How to Pitch in Muck Rack
Pitches on Muck Rack transform how you send personalized emails in bulk, track metrics about your outreach, and organize your company's relationship history with every journalist.
Learn More in Muck Rack Academy
You can learn all about sending Pitches in Muck Rack by taking the Muck Rack Essentials course in Muck Rack Academy.
Send a Pitch With Muck Rack
Watch the video or follow the steps below to learn how to send a Pitch using Muck Rack.
Go to Relationships > Pitches.
Select the Create New button in the top right-hand corner.
Follow the Pitch Workflow outlined in each section below.
Setup
Enter a name for your pitch.
NOTE: This will not be the subject of the email sent to your recipients, but for you to identify the pitch within Muck Rack.
Select any other settings that are applicable to your pitch:
Shared With: Select who has access to this pitch within your organization.
Include Unsubscribe: Provides users with the option to unsubscribe from the pitch.
Email Tracking: Track when emails are opened and links are clicked.
Select Next step in the bottom right-hand corner.
Compose
Compose your Pitch by entering a Subject line and Pitch content. The [first name] merge tag will pull from the contact's data and input their first name into the greeting.
Tip: Add more than two sentences to your pitch so you can receive relevant recipient recommendations in the next step. The stronger and clearer your pitch, the better your recommendations will be.
Learn More About Pitch Formatting & Attachments
This article covers the main steps of the Pitching workflow in Muck Rack. For more details on how you can format your pitch and add attachments, visit our Pitch Formatting & Attachments article.
Recipients
With AI Optimized Pitch Recipients, we can build your list from scratch or refine a list you already have.
If you start a pitch with no existing recipients, Muck Rack will automatically suggest journalists to add by analyzing topics and language in your pitch content.
IMPORTANT: Our AI is learning your pitch needs in real time! We recommend creating at least 1 new pitch and manually adding recipients to create a pitch history that the AI can use to tailor future recommendations.
Learn more about AI Optimized Pitch Recipients here.
Option 1: Manually add Recipients, then optimize
Select the Manually Add Recipients button to view the recommended pitch recipients.
Use the search bar to find Media Lists, journalist names, and newsdesks to add to your pitch.
If you cannot find a contact, select the Add Recipients button > New Custom Contact to create a new contact and add them to your Recipient list.
After you add your initial list, select Optimize Recipients. The panel will open with:
Recommendations to Remove
Recommendations to Add
You can accept or dismiss additions and removals in bulk or one by one.
NOTE: If any recipients aren't a good match, you will see removal suggestions with a brief explanation. You may also see new journalists recommended for addition.
Option 2: Automatically Add Recipients
If you would like AI to build a starting list for you:
In the Recipients step, select Automatically Add Recipients.
Muck Rack will analyze your pitch content and suggest journalists based on their recent coverage and interest in similar topics.
Review the pre-populated list. You can remove any recipients that do not feel right and add more using search if needed by selecting the Add recipients button.
Select Optimize Recipients to review additional suggestions to add or remove.
NOTE: These are suggestions only. You decide who stays on your list and who receives your pitch.
Select the Next step button in the bottom right-hand corner to proceed.
Send to More People
If, after a Pitch has been sent, you decide you'd like to send it to additional recipients, you can do so by navigating back to the Pitch (Relationships > Pitches) and selecting the Add Recipients button in the top right corner.
Personalize Pitches within the Workflow
When it comes to Pitching Best Practices, the best thing you can do is ensure you personalize as many pitches as possible. Personalization is integrated into your Recipients view.
When is a pitch considered personalized? When it is tailored specifically to the journalist or media contact in a way that demonstrates an understanding of their interests, beat, past work, or audience.
Select the Personalize button to edit the pitch for an individual contact.
Tailor your pitch to that contact by adding a personalized message.
Select the Save personalization button at the bottom.
NOTE: A personalized Pitch will have a Personalized tag next to the contact name.
Review & Send
Review your pitch and edit any details as needed. Then either schedule the pitch to be sent at a later date or select Send Now.
TIP: After sending a pitch, navigate to the Pitch Analytics tab to monitor recipient engagement in real time. You’ll see open rates, click-throughs, placements, and more, helping you follow up strategically.
Add Contacts to a Pitch
Add Contacts to a Pitch From a Media List
Sending a pitch through an existing Media List is an alternative process for sending pitches. You can use this method to send new and existing Pitches.
