Wednesday: Hello from Phoenix! Also: Best practices when following up + what I'm working on this week.

Also: There's still a few seats left for next week's Mother's Day Gift Guide Zoom AMA Event!

Good morning!

Greetings from the “local desert wildlife.”

How fun is that?!

I arrived in Arizona late last night, and I have a SUPER fun and exciting day planned with Jill Schildhouse and Alice Dubin (be sure to follow along on all of our social media!), and I’m just getting my ducks in a row and getting some work done before starting our day.

New for Food Network, I covered a fun reaction to the TikTok dirty coffee trend — Coffee Mate Makes the Trend Official With a New Creamer Specifically for Dirty Soda. It’s getting a lot of attention on social media! For RetailMeNot, I wrote about how I eat and cook in NYC while sticking to a food budget (and share some of my favorite money-saving food shopping tips!).

For Forbes I created a massive roundup gallery of 50 cocktails to enjoy nationwide in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and also a guide to some great nightcaps to check out this month in honor of March being National Sleep Awareness Month. All these cocktails or mocktails include ingredients known for encouraging rest and relaxation. Also, for Best Life: 11 Things You Should Put Away When Guests Come Over, Experts Say.

Best practices when following up

Today, before heading out for an epic day of fun with my gal pals, I wanted to take a few moments to give a top-level look at the art of the follow up (which is something we can delve into FAR more deeply if you book one of my consulting sessions - I have some space on my calendar for late March and April!).

I get it. You wrote this pitch that you thought was a TOTAL winner. You considered my advice about the strong lede, the inverted pyramid style of delivering information, included all the relevant background and information.

But...then nothing happens. You've hit a brick wall. Or at least it feels that way.

Ultimately, that initial pitch is the hello. The wave. The hi, how you doing? of it all.  It's an important part of the whole picture,  but it's not the whole picture. Chances are there'll be more emails involved.

But when this happens, there's a whole lot not to do. You're not going to wait three hours and send a text (or worse, a phone call) asking if they had seen your pitch. (And you aren't going to preface it with -- I know you hate phone calls, BUT...and then do so...because that is letting them know you. know their boundaries and just think those boundaries do not apply to you.)  What you are going to do is create an open channel of communication and do so in the same method you did from the beginning.

1. Wait a decent amount of time. Now, this will depend on the news and how timely it is. But don't be stalking anyone on all their various means of contacting them if you just sent that pitch 3 hours ago. Give things time to work themselves out. Even if that writer LOVES your pitch, chances are they have to then pitch their editor and wait to hear back. And that often takes some time.

2. Remember your email is not the only game in town. Yes, that pitch is something you spent hours or days working on. But they got 1,000 just like it that day. 

3. Play hard to get. We can ALL tell when someone is desperate and it doesn't make them -- or whatever they are shilling -- more appealing.

4. Limit your number of followups. I think two are fully acceptable (so three emails in addition to the primary first pitch). But if you are emailing every single day for a month "just checking back here??"...that's a bit much. Or a lot much.

5. I won't lie. Writers are humans. If you annoy us, your over followups can have negative consequences. We'll simply be less eager to work with you. It makes you look unprofessional but also it comes off kind of spammy.

6. Consider the content of your followup - It should very much be a "BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE" -- give them something more about the content of the original pitch.

Perhaps share a relevant study, or something currently in the news that reflects a trend you were discussing.  Maybe there's a relevant sale going on now, or a limited edition flavor or variety. Maybe the Duchess of Sussex was just seen eating it while walking her dog. Bring more to the table. 

7. No means no. If someone says something is not a fit, or they can't attend your event, don't keep on asking hoping to change the answer.

8. Know what is NOT an appropriate followup - We get tons of "saw your story published, any way you can squeeze us in?" type emails. Those aren't followups. And they are not appropriate. Same for "saw you were working on a story on (whatever) last month. Would love to be considered. If a story was mentioned a month ago and I'm no longer mentioning it...it's been written, published and I don't even remember it exists.

