In my experience, there are countless ways to write a strong pitch—and possibly even more ways to mess it up. While this post is far from my personal Pitching Manifesto, I have put together below some definite factors that will ensure your email finds the trash bin.

1. Too Long

I think we can all agree that when it comes to pitching, brevity is preferred. This is certainly true when you consider what a journalist’s inbox must look like, but I like to keep my pitches short for a different reason. If you, as a PR practitioner, can’t explain the story concisely, you probably don’t understand the story well enough. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had the pleasure of pitching complex topics (cough::technology::cough), but it’s still important to explain the angle crisply so the journalist can envision the story instantly. Unfortunately, I cannot provide an “ideal length” because every story is different, but if the reporter needs to scroll down to read the entire message, it’s probably too long.

2. Wrong Person

This part requires thorough research and ongoing consideration. It’s a pretty terrible feeling when you receive a reply from a pitch (Reaction: “YES!”), only to have it read, “Not my beat.” (Reaction: “NO!”) Hopefully, you’re following your client’s industry well enough to know the right contact immediately, but if you are starting from scratch, don’t skimp on media list research. In fact, I like to find a few contacts at each outlet that I feel might be interested, then approach each sequentially. Just because your first choice isn’t into your pitch doesn’t mean it’s a bad story. And if you do receive an official rejection, you at least have opened up communication. Now ask who the right person is!

3. Weak Angle 

Not all story angles are created equal. In the event that you’re tasked with pitching a story that in your estimation feels “weak,” your first option should be to talk to the client. Constantly bringing reporters sub-par pitches only damages your ability to secure future placements, and as your client’s partner, it’s absolutely acceptable to let them know the story isn’t what it needs to be. If that option doesn’t exist, I like to see if I can take my client’s angle and make it larger. Instead of a story narrowly focused on my client alone, can I pitch the industry as a whole, with my client as one of the companies profiled in the piece? Is there a larger trend that my smaller angle supports? Can we piggyback something that is more newsworthy? It’s not easy to do—and it won’t always work—but if you’re given a lemon, make lemonade.

4. Not Enough Meat

In my opinion, the single most important factor in securing a placement is making the story easy to visualize. Put on your editor cap, and try to write the headline. Now try and imagine what else the reporter would need to write the story. Can you provide quotes, statistics, specific examples, expert sources, customer insight, etc.? If the story is online, can you provide video content for the journalist to embed? Package the story neatly, and I bet you’ll find more success in pitching.

5. Bad Timing

And then there’s the case where you have the right story, sent to the right reporter and it included all the necessary information… and you still never hear back. Trust me; it’s happened to me plenty. More often than not, this is the result of inundated inboxes, understaffed newsrooms or summer vacation schedules. Don’t let the circumstances discourage you. If you feel confident you’ve got a juicy story on your hands, then don’t stop pitching! Persistence pays off, and it’s your responsibility to exhaust all your options.

Name: Andrea Drabczyk

Title: Digital Project Coordinator

Years at COHN: 3 years

If you weren’t mastering the world of Digital, what would you be doing? What did you want to be when you grew up?

That’s a good question… I’m pretty sure I dreamed of being everything from a veterinarian (that is, until I learned how they take dogs’ temperatures), to a princess, to a lawyer when I was younger. I’m really happy I ended up in the digital world because I really enjoy what I do everyday, but I have to admit if the opportunity ever arises to pursue my dream of being a princess, I don’t think I could pass it up.

Who is your favorite character (from a movie, TV show, book, story, etc.) of all time and why?

If you know me, you know the answer to this question – Harry Potter. I absolutely love Harry Potter! I started reading the books in fifth grade and have been a fan of the wizard ever since. I can’t even tell you how many times I have read each book and watched each movie. I love the magic and imagination, the adventures and how Harry always seems to find a way to outsmart every situation.

What is your favorite thing about your life?

My family. I’m lucky because I have a pretty big family that I get to see often. It’s a lot of fun whenever we are together because I have a ton of siblings and we’re all very different and vary in age (I’m the youngest) but get along well.  Someone always has something exciting going on so there is never a dull moment.

You need only call your Mom, Dad, or in my case my Grandma too, or look across the couch at your daughter or son, and ask them how that iPhone, Droid or Blackberry is treating them. For those more analytically inclined, the most recent Nielsen and comScore reports peg smartphone penetration numbers perilously close to tipping over the 50% threshold.

Along with the numbers from Nielsen and comScore, InsightExpress recently released a slew of new data about the habits of mobile phone users. What is overwhelmingly clear is that smartphone owners are increasingly using their devices for a myriad of activities. Long gone are the days when mobile phone owners used their phones to simply make calls. Daily activities extend to texting, checking email, going online, checking the weather, using their favorite social network application, using apps, managing their calendar, taking pictures and streaming music.

This information won’t likely come as a big surprise for most marketers, but look further and you’ll find a few interesting trends, particularly the year over year comparisons around activities. As Kathryn Koegel points out over at AdAge, it appears the early-adopter activities such as checking in via apps such as Foursquare or the now gobbled up Gowalla, video watching, and coupon usage via a smartphone are on the decline.

Couple that insight with the recent numbers from Nielsen and comScore and it seems we are moving to a smartphone market that is largely dominated by normal folks who are using their phones for a variety of activities on a consistent, daily basis. As Koegel mentions, this is all good news for marketers as it means there are a myriad of ways to connect with users within their mobile environment. From mobile ads in their browser, branded elements within their gameplay, or through the music they are playing, brands can now more than ever begin to leverage these mobile activities to their benefit.

It also means brands need to quickly realize that a mobile consumer isn’t defined by a single demographic or persona. Smartphone users are crossing every statistical characteristic that exists. Moreover, they are landing in the hands of the average human, and this means we as marketers will have to understand their usage habits to connect within them on the go.

What do you think? Do you see more and more of your family and friends using a smartphone? Do their habits differ from yours?

I was reminded of this concept last Friday at the Colorado Auctioneers Association’s Annual Convention, at which I gave a presentation on brand development. Heading into the presentation, I wanted to focus my efforts on explaining how brand development could help one fast talker differentiate himself from another, equally capable fast talker. After sitting through a few presentations from actual auctioneers, however, I realized that the profession is about more than just talking at ridiculous speeds.

Auctioneers are problem solvers. They are caring and trustworthy partners for selling entities that refuse to settle for anything less than the seller deserves. They routinely are required to think outside the box—especially when selling rare or unique items. And most importantly, their primary objective is always to leave the seller feeling satisfied.

Like any industry though, some auctioneering companies understand this better than others.

One speaker told an anecdote about a piece of land he helped sell, where his client seemed conflicted due to nostalgia associated with the property. Specifically, the seller mentioned she would miss the smell of the soil when it was turned over every year. Understanding that he was more than just an auctioneer, the speaker bottled a few jars of the fresh soil from the land and gave them to the seller after the auction as a gift. That’s how you add depth and complexity to a profession like auctioneering. Just as Chipotle understands that its brand is about more than just burritos, this auctioneer understood that his brand is more complex than simply the sale of land or goods.

The lesson here is that smart companies consistently identify opportunities to add depth and color to their brand foundation, and this is a concept that can never be lost in the minds of marketers.

27 shopping centers in 16 communities (see list below) are the first shopping centers in the country to have this cutting-edge program and we want to celebrate its launch with a community service initiative that will award a nonprofit group a $10,000 donation.

How can groups make $10,000? The goal is to generate 30,000 new ValuText members by May 31, 2012. We are looking for community ambassadors for the ValuText program to help build our membership base, simply by spreading the word about ValuText through email, social media, meetings, events, word-of-mouth, enrolling members, etc.

The first 10 participating groups to reach 1,000 users will receive a $1,000 donation and the group that generates the most users (minimum of 10,000) by February 17, 2012 will receive a $10,000 donation!

