The Human Customized Pitch Email
A short, human, story-first email that proves it was written for this one person — not a mass blast.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 92%
The pitch is the distilled product of your prep and targeting work: a three-paragraph-max email that instantly signals it's customized to the recipient, then leads with the specific story you're confident their audience will care about. The editor's default is delete-delete-delete; your only job at the subject/preview line is to prove relevance fast enough to earn the open.
Origin
Jason Feifer, illustrated by Meg O'Hara's cold email pitch that became an Entrepreneur podcast episode and article.
Core principles
- 01Editors triage by glancing, not opening — win the subject line and preview text first
- 02Signal customization: reference something you genuinely read or know about the outlet
- 03Never fake familiarity — 'I'm a fan of your work' from someone who's never read it is obvious
- 04Lead with the audience-relevant story, not your company's value prop
- 05Be human — write to a human, not in marketing-copy voice
How to run it
- 1
Prove it's targeted in the first glance
Make the subject line and opening line clearly specific to this recipient — reference their work, their show's format, or the outlet's mission so it separates from mass blasts.
Pro tip Meg O'Hara named the exact podcast (Problem Solvers) and framed her pitch as valuable to it — instant proof of targeting.
Watch out Faked familiarity backfires — editors can tell when 'I love your work' is hollow; use only real signals.
- 2
Get to the audience-relevant story fast
Open with a brief hook and move immediately into the specific story you're sure their audience will find interesting — the version shaped for their mission, not a feature-length write-up.
Pro tip Structure the story the way the outlet does — O'Hara listed problems and solutions in bullets because that's exactly how the Problem Solvers show is built.
Watch out Don't describe your product's features (the butter dish itself); tell the story that serves their audience (the airport market-research hack).
- 3
Keep it short and human
Cap it at roughly three paragraphs, written as one human to another — not scannable marketing copy.
Pro tip You're telling the thing you're pretty sure they'll want, not writing the article — brevity plus humanity earns the reply.
Watch out Calling their personal cell or sending a long Instagram DM reads as intrusive or clumsy; email is the safest, most traditional channel.
In the wild
Canadian landscape painter Meg O'Hara cold-emailed Feifer with subject 'idea for entrepreneur and problem solvers: how the Border closures grew my business.' She named the exact show, opened with a story (border closures killed her ski-resort commissions, so she sold paintings of favorite ski views to stuck, cash-rich skiers), and listed problems and solutions in bullets mirroring the show's format.
→ Feifer replied 'I like it' and turned the cold email into a Problem Solvers podcast episode and likely an article.
Common mistakes
Sending a mass blast or press-release-style email
Non-targeted, non-human emails read as noise and get deleted on sight; the whole game is proving in one glance that this was written for this one recipient.
Faking familiarity with the recipient's work
Claiming to be a fan without having read anything is transparent and destroys credibility — only real signals of familiarity help.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and PR people writing a cold outreach email to a specific writer or editor
Not ideal for
Broad announcement distribution where you're not trying to land a single relationship-based placement
From the transcript
“what you want to do is write something that makes it pretty clear to me that this is targeted to me that's step number one”
“don't fake it people fake it all the time people email me and they tell me they're fans of my work they've never read my…”
“don't go on forever like three paragraphs Max”
“she lists off the problems and the Solutions in bullet points which I love because she has listened to the show”
From the episode
How to get press for your product
Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine)