Welcome September, it’s officially holiday crunch time for product folks.

Like clockwork, many of you have been asking us about gift guide press.

Pitching for online publications starts at the end of this month, soon! So, we decided to open up one, very very very last gift guide pitching workshop for next week, September 10th.

Now on to our regularly scheduled programming… all about how to write pitch subject lines that editors will *actually* open.

Welcome to part 8-of-11 of our subject lines newsletter series.

In each edition you’ll see the subject line we *actually used* that an editor *actually opened*, leading to press for one of our Wolf PR clients.

For each winner, you’ll also see a subject line that most editors would delete.

This week includes a BIG PR tip—look for recurring features!

Recurring features are columns that appear regularly—daily, weekly, monthly, or seasonally. These are PR gold, because they offer consistent, targeted exposure to a dedicated audience.

The example below from Vice is a weekly feature of new products.

Do- include the column’s title.

If you’re pitching a recurring feature, include the title of it in your the subject line of your pitch email.

The editor will immediately know what opportunity you’re pitching. You’ll also show that you’re familiar with the publication and what they write about.

Do your research to be sure your work is a good fit for the recurring feature. If you pitch a recurring feature that your work isn’t a good fit for, the editor may be hesitant to open any more emails you send their way.

Don’t- write pitch email subject
lines that lack key information.

Also avoid general phrases like “excited to be in touch”, “looking forward to hearing from you”, “reaching out”, etc.

These types of phrases eat up your very valuable subject line word count but don’t give the editor any useful information. Also it’s obvious that you’re looking to get in touch, it’s an email after all.

Thanks for giving our newsletter a bit of time in your inbox!

Nora & Kirsten

PS- Use affiliate links to up your chances for media coverage.

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