How to Pitch Your Ideas and Win Over Decision Makers
Have you ever had a content idea so brilliant that you knew it would change the world?
I know I have.
But looking back at my early career, I cringe knowing some of my best stories never materialized. Top editors dismissed my story ideas while green-lighting stories pitched by my colleagues.
I struggled to understand they couldn’t see the worth of my ideas. Didn’t they know my stories would reveal truths and change lives?
Ideas are like currency. Great ideas add value to your organization and increase the professional worth of those who present them, while having your great ideas rejected can lead to feeling undervalued.
Whether you’re an established journalist or starting out as a freelance writer, feeling undervalued can lead to career-crippling self-doubt. Too much self-doubt is the downward ramp to career bankruptcy.
But maybe it’s not your ideas that are being rejected.
Perhaps it’s your pitch.
To win over decision makers — and increase your professional value — you have to learn how to effectively pitch your ideas.
6 Steps to Pitch Ideas Effectively
If you are wondering how to pitch ideas to increase your success rate, here are the main steps that I recommend:
Establish what value your idea provides to the organization or individual that you’re pitching.
Explain why your idea is relevant right now, tying its impact to current trends.
List what sources you can consult to back up your claims. Include both existing resources and subject matter experts (SMEs) who you could speak to.
Plan out the timeline for executing on your idea, including the budget and resources needed, as well as potential roadblocks.
Focus on “The One Thing” or key idea. Keep your pitch focused and concise.
Align your pitch with organizational mission and objectives. What does the person who you’re pitching to care about? Appeal to the values they hold dear.
How You Pitch > What You Pitch
Screenshot of a Dec 11, 2022 tweet from Brian Nichols (@BNicholsLiberty).
There’s a lot in-depth scholarly research on the importance of pitching ideas. A Harvard Business Review article published in 2021 unpacked whether one should emphasize the “how” or the “why” of the idea (spoiler: it depends on who you’re pitching), while a University of Edinburgh study concluded that entrepreneurs’ storytelling pitches must evolve to maintain and grow stakeholders.
Testing “how” vs. “why” frames with novice investors from “Start with "Why," but only if you have to: The strategic framing of novel ideas across different audiences” (2022).
Testing “how” vs. “why” frames with expert investors from “Start with "Why," but only if you have to: The strategic framing of novel ideas across different audiences” (2022).
Once I learned that the way of pitching ideas is just as important as the idea itself, I was able to refine my approach. Editors began to say “yes” and I produced more stories that resonated with audiences. I even won a few awards for that newsroom wall.
If you want others to embrace your great ideas, you need to perfect your pitch. Here’s how to do it.
Prepare for Successful, Evidence-Backed Pitches
Brilliant content ideas won’t change the world languishing on your laptop. Most of us need to pitch to editors or content managers, yet we often don’t know how to present those ideas (brilliant as they might be).
When I began to pitch editors, I often emphasized the inherent worth of my ideas. I never considered how my ideas aligned with the organization’s goals.
By focusing on the importance of the idea, I overlooked its potential value to the organization.
I changed my approach by observing how my colleagues pitched their ideas: those who succinctly showed how stories they were pursuing forwarded the organization’s audience-building goals were always successful.
A successful pitch requires more than just describing your awesome idea: explain how your idea will bring value to your organization and support its business goals.
A successful pitch requires more than just describing your awesome idea: explain how your idea will bring value to your organization and support its business goals.
Simply, my colleagues who pitched their ideas with evidence-backed, forward-moving plans won editors’ approval.
I copied my colleagues’ successful pitching strategies and editors began to green-light my ideas. Within a few months, managers began to utilize my ideas across the larger news network.
Successful pitching strategies are simple, but require a bit of front-end planning. This preliminary work will help focus your ideas. The research you do before you pitch will become the foundation of your later reporting.
Here’s How to Prepare Your Pitch:
Is it a story? Every interesting idea isn’t worth pursuing. We can be emotionally drawn to ideas that can’t be substantiated by facts. Or perhaps the topic simply isn’t right for the audience. Ask yourself if your idea is timely and can be supported by facts. Ask yourself if it will serve your target audience.
Sources. You won’t have a story if topic experts won’t talk to you. Do two or three preliminary interviews. Include a line or two from these sources when you pitch your stories. Check out our strategies on how to prepare for and conduct professional interviews.
Visuals. Photos, videos and graphics add value to stories. Brainstorm with visual professionals to find compelling multimedia assets that don’t just support your idea, but advance it with another layer of storytelling. Team up with visual colleagues to pitch your ideas.
Timeline. Some insightful stories can be crafted in a few days, while revelatory, in-depth investigations may take months. How long will your idea take to execute? Be realistic with your deadlines but accept that many stories are time-sensitive.
Plan to publish. Too many great stories fizzle out because they lack a well-thought publishing strategy. How and when should your story be published to maximize audience? How will you promote the story on social? Who will handle audience engagement?
Once you have used the above steps to prepare your pitch, you can easily frame, refine and present your pitch.
Present Your Pitch, Get the Green Light
Presenting your pitch to managers can be unnerving, especially if —like me — your previous pitches fell flat.
But this time you’ve crushed the front-end work.
You’ve researched facts, interviewed sources, brainstormed visuals, set deadlines and planned a killer publishing strategy.
You have an evidence-backed plan to prove your idea is worth green-lighting.
Steps to Presenting Your Pitch:
Present The One Thing. Successful content explains a single concept, or The One Thing. Effective pitches hone in on The One Thing. The One Thing I pitched my manager for this blog post wasn’t “How To Find And Pitch Content Ideas And Make Ideas Go Viral And Make A Million Dollars.” My pitch was “How To Pitch Content Ideas.”
Keep It Brief. I once presented a four page story pitch during a content meeting (again, I cringe). It meandered like my verbal pitches and muddied The One Thing. A one-sentence pitch can be extremely effective when backed by concise supporting facts. Avoid phrases like ”a look into…” or “this story will explore…” because these terms convey vagueness. Keep your pitches exact but brief.
Screenshot from a Dec 7, 2022 Twitter exchange between me (@kcollins213) and FLXTed (@FlxTed).
Emphasize alignment with values. Any company worth working for has a mission statement. A pitch aligned with company values demonstrates you understand and promote company values. For example, a news organization I worked for promoted social justice, so I often pitch stories focused on social equity.
Final Thoughts
You now have all the tools necessary to make and present valuable content pitches that will not only change the world but spare you from cringe.
Have questions or comment about pitching ideas? Reach out at hello@kalynamarketing.com
Want more pro-content tips? Check out our expert insights and guides on our Content Marketing Blog.
