Blog - Burning Questions from Members

When talking about pitching the morning shows like the Today Show, whether you are on the publicist side of the fence or the client side, everyone knows there is a Holy Grail that many small businesses are reaching for - a Trifecta of placements for the pr side of a campaign.  Without a doubt they tend to be: Oprah, the Today Show, Good Morning America, the CBS Early Show, The View, CNBC, CNN...You get the picture.

Several of our Collective-E members have been featured on the Today Show, including designer Sabina Les and Gemma Redux. Mom inventor Katie Danziger of nomie baby made her way onto the CBS Morning Show. Because these shows tape constantly - the morning shows tape EVERY morning - they need a good story to fill air time. The key to rising above all of the other pitches they receive is: know how to pitch the outlet before you jump in blindly and start spamming them.

We've shared tips on how to pitch Oprah with you in the past, so now we're going to move on to some key things you MUST know about pitching the morning shows.  If you understand what they want, and how you can present it to them, then you are halfway there.  People with little to no pr experience have landed a key spot on the Today Show.  How?  They sent a quick and direct pitch and followed some rules that made it easier for the producers to see just how useful their story is.  

How did we get our tips for getting on the Today Show and other morning shows? Through experience of course, but also through speaking directly with the producers themselves about what they want.

Before you click on our tips for pitching the morning shows, there are some tips that are so basic and important, you must know them before all others:

• Know your outlet. 
• NEVER pitch a show if you haven't  watched a couple recent episodes.
• Know which host covers which segments.
• Know the host's style (is it "nighttime style in the daytime", "celebrity driven", "serious news", "tips and tricks")
• Know to the best of your ability who produces the show (do this through reasearch, watching the show credits, looking online, checking the Collective-E lifestyle show contact list going live next week)
• Know what time they tape the show before it airs.
• Know what the show has done segment-wise in the past month or so. This will ensure you aren't pitching the same stories they are currently covering, which would be bad. 

At the end of the day, your job is to provide great content for these morning shows so that they can pass on to their viewers.  If you aren't doing this and telling them how you can do this in a quick, easy to read pitch, your attempts at getting onto the Today Show and other morning shows will be an uphill climb.

Here at Collective-E, we provide several contacts at the Today Show and other morning shows. Collective-E members have direct access to these contacts. Our members also get PR Leads from us, which from time to time include opportunities to pitch the big morning shows as well as local morning shows, to build your PR portfolio and gain credibility. To get access to these contacts and PR Leads, click here to join Collective-E. The member benefits we offer include much more than media contacts and PR Leads, so learn more about how Collective-E can help build your brand.