establish a backdrop. I will then share with you a recent story I pitched and placed in the Las Vegas media. I will break down what, how and why I did what I did. Hopefully this explanation will help you next time you or your PR firm pitches a prospective story.
As a former TV news reporter who spent 15 years in newsrooms around the country, I have a good sense of what can work as a media pitch. Here are a few past successes I have had placing media:
At Sher Institute, a concept I envisioned became the subject of a documentary film covered last November by the New York Times. Being interviewed by the New York TImes was scary but I survived. Whew.
The I Believe Video Journal Project inspired a documentary film by an Academy-Award nominated filmmaker and was covered by the New York Times in November of 2015.
CNN also covered this project. I didn’t pitch them. They came to us. Here is the CNN Story. I also secured media coverage on The Doctors, ABC News and USA Today. All told I was fortunate to have pitched and placed more than 500 media stories in the past five years.
Fast forward to last week in Las Vegas. I wanted to help gain free media exposure for an amazing story at Abrams Eye Institute. On a regular basis I meet with my client Dr. Jack Abrams to discuss story ideas. He told me about a family of six all suffering from the same eye disease. That is a story!
Here is what I pitched to the local media: Abrams Eye Story Pitch.
The Marquez family share a love for soccer, Spain and being outside to see nature. Seeing is the thing mom Alma worries most about.
Her 17 year old son Arturo is losing his vision. His twin brother Rogelio has the same disease as do his two younger siblings, 12 year old Maria and 9 year old Sebastian. Alma and her husband Marco also suffer from this same condition.
This is the viciousness of a Keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease that impacts 1 in 500 people and is very prevalent in the Hispanic community. Luckily for the Marquez family there is hope.
Enter Dr. Jack Abrams at Abrams Eye Institute. Dr. Abrams is the only surgeon in Nevada to offer laser assisted INTACS surgery. Intacs are a type of lens inserted into the eye to restore vision.It is important to educate people about Keratoconus to catch the disease before the patient needs a transplant.
Please let us know if you would like to speak with Marquez family and Dr. Abrams. They are having surgery on the same day, back to back. We will give you access to film the surgeries.
Lisa Stark
lisa@starkmediastrategies.com
702-374-1573
Success! We had three stations cover various aspects of the story. Here is the coverage by:
- KTNV TV
Dr. Abrams on KTNV
2. KLAS TV
Channel 8 Coverage
And Telemundo – that’s free coverage from three local stations via one media pitch.
There you have it. A simple pitch translates into positive exposure for Dr. Abrams. Do you have any good stories worth pitching?