"Tell a better story" is a note founders often get back on a pitch, and on its own it is not much help. It sends people shopping: a pack of storytelling templates, a set of copywriting templates for subject lines, or a paid storytelling course. Before you buy anything, work out which problem you have. A template gives a pitch its shape. A pitch fails when the story inside it has no single takeaway a reporter can file, and no shape fixes that.
The takeaway: a storytelling template pack is enough when you already have one news angle per story and proof a reporter can check. Pay for training when you can't find the angle on your own, or when you need someone to give you feedback on your own drafts. Neither one can promise coverage. A reporter decides that, and decides it on the angle.
The last step, choosing a pack once you know you need one, is where a review helps: Eric Salo Reviews publishes short, first-person reviews of online tools, software, courses and services, among them reviews of storytelling and copywriting templates. How it fits a PR reader, and where it doesn't, is covered below.
What storytelling templates give you, and where they stop
A storytelling template is a fill-in structure for a pitch story. A common way to build one uses four slots:
- Situation: who wants something, in one line. A person, not the company.
- Tension: what stood in the way, or what the market has got wrong.
- Turn: what changed, or what someone did about it.
- Proof: the fact that makes it checkable, such as a named customer, a date or a figure from your own records.
Copywriting templates do the same job at sentence level. A good set gives you subject-line patterns, an opener that states the news in its first line, a "why this matters to your readers now" line shaped for the reporter's beat, and a close that says what you can send next: the data, a customer who will talk, an interview slot.
That pitch story structure is worth having. It stops the two classic failures: the pitch that opens with the company's history, and the pitch that buries the news in its fourth paragraph.
Where templates stop
A template cannot tell you what the story is. Its "tension" slot will hold whatever you put in it, including something no reader cares about. Finding the angle comes before the template and is its own skill, covered in our guide to finding a newsworthy angle.
An illustrative example: a founder fills every slot. Small clinics struggle with scheduling; the tools are built for hospitals; we built one for clinics; customers love it. Every slot is full and a reporter still has nothing to file: the takeaway is "a company launched a product", and the proof can't be checked.
The fixable version starts from the change, not the product: one named clinic that moved off a hospital-grade system, with the before and after from its own booking records. Now the takeaway is about clinics, not the company, and the reporter can check it.
When a template pack is enough
Use a template pack, bought or free, when all three of these are true.
- You already have one news angle per story. The check: you can write the takeaway as one sentence a reporter could use as a headline, without your company's name in it. If you can, the template only has to carry that sentence in the right order.
- Your proof is real and checkable. Every figure comes from your own records with a source you could show, and the customer in the story has agreed to be named. A pack is only as good as what you put in its proof slot.
- The same story has to hold across formats. A pitch email, a release paragraph and a founder post should tell one story with the same facts. If your core narrative is already written down once (the "build once, spend everywhere" habit from our brand storytelling guide), copywriting templates turn it into each format without the facts drifting.
A fourth sign is about you: you write regularly and can tell when your own draft is flat. Templates help people who can edit themselves.
When you need a storytelling course, and what it should teach
Training is worth paying for in two cases: you keep filling in templates and still can't find an angle a reporter would want, or you need someone other than you to read your drafts and say what's missing. A storytelling course for press pitches should cover four things. If it skips one, it is a template pack with videos.
Finding the angle before the structure
The first module should be about what makes something news for a given beat, not about story arcs. A course that opens with the hero's journey and reaches "why would a reporter care?" in its last week has the order backwards.
Structure shown through finished, worked examples
Blank templates are cheap to produce. Finished pitches are not: a real subject line, opener and body, followed by why each choice was made and what was left out. Check where the examples come from. Copy written to sell to a customer and a pitch written for a reporter make different choices, so a course built on ads, landing pages and social posts will teach you persuasion, not pitching.
Claims discipline
Every claim in a pitch should be one you can prove to a reporter who asks. A good course says so plainly and drills it: no invented numbers, no rounded-up figures, no "first" or "only" without a source, and no customer quote the customer hasn't approved. If the course's own sales page is full of claims it can't back up, expect the lessons to treat proof the same way.