If you are interested in participating in the ValuText community service program, please contact Lisa Wieting at 303-839-1415 or lisa@cohnmarketing.com.

Click here to view the ValuText video

Participating locations:

As we looked ahead at 2012, we knew it was time for an overhaul of our brand. It had been several years since we reviewed our identity. Our website was painfully out of date. And, we were hardly telling our brand story of what we do for our clients and how the agency has evolved in recent years…even recent months. It was the proverbial case of the shoemaker’s kids walking without shoes. In this case, the marketing and PR firm was putting its own needs last. And, it was time for real change, not just for the fun of it, but to tell our story in the best way possible.

We started with a thorough review of our own internal brand strategy. This led to an internal team brand launch to ensure we had buy-in throughout the company. From there, we began the work of rethinking our external brand identity, which led to some really big changes:

-Move from Cohn Marketing to COHN (and in some cases, COHN, Inc.)

-Drop the use of the square brand icon

-Add our key service lines to the logo: Brand, Strategy, Creative, Digital, PR and Social

-Define a set of colors that best represent our brand

-Establish a new logo and brand expression style guide
From there, we began work on our new website. The new site had to achieve three key objectives:

1.  Tell our full story of what we do as a company, and how we excel at meeting client marketing and PR objectives.
2. Tell that story in a compelling, beautifully designed way that reflects our design and art direction capabilities.
3. Ensure that the site leverages the latest development technologies and reflects our digital capabilities from ease of use to smooth functionality to search optimization and easy updating.

The new site, which can be viewed at CohnMarketing.com, does a great job of achieving these objectives and then some.

I am really proud of our entire team at COHN for their efforts in this important branding initiative. Led by Ali Lego, the creative team of Jesse Pixler and Teri Springer, project management via Andrea Drabczyk, and with the guidance of our new head of digital, Michael Barber, this site brings to life the new COHN brand in a compelling way.

Bring it on, 2012! The team at COHN is ready to make big things happen for our clients, old and new. Our new brand and website proves that in a superlative way. Great job Team COHN!

Other times, the work is so powerful that it seems to live on in our hearts even years later.

For our company’s 10-year anniversary, I wanted our team to construct a memorable campaign that would celebrate our success, bring the team together and linger in our minds for years to come. “The Power of 10” did just that.

The result was a philanthropic initiative that asked the general public to nominate worthy non-profits, and the three organizations with the highest votes would receive marketing and branding service packages from Cohn to enhance their missions and drive awareness for their causes. With a total of 132,548 votes, “The Power of 10” surpassed all of our goals and expectations of the program, with the top organization receiving more than 40,000 votes.

Each with its own unique story and situation, the winning organizations were a joy to work with. Cat Care Society (Denver) received the most votes with 44,890, Cancer Crusaders (New Orleans) was second with 44,244, and Empower Playgrounds (Provo, Utah) finished third.

Since we informed the winners in January, Cohn has worked with each organization to help with their branding and marketing needs. With Cat Care Society, our Public Relations team put together a two-phased plan to help build awareness locally and retain long-term donor support. For Empower Playgrounds, the Public Relations team worked with the organization to focus its messaging to more effectively tell its story to media, potential donors and stakeholders and drafted a messaging platform for the burgeoning non-profit to utilize in the future. And for Cancer Crusaders, our Digital team is helping build the organization’s first website in its 30 years of existence, and it will officially launch in early 2012.

And as for Cohn, we won several awards for “The Power of 10,” received a flood of positive feedback from the community, and we all consider our efforts a resounding success. “The Power of 10” even inspired a similar initiative from a marketing firm in Indiana.

“The Power of 10” had staying power, and even a year later, the campaign lives on in our hearts and minds. That’s the sign of truly great work.