Go to Relationships > Media Lists and select a Media List.
From your selected Media List, select the Send Pitch drop-down in the top right-hand corner to add your entire Media List to a pitch or select specific contacts then the Add to Pitch button in the action bar that appears to add only those contacts. You can select an existing pitch or create a new one.
The pitch will populate contacts from the Media List as your recipients. You can select Add Recipients to add additional contacts or remove contacts individually or in bulk from this page.
Schedule Pitches to Send Later
If you want to prepare a pitch for later, you can schedule pitches to be sent on a specific date at a specific time.
Navigate to the Review and Send step within an existing pitch.
Select the Schedule for Later button at the bottom.
Select a date for the pitch to be sent.
Select Schedule Pitch at the bottom right of the screen.
Edit or Cancel a Scheduled Pitch
Go to Relationships > Pitches.
Select the Scheduled tab.
Select the Pitch you'd like to reschedule and make changes as needed in the Review and Send section under Choose when to send this Pitch.
To cancel the scheduled pitch, select Cancel next to the currently scheduled date.
Add Context with Pitch Notes
After you send a pitch, you can add notes for each recipient to track relevant details for you and your team.
Select your sent Pitch and go to the Pitch Notes column.
Select the Add a note field for a specific recipient and add your note.
NOTE: Add multiple notes to an individual recipient by simply typing your note and selecting Add Note to log each update. All notes display separately in chronological order.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Question | Answer |
Is it possible to duplicate a pitch to use as a template? | Not at this time. If you would like to send another pitch using the same body text, you will need to manually create a new Pitch and copy and paste the text into the Compose step. |
Can I still choose who receives my pitch, or does AI do it for me? | Yes, you still choose who receives your pitch. AI suggestions are just that—recommendations. You decide who to add or remove. |
Why is a certain journalist being flagged for removal? | A journalist may be flagged for removal when their recent coverage doesn’t appear to align with your pitch, or if they haven’t published on relevant topics.
They may also be flagged if they have chosen to hide their contact information, are no longer active, or do not typically open or respond to pitches.
|
How quickly will my pitch send? | The speed of sending your pitch depends on how you've set up email delivery through Muck Rack. Sending time depends on several factors including the number of recipients, spam-detection systems, and more.
If your organization frequently sends pitches to many recipients, it's advisable to contact our team to explore alternative sending methods.
Regardless of the sending method, it's not recommended to send pitches to several hundred recipients simultaneously. |
When pitching through Muck Rack, can I CC or BCC someone who does not have a Muck Rack account? | Not at this time, however, this is a functionality we are exploring. |
What happens if a new email address is found for a recipient? | Muck Rack’s team will update the status for the recipient from Issue to Unsent. This allows you to choose if you’d like to send the pitch to the recipient or if you’d prefer to remove them from the Pitch.
To send the Pitch to any recipients who were changed from Issue to Unsent, click the Continue sending button from your Pitch. |
What should I do if the links in my pitch content don't work? | |
What happens if a new email address is not found for a recipient? | Muck Rack’s team will leave the status of the recipient as an Issue and update the recipient’s Issue status. The issue status can be viewed by selecting the Issues filter from your Pitch, or clicking the row for a recipient included in your Pitch. |
Where are past pitches stored? | You can view your previously sent pitches by navigating to Relationships > Pitches. The Pitches page will show you all your pitches, including those in draft status. |
How do I view follow-up pitches? | To view your pitch follow-ups, navigate to the Pitches page by selecting Relationships > Pitches.
There are 2 ways to view follow-ups:
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When is a pitch considered personalized? | In terms of best practices, a pitch is considered personalized when it is tailored specifically to the journalist or media contact in a way that demonstrates an understanding of their interests, beat, past work, or audience.
In the platform, a pitch is marked as "Personalized" whenever the email message has been altered from the template you created during the Compose step and then saved. |
Additional Resources
Learn more about Pitching via these helpful resources:
Resource | Description |
Case Studies | Read about how some of our customers have leveraged Pitching in Muck Rack: |
Best Practice Guides | Check out our downloadable ebooks for tips on Pitching: |
Academy Courses, Webinars, and Videos | See Muck Rack Academy's catalog for more opportunities to learn about Coverage Reports and how they can be used. |
Get Help
For additional help, contact support by choosing the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and selecting Messages > Send us a message.
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