Practice with feedback on your own drafts
This is the part a template pack cannot give you. Look for marked-up drafts, live review sessions or written comments from someone who has pitched the press, and ask whether they will read your real pitches or only set exercises.
Templates or training: a five-question self-check
Answer these before you open any sales page.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| Can you state the takeaway in one sentence a reporter could file? | A template can carry it | Work on the angle first; a template won't find it |
| Can you show the source for every figure and quote? | Fill the proof slot as it stands | Fix the proof before you buy a template or a course |
| Does one story need to work in a pitch, a release and a founder post? | Copywriting templates keep the formats consistent | A single storytelling template may be all you need |
| On rereading, can you tell why your own draft is flat? | Templates plus your own edits | Pay for feedback on your drafts |
| Has a seller promised you coverage? | Walk away | Run the four checks below |
Before you pay for either
Template packs and courses are both sold on launch pages, and launch pages are written to sell. Four checks before checkout:
- Ask for a sample. A sample template from the pack, or a sample lesson from the course. If the sample is all blanks and no finished example, expect the rest to be the same.
- Check who it is pitched at. Is it for beginners who have never written a pitch, or for people who already write and want sharper drafts? A pack built for content creators can still help with structure, but its examples won't be pitches.
- Read the vendor's own checkout and refund terms. Not a promoter's summary of them. Look for what renews and when, the refund window and its conditions, and how to cancel.
- Treat any coverage promise as a red flag. No pack or course controls what a newsroom runs. A seller that promises placements is selling something other than training.
Where marketing training reviews fit
The self-check tells you whether you need a template pack or a course. It doesn't tell you which one to look at.
Eric Salo Reviews publishes short, first-person reviews of online marketing training: SEO courses, storytelling and copywriting templates, sales training and course-building software. Eric Salo is the founder and primary author of Eric Salo Reviews. Its reviews say what a product is, what stands out and who it suits, with a link to the product, so you can see whether a template pack is pitched at beginners before you pay. The marketing training reviews overview sets out the kinds of training it reviews.
Know who it writes for, though. Its reviews are written for people building an online business, such as bloggers, creators, affiliate marketers and small online sellers, who are weighing a tool, course or service. Its storytelling and copywriting coverage is about content and marketing copy, not press pitches. If you work in PR, treat it as a place to start when you are choosing templates, not as a guide to pitch training.
To use it with this guide:
- Use the self-check to decide: template pack or course.
- Read the who-it-suits line in a review and compare it with where you are: never written a pitch, or writing already and wanting sharper drafts.
- Run the four checks on the vendor's own page.
The trade-off, stated plainly: some of the links on Eric Salo Reviews are affiliate links, and it may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Its disclosure page says affiliate relationships may influence which products it features but do not dictate its opinions. Read a review as one view, then decide on the vendor's written terms.
FAQ
Will storytelling templates or a course get me coverage?
No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. A template shapes a pitch and a course can sharpen how you write one, but a reporter decides what runs, and decides it on the news angle and the proof. What both can do is stop a good story from getting lost in a badly built pitch.
Are storytelling templates enough for a pitch?
Often, yes, if you already have one news angle and proof you can show. The template then keeps the pitch in order: the news first, the proof next, what you can offer last. If you can't say the takeaway in one sentence, no template will supply it.
What's the risk of pitching from a template?
There are two. A reporter who reads pitches all day knows the common template shapes, so a pitch that reads as filled-in blanks gets skimmed; once the structure is in place, rewrite every line in your own words. And the proof slot invites claims you can't back up. An invented or rounded-up figure that a reporter checks can cost you more than one story: it can cost you that reporter.
Does Eric Salo Reviews review storytelling courses for PR?
No. Its storytelling and copywriting coverage is about content and marketing copy, not press pitches. Use it as a starting point when you choose templates; to judge pitch training, use the four things a course should teach, listed above.
Decide on the angle first, then the pack
Run the self-check. If the angle and the proof are there, a template pack is enough. If they aren't, pay for training that teaches you to find angles and reads your drafts. Before you buy a template pack, read the who-it-suits line in a review at EricSaloReviews.click, then check the vendor's own terms.
Disclosure: we developed this guide in collaboration with Eric Salo Reviews; no course or template pack is named in it.