9. Consider the long game. Maybe we can't use your client. TODAY. This time. But we could next week or next month if an opportunity arises -- but not if things go awry now.

10. Consider having different followups for different people. I imagine you are writing a lot of followups at once. Have one for people who never opened your email, one for someone who did but didn't respond and another for anyone who clicked links in there (and we all know email tracking is a thing, there's no secret there!),  each will be a unique sort of follow up and deserves a unique response.

Here's an example of what would be a strong follow-up to a pitch:

Hi, Aly!

I'm writing up to follow up on my email from (insert day of the week or date) regarding (product, destination, expert). A reminder that they - (why it's a good thing to write about - is it timely? is it a trending topic/item?  - is it relevant to something i said I'm working on?).  Here's some things I wanted to share: (stats, data, links to research, news since the last email, etc) - hope to hear from you!

Something like that is going to give someone all they need to know. Then they can decide how to take it from there!

Register for our AMA Mother’s Day Gift Guide Zoom Event Now!

You may remember that during the most recent gift guide season, Alice Dubin and I teamed up for a AMA Zoom session covering all things Valentine’s gift guide pitching — and so much more. That AMA registration list reached capacity in just a few hours and ended up being great fun — and a packed house.

We teased at the time we’d want to do it again soon and now we are! We’re teaming up on March 13, 2024 at 11 am PT/2 pm ET via Zoom for our next AMA session (focused on pitching for Mother’s Day gift guides!) and we’d love to invite anyone who is a paid subscriber of either of our newsletters. While this session will focus on all aspects of gift guide pitching, you are also welcome to ask questions about anything else — the sky’s the limit!

Want to take part? Find the registration link under the paywall at the very bottom of this email!

Gift guide season is almost upon us again - we hope we can help each other be as prepared as possible!

Check out my appearance last week on the Behind The Media podcast, with my gal Juliana Martins. We chat about A BUNCH of stuff, such as how brands can stick out to editors in a saturated market, how I decide which events I will attend vs decline, what startups, new venues, or brands with minimal budgets can do to get media attention, PR/pitching do’s and don’ts and more…including our mutual celeb crush and some of our favorite places to eat and drink!

So honored to see Muck Rack included me in their 2024 list of top ten most popular freelance journalists. Check out the list here.

Newly published or freshly updated

Since people are often asking about the status of stories from a while ago, and I only share stories in this newsletter that were published or updated in the current week, I have created a list of my author pages at various publications to which I contribute. Bookmark it and make your life a bit easier.

This list will live on my Substack URL and be updated as necessary. That way, you can see what I’m doing at any publication, at any time, from types of stories to general structure of stories to even volume and frequency of my content at that outlet.

This can also help you to target pitching a bit better. That makes your job easier, and mine too!

• Forbes.com: The Pasta Queen’s Coveted Pasta Sauces Are Now A Grocery Jaunt Away

• Food Network: Coffee Mate Makes the Trend Official With a New Creamer Specifically for Dirty Soda

• Forbes.com: 10 Relaxing Nightcaps To Enjoy In Honor Of National Sleep Awareness Month

• Forbes.com: 50 Cocktails To Enjoy On St. Patrick’s Day

• RetailMeNot: Savings Star Origin Story: How I Learned to Eat Well (In NY!) On a Shoestring Budget

• Best Life: 11 Things You Should Put Away When Guests Come Over, Experts Say

• RetailMeNot: How to Save on Groceries: Tips That Actually Work

• RetailMeNot: Meal Prepping Products That Are Actually WORTH It

• Food Network: How to get a free doughnut if you were impacted by the cellular network outage

• Forbes.com: Wonder Brings Celebrity Chef Cooking To Home Dining Rooms

• Travel & Leisure: I’m a Travel Writer, and This Is My Secret to Packing for a Week in a Single Carry-on Bag

