What’s the difference between Proactive and Reactive Pitching?

At Gracie PR, we work with many publications for our clients. You can take a peek at some of our placements here! An excellent public relations strategy brings many tactics to the table, with pitching at the forefront. Through our pitching efforts, we use two core ways to consider and propel our efforts forward: proactive pitching and reactive pitching. With the launch of our newest service, Micro Media, this is the perfect opportunity to break down the difference!  Proactive pitches are the leads and media opportunities we seek out for our clients, and reactive pitches are the leads that come to us through our media relationships.

Proactive Pitching:

With proactive public relations, we identify opportunities and tell stories for our clients through their overall strategy. These stories point to our clients with a unique, compelling, and different angle. Proactive is typically what most people think of when building a public relations strategy– and for a good reason, a lot goes into it!  It’s about active outreach, getting creative, and finding the right contacts and publications to partner with and work with.

A proactive outreach strategy is a massive investment of time but worthwhile. First and foremost, it is essential to know you’re pitching the story to an appropriate writer. Next, we develop media themes and angles that focus on the story we want to share on behalf of our clients. Finally, each part of the strategy considers the topic, timing, and significant anniversaries that give the topic added value.

Active and individualized outreach allows us to pique the writer’s interest and develop stories that mutually benefit the publication and our client.

Reactive Pitching:

With reactive public relations, it’s less about actively seeking the leads and building the pitches and stories for our clients and more about responding to opportunities that come our way where our clients may be a good fit. Don’t get it twisted; this may seem like a “sit back and wait” approach, but a reactive public relations strategy takes work, consideration, organization, and preparation. When jumping into reactive pitching efforts for our clients before we even start, we identify the right people within their business or brand who can respond to specific leads. We outline the key messaging and ensure their answers are formatted appropriately, there are no broken links, and there’s no plagiarism (Note: please don’t plagiarize; journalists hate that, and we hate it even more.) And, of course, we teach our clients how to position themselves as an expert for the interview properly.

There are a few ways that publicists tackle reactive public relations. We like to stick to two: lead monitoring services and existing media relationships. Subscribing to a lead monitoring service is an excellent way to stay on top of timely national trends or find topics and opportunities where an expert source is needed for a publication. Finding opportunities to fit into a larger narrative or position our client as an expert source is a win/win because we are gaining client coverage and building new relationships with writers, and reaching audiences that may have otherwise been untouched.

The other way we handle reactive pitching for our clients is through our many existing relationships with the media. Pssst! This is why building relationships with media contacts is super meaningful. Our contacts often come to us when they need a source for a story because we’ve worked with them in the past, had a great experience and interview, and established trust with each other on both sides to make the magic happen. Working with a media contact with whom you’ve had a long-standing relationship is also an added benefit, as we already have a deep understanding of how they work, their needs, and how they like things done. 

Both are important components of an overall public relations strategy and lead to successful outcomes for our clients. At the end of the day, our goal is to build brand awareness, garner interest, and ultimately drive our client’s target audiences to them as a customer or client.