To Call or Not to Call

Ah, the follow-up. It’s like after a date – just how soon is too soon to call? If you call right away, you risk turning the person off. If you call too late, they may have moved on to other things. We PR people know that if we only relied on email our success rate wouldn’t be very high. Emails are easy to miss, delete, or get distracted from.

For me, the phone call after the email tends to be a gut-feel based on my relationship with a reporter. Here’s my rule of thumb: make sure that your call provides added value. If the only thing you have to say is, “Did you see my news?” You shouldn’t be making the call. Give yourself enough credit that you wrote a great pitch, that your news is in fact newsworthy, and that the journalists you work with know how to recognize a good story! It's like dating, if they're interested, they'll let you know!