• Travel & Leisure: In-flight Theft Is Unfortunately a Thing, but These 12 Items Give Me Peace of Mind When I'm Traveling by Plane

• RetailMeNot: 5 Superstar Ingredients for Your Meal-Stretching Pantry Starter Pack

• Today.com: Say goodbye to wrinkles with these expert-approved drugstore creams — starting at $12

• Clean Plates: The Healthy Trader Joe’s Sauce I Use in *Everything*

• Martha Stewart: 8 Storage Mistakes That Are Keeping Your Home From Being Organized

• Today.com: 27 healthy fast food items at popular US chains, according to dietitians and doctors

• Clean Plates: 7 Mediterranean Diet Dinner Recipes in 30 Minutes or Less

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares! Please remember to tag @alywalansky and the outlet.

Here’s what I’m working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

Please remember when pitching me: Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com - do NOT just hit reply on this newsletter, or there’s a good shot your email will be lost in the heap. Give your email a subject line that makes it clear which story you are pitching me for — it’ll help you in the long run.

Please consult my industry insights guides on submitting expert commentary, sending emails that will catch a journalist’s attention, how to craft pitches journalists will say ‘yes’ to, and the right and wrong way to submit photos, if you need any extra guidance before sending your pitches.

Southern Living

For Southern Living, I’m working on a story: Chives Vs. Green Onions: Are Chives Green Onions? - and I’d love a chef, plant expert, etc to weigh in and answer some questions for me. Please email me and I’ll flesh out what I’m working on. Thanks!

RetailMeNot

I’m working on a story about my preference for growing fresh herbs in my home rather than spending grocery budget on herbs at the grocery store (which can get pricey and also have a short shelf life). The caveat here is that this is a story geared not towards those who have gardens or outdoor space but those maintaining herb gardens within small apartment kitchens - I’m writing this essay format, so my own experiences, but open to items shoppable online at major retailers to help make a small apartment herb garden prosper.

I’m rounding up the Best Easter Sales that Shouldn't Be Missed for 2024. I’m open to sales that aren’t necessarily billed as "Easter Sales" – there are going to be a ton of spring sales going on, too. So, really anything that helps you get Easter Basket stuffers, clothes, table decor, spring decor or whatever else for Easter is fair game. I’m trying to include these specific retailers - Target, CVS, Walmart, Michaels, Macy's, Kohl's, Carter's, but I’m open to others as well. Please remember to include the following in your pitch: When Do Easter Sales Start?, timing of Easter sales (when they begin, when the last-minute deals start, etc.), what is included in the sales, how to claim the deals, and so forth.

Budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter: As you all know, I write a lot of content for RMN related to budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter. I’m going to be working on a monthly column on the subject of cooking/eating well on a budget, and I’d love you to pitch me products/ideas to consider for it - maybe a new meal-stretching product that is a good deal at a grocery store, an awesome product to try that may cut my meal prep time in half, other themes as far as saving money on food/cooking/eating and doing it in a way that is smarter.

Forbes

Are any bars/restaurants planning a fun cocktail in honor of Purim? If you have something, please email me with the name of the cocktail, a description (not a recipe), a quote from the bartender or chef, and an image. (And please remember to consult my nifty photo guidelines here.) Please pitch me by March 10 for this one.

I’m also looking for fun cocktails in honor of Easter - same parameters as above!

Looking to up your affiliate marketing game?

Affiliate marketing is complicated, and it seems that the landscape keeps changing. If you are looking to be prepared for gift guide season and all other shopping-related content, you may want to try the Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

Virtual (and now in-person!) consulting sessions...

Looking for a consult as you plan your next event or trip? Or just want someone to take a look at the pitches you’ve been sending and give some feedback? I’m available for PR team virtual meetings to answer questions about pitching, events, and trips from a media perspective.  Note: I’m also available to travel for consulting sessions as long as travel expenses are covered. We can chat! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts.