Various studies have delved into the ideal days and times for sending pitches, with the consensus being to avoid Fridays and, occasionally, Mondays. However, the importance of selecting the "right" day can be overstated.
If your pitch is all ready to go on a Monday, send it. I do tend to favour sending pitches in the morning though, starting from around 6 or 7 am to 10 am. Most journalists say they prefer morning pitches.
If you're sending a reactive pitch, send it as soon as it's ready. Time is of the essence here and it's much better to get your pitch in front of the relevant journalists as soon as possible, even if it is 3 pm on a Friday.
Tip: For weekend pitches, direct your efforts towards journalists with titles like 'weekend editor'. Likewise, for late-night pitches, seek out overnight reporters.
Ann always adjust your sending time according to the journalist's time zone to ensure your pitch aligns with their work hours.
Holiday or event pitches
If your pitch is related to a significant holiday or event, you will need to get it in nice and early. I'd aim for around a month before the event.
There are three reasons for this:
Follow-up flexibility: You will have plenty of time to follow up or re-angle if needed.
Pre-event inbox congestion: The closer it gets to an event, the busier journalists' inboxes become and the harder it will be to stand out.
Preempting Saturation: Early pitches avoid getting caught in the bottleneck of similar stories.
This year we sent a Valentine's Day pitch out a week before Valentine's and one reply we got was:
"Thanks for this; unfortunately, 'outlet' will be unable to move forward with a piece on this content at this time, as we’ve had many similar ones go up and another may oversaturate us."
That said, we did secure some great coverage for that pitch - so if you have a good idea close to a big day, it's still worth trying.
To demonstrate how busy things can get for journalists close to big events, check out this tweet from a well-known journalist (in the digital PR space) a few weeks before Christmas.
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