Travel + Leisure Pitch Call Explainer

Here's how to properly pitch me for a T+L commerce piece

Hi friends!

I’m on a roll! Last week, I got a huge response to my newsletter about How This Publicist Became My Best Friend, and a few days ago, I got great feedback to Why You Should Invite Travel Writers to Visit in the Fall. I average over a 50% open rate (which is pretty good for this industry) and both of those posts had an even higher rate and I received so many lovely responses about them. Thank you!

Today, I’d like to talk about how to properly pitch me (and likely other writers) for a Travel + Leisure commerce piece. I write a roundup or dedicated product feature for Travel + Leisure nearly every month and I always include pitch calls in this newsletter. Twelve days ago, I put out a pitch call for a fall foliage gear roundup and I received well over 100 responses. This is not uncommon so I’d like to talk about how I chose the products I included.

Cassandra

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Travel + Leisure Pitch Calls

First off, the East Coast Fall Foliage Gear Roundup published yesterday, if you’d like to have a look at which products made the cut. I included a handful of products that I’ve been using and loving for years. I had a ton of personal experience with them so it was a no-brainer. However, I also included several new-to-me brands and products that were pitched by publicists that I had never worked with. In fact, one new-to-me brand impressed me so much that I included TWO of their products (specifics on this below). Why do I mention this? Because, as important as relationship building is, know that it is always possible to break in with a writer you’ve never worked with if your pitch is good enough.

That said, it’s extremely time-consuming to go through dozens or hundreds of pitches and often, I can decide in 5-10 seconds whether or not I’m going to read the full pitch or immediately delete it.

Here’s what I look for when considering a pitch for Travel + Leisure, along with some examples of what stellar publicists did to get my attention.