Cohn actually developed the ValuText program for DDR from the ground up, so it’s been fun to watch the program take off in the media. Below is a collection of some of the news placements thus far:

• The New York Times — “Text Messages to Woo Patrons“— Dec. 4, 2011
• Mashable — “Malls Send Geo-fencing Texts to Lure Shoppers to Stores” — Dec. 16, 2011
• 9News — “Mobile couponing hits CO shopping centers” — Dec. 21, 2011
• Forbes.com — “‘Tis The Season to Give Shopping Malls the Shaft” — Dec. 28, 2011

In addition to these high profile outlets, ValuText has also gotten considerable pick up in trade outlets, as well as at the local level in markets where ValuText currently is available. Have you read anything about ValuText yet?

You should definitely sign up if you live in a market with ValuText. Colorado has three shopping centers that currently have the program, including University Hills, Aspen Grove and Centennial Promenade (located across from Park Meadows). The entire Cohn team participated in ValuText last Friday at Aspen Grove, and it’s a very amazing, very simple program that could totally change the way we shop.

Is Responsive Mobile Website Design the Future?

No. Responsive website design is the NOW. Smart phones are the standard, and tablet devices are flooding the market­—more and more people are using them to browse websites. With marketers prompting users via QR codes, email marketing, etc., mobile compatible sites are becoming the norm. If you don’t have a mobile presence, you’re losing visitors.

What is a Mobile Responsive Website?

A Mobile Responsive Website is a website that is built to suite different screen resolutions while keeping the majority of the content in one area: where your current website content lives. By using this technique, you only build one version of your website (one codebase serves all). No more secondary mobile version.

The Benefit:

The benefit of having this is that you only need to add content to your website once instead of having multiple website to accommodate different devices.

Example of Responsive Design:

The Boston Globe has an impressive responsive design structure. They figured out how to display a plethora of information and scale it into a simple mobile view without sacrificing key information. If you scale your browser window you will notice element moving and scaling to accommodate different screen widths. At every view, it looks stellar. Check out three screen widths of Boston Globe taken from last Wednesday below the post.

The Downside:

The downside to this process means more time to design and code the website. The development isn’t as time-consuming as the design (depending on the complexity). Designers will now have to design every page layout in at least four different screen views: 960 pixels (standard desktop screens and horizontal tablet view), 768 pixels (vertical tablet view), 600 pixels (horizontal mobile view) and 320 pixels (vertical mobile view). These pixel widths are constantly changing due to the new devices being introduced but will give you an idea of the basic screen widths.

If you’re not on the mobile bandwagon, it’s time to do your research on this technique. Ask your website developer if it’s beneficial for your company (because chances are… it is).

Vice President, Marketing Services Ali Lego

Name: Ali Lego

Title: Vice President | Marketing Services

Years at COHN: 4.5 years

What’s your favorite number and why?

I’ve always just liked the number 7 for no apparent reason. And then I met my husband and his favorite number is 7 and his dad is very superstitious about the number 7. We’ve had several “significant” events in our life take place on a date with the number 7 as part of it. Our first date: June 17, Dan proposed on July (7th month) 25 (2+5 = 7), 2007 (everyone was proposing, getting married on 7/7/7, so he changed it up a bit), we put an offer on our house July 27, we got married on April 12 (4+1+2 = 7) and Sophie was born on the 16th (1+6 = 7). So, I guess all in all 7 is my favorite number for lots of great reasons.

What was the last book you read?

My reading has definitely shifted over the past year… I used to read all sorts of books for simple reading pleasure, but since becoming a mom, my free time is more limited, so I read a lot more magazines and I often reference the book What to Expect the First Year to get some insight on Sophie. The last real book I read was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I loved. I started reading the second book in that series, The Girl who Played with Fire, but like I mentioned above, I don’t have as much time to relax and read, so I haven’t made much progress on it. However, I’m flying to Chicago this weekend, so maybe I’ll have time on the plane to take in a few chapters

How did you decide to name your daughter?

We always liked the name Sophie and it was the front runner for a long time. Her middle name, Bernadette, is after Dan’s late mother. But we didn’t like the sound of Sophie Bernadette, so her name is really Sophia Bernadette (it just sounds better), but we call her Sophie.