Copy this cold pitch template

Cold pitching sucks.

You spend an hour crafting what you think is the perfect pitch. You hit send. And then... nothing.

Or worse: you get rejected 🫠

But here's what I learned after reading Tim Herrera's guide to cold pitching your dream clients. (Tim's a former New York Times editor who's received thousands of pitches, so he knows what works.)

If you’ve ever wondered why prospects ghost you – or what makes a cold pitch irresistible – Tim’s breakdown is a must-read.

Most cold pitches fail for the same five reasons. Once you stop making these mistakes, your hit rate goes way up.

Here's what to avoid – and the exact pitch template that landed someone a regular NYT gig 👇

❌ Your pitch is too vague

“Hey, have you thought about writing about this topic you haven't covered yet? Happy to do that for you – or cover something else in your content plan if not”.

Is a much stronger pitch than:

“Hey, I’d love to write for you”.

“Freelancers should always come with story ideas,” Sarah Kessler told Tim for this piece. “I get a lot of emails that just say, ‘I’d like to be a contributor for Quartz at Work.’ That isn’t much help.”

The topic you pitch might not be something an editor wants to cover. But it shows you get their industry (and can use your initiative).

❌ You're pitching ideas they've already covered

“Even if you think you have the most original idea in the world, and you’re 100 percent sure the outlet you’re pitching has never done it, check to see if the outlet has already done it,” says Tim. “Then check again. Skipping this step shows you’re either blindly shooting off pitches en masse, or you just don’t care enough to look.”

❌ You're emailing the wrong person

“If you haven’t done your homework [to find the right person to pitch], I wonder how diligent you’ll be about your story,” Gina Vaynshteyn told Tim.

❌ You’re too aggressive with following up

There’s a fine line between helpful reminders and pestering.

“It’s O.K. to follow up on unanswered pitches,” says Kristin Iversen, “but wait a week, not 24 hours.”

❌ Your idea is too small 

“If you’re going to ask an editor to pay you for your idea, make sure it’s an idea worth paying for,” says Tim. “Think scope, reach, and impact.”

I guess that explains why Joanna Wiebe passed on my pitch for the Copyhackers blog, which was:

Why good onboarding emails matter for SaaS companies (I guess?)

But said “hell yeah!” to this one from Esther-Grace Okonkwo:

🤔 So, what should you do?

Avoid those five mistakes and you’re already ahead of 90% of freelancers.

Follow these three steps on top of that and you’ll have a banger of a cold pitch on your hands:

🎯 Be concise yet informative

“Very few cold pitches need to be more than, say, 10 sentences,” says Tim. “The best ones are often less.”

🤷 Explain why anyone should care

“Make me want to tell this story to the readers of my publication,” says Tim.

🧾 Show that you can pull it off

Why should the person you’re pitching believe you’d do a good job of the topic you’re pitching them? (Hint: include links to similar pieces you’ve written in your pitch)

🤑 The best pitch Tim ever received (steal this template 👀)

This pitch landed Anna Goldfarb a gig as a regular New York Times contributor:

🔥 Why this pitch works

Tim says it’s effective for four simple reasons:

1. There’s no filler

2. She told me everything I need to know about the idea without getting bogged down in irrelevant details

3. She knows exactly the story she’s pitching and how to execute it

4. She sent clips with a link to more

“Yes, it’s that simple,” says Tim. “Don’t overthink it.”

Anna’s pitch was a specific response to a journalist’s call for pitches.

To make it more relevant to the kind of pitches we send as content marketers, here’s how you might pitch me if you wanted to guest post one of these deep dives (okay, the topics aren’t 100% serious, but they show the structure):

🐘 The elephant in the room

Now, there's one line in Anna's pitch doing a lot of heavy lifting:

"I’m currently a contributor to Elle, The Kitchn, Refinery29, Thrillist and more."

If you don't have big-name bylines yet, this probably feels discouraging.

But Anna didn't start with those clients either. None of the top freelance writers did. They started at the bottom and built up their portfolio strategically.

To find out how, Tyler asked writers like Lizzie Davey, Kiran Shahid, and Chima Mmeje how they went from low-paying gigs to landing incredible clients.

He turned everything he learned into Break/through Bylines: a step-by-step system for landing work with clients like Shopify, HubSpot, and Zapier.

The first 8 lessons are now free – and they'll show you how to build a Credibility Ladder that takes you from content mills to world-class clients in just a few weeks.

👉 Get free access to the first 8 lessons of Break/through Bylines here

🤑 Your plug-and-play cold pitch template

To help you take the first step up the Credibility Ladder, here's a cold pitch template you can adapt for any content marketing client:

Now go pitch something!

You might be one email away from your next dream client 🥳

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