An Essential Guide to Pitching BizBash and Other Industry Magazines

READ TIME: 2 minutes

You’re likely working long days to make sure your events go off without a hitch, but are you making sure your innovative and creative events are getting the attention they deserve?

Industry publications and magazines like BizBash are a fantastic opportunity to showcase your latest work to other professionals in the industry, draw in new clients, and establish yourself as a forward-thinking event leader. However, these opportunities rarely just fall into one’s lap. Oftentimes, you’ll have to pitch industry magazines and publications in order to entice them to come to your event and cover it in their magazine or on their website.

This week’s Smarticle offers handy advice that you can use to get your events featured in industry publications.

Magazines Are Looking for a Variety of Events to Cover

Every magazine wants to offer value to their readers, and they won’t be able to do that if they are constantly covering similar events. After all, who wants to read about 50-attendee benefits week after week? As a result, magazines are generally looking to cover a healthy mix of events, ranging in sizes and type. It’s wise to keep this in mind when you’re pitching.

Just because the magazine doesn’t come to or cover your event this week, it doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in a similar event down the road. They may have just covered something similar and are looking to change it up. To combat this, don’t be afraid to let magazines know about several events that you have coming up, as more variety means a better chance that one of your events will stand out.

What to Communicate in Your Pitch

When pitching your event, it’s important that you communicate the right messages. Your generic press release may not be suitable for pitching magazines. Events-related magazines are looking for you to highlight innovation in terms of event planning and design, not necessarily celebrity guests and other aspects of the event the general media wants to know about.

Remember, these magazines’ audiences are generally other planners and event professionals. What are you doing that will inspire them?

Here are some general ideas of what magazines want to know about when you’re pitching your event:

• Who’s doing the catering and what they are serving
• Who’s designing the event
• Who’s doing the lighting and why it’s unique
• How you’re promoting the event using social media
• What’s the behind the scenes strategy

Remember, don’t just tell them what you’re doing: explain why they should cover it. Is it ground breaking? Has it never been done before? Are you pushing the boundaries? Make sure you let the magazine know that your event is going to be something special.

When to Get in Touch

It’s not uncommon for magazines to prefer to send one of their reporters to your event, so they can get a true feel for it. In order to increase your chances of magazines covering your event, make sure you provide them some notice. One or two weeks notice before the event takes places gives the magazine time to prepare and determine if one of their reporters can come.

However, don’t be afraid to reach out the day of the event if you left it until the last minute. You never know if the magazine is having a dry week and needs some events to cover.