Public Relations Princess

Anatomy of a Good Blogger Pitch Email

There is no doubt that the PR profession is profoundly changing. As the months slip by, I can't stress this enough: Press releases are passé. PR professionals are forced with a decision: Get with it, or get out of the profession.

A few weeks ago, I got in some hot water with some of my fellow PR professionals for being too tough on a agency employee for sending me an off-topic pitch. Since then, I've received my share of pitches. Copyblogger's Brian Clark really inspired me today, after reading this excellent monster list of recommendations on how to pitch properly.

Since it's never my intention to simply point out what's wrong with our profession - but to try to point out what is right - I'm including this recent email I received, along with my comments, to point out why it works.

Here is the headline and the first paragraph:

It was addressed informally, "Hi, Claire," but that's cool. She spelled my name correctly. Second, she included a crucial detail. Since I contribute material to PR Daily, she immediately made the connection that she was sending this and thought it would be suitable for PR Daily. To be completely honest, the subject line was ok, but could have been a little more exciting. But it was descriptive, at least. Don't waste that crucial real estate with a spammy note such as "press release" or "for your consideration."

She obviously took the time to Google my name, noting my connection to PR Daily. That is crucial when dealing with a reporter or a blogger. It does not take more than 2 minutes to Google each person. If you don't have time to research each person, that means you are spamming your pitch to WAY too many people.

Next, it's a marketing trends story. I occasionally write about that subject. The best part came next. She offered her company as an ongoing resource! And gave me the name of a real person to contact. Cool!

The email was informative, factual, full of good information. The marketing trend link took me to a web page with the information promised. She also took the extra step of including the information into the body of the email in case I just scrolled down to see it.

Appropriately missing was a news release. Why? Because this is NOT NEWS. It's information. It's a huge mistake to use a "news release" format to transmit INFORMATION. This is called a "pitch email," and it's highly effective because it meets the following criteria:

1. On target with what the blogger writes about
2. Personalized and researched
3. Explanatory
4. Valuable information
5. Timely

Well done! I'd love to hear your stories of some great pitches you've received. Thanks for reading!

PR Spam Blogger Relations Case Study: The Truth Be Told, You Should be Outraged

Lately, I've received some really off-target spam "news" releases from PR types. Last year, my friend Todd Defren and I commiserated about the sad state of PR spam last year, when he told me about a press release he was pitched, all about oatmeal. Todd writes about PR, social media, and agency life. Not consumer products. By the way, Todd is a true thought leader and visionary, the "social media news release" was his brainchild.

Another leader in calling out bad pitches is the "Bad Pitch Blog." They're taking on the silly media relations frenzy that surrounds SXSW each year. It's worth a follow. Here is their social media relations quiz.

Today, I received a completely off-target news release, one of those "Yeah! We're the agency of record for our new client!" garbage news releases. In my opinion, it's great to be "thrilled" to have a new client, but keep this stuff to the Advertising and PR trade pubs. Or better yet, just post it on your agency's website. In this case, the agency was "The Truth Be Told" (offices in New York and LA!)

PR spam is a serious threat to the credibility to all PR people, and it's getting really bad. I'm always encouraging my friends in the media to take action and push back. So, I decided to respond. Here is the exchange that ensued.

First, the breathy first paragraph of the "News" Release. The pitch was exactly three words long.

For your consideration:(!!!!) <----- (That's it, in case you missed it!)

TRUTH BE TOLD TO REPRESENT CANADA G00SE

New York, NY (March 9, 2011) – Canada Goose, Inc.,the Canadian company, who for over 50 years has been committed to producing the best extreme weather outerwear in the world; proudly made in Canada, announced today that Truth Be Told, Inc., a public relations and marketing firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles, was selected as the agency of record for this iconic brand.  “We’re thrilled to have Truth Be Told on board. The last five years have been a time of remarkable growth for our company in United States,” said Kevin Spreekmeester, VP Global Marketing.  “We believe that TBT has a unique combination of New York savvy and Los Angeles savoir faire to provide the perfect public relations marketing support we need to maintain the upward momentum.”

ME: "Why on earth would you send me this release? You obviously have no idea what you are doing."
Amanda S. from Truth Be Told: "Then it would behoove you to change your details on the media search engines."
Me: "I write about public relations. You've obviously never read my blog. My search details don't include anything about wanting to read random press releases that I would not write about in A MILLION YEARS."
Amanda: "By the way, I hope the advice you give clients includes building relationships, because clearly you're terrific at that."
Me: "I didn't ask you for anything. You are the one who sent me a cookie cutter "For Your Consideration" agency of record spam email. Clearly, I could give a crap less, and your sass is not helping your case, that of your client, or your company's reputation. You do know I'm a blogger, right?"
Amanda: (note the change in tone): I have never engaged in such a correspondence with a media person, nor do I intend to.  I was simply surprised by your reaction and perhaps reacted too quickly. We work with several outlets that focus on media moves and somehow your name ended up on this short list. Apologies if it clogged your inbox. There is no reason to endanger my business or the reputation of our client, that spends a lot of time and resources on protecting the environment and endangered species.

Best,

Amanda

The best part of her entire pitch was buried in her hasty apology! If she had done a little research on Twitter, she would have discovered that I sometimes tweet about water quality and the environment. If she would have done her due diligence and perhaps noted SOMETHING about my blog or even given one hint that she had followed me on Twitter, it would have been a different story. No, I would have never written about Canada Goose, but at least it would have made me think that she truly researched her pitch.

This is a perfect example of "spray and pray," or "throw Jello at the wall to see how much will stick" PR. I don't know anything about Canada Goose, but they certainly deserve better service than this.

Have you ever done the "Spray and pray?" Can you share how you found out it's not the best way to pitch? I'd love to hear your stories. There, I feel better now. Thanks for reading.

P.S. The Truth Be Told PR: Please don't fire Amanda. I promise she has learned her lesson and will remember it for the rest of her career. But you have some serious training to do. Here are some tips from Journalistics on how to allow reporters and bloggers to opt out of your media lists.

 

Associated Press and Wall Street Journal: Social Media Dummies

The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press are tangentially related. Both are vaunted mainstays of the "mainstream media." Both are respected in journalism circles for providing excellent reporting. Then why are both making such sophomoric mistakes in the emerging media world?

Let's take the case of the Wall Street Journal first. Owned by the same people who drove MySpace into the ground, it's been slow to embrace social media, but now plans on starting its own Linked In competitor? After not even fully practicing social media on their own Linked In page, now the Wall Street Journal wants to reinvent the wheel? Leaves me shaking my head.

WSJ's social media policy also is curious, if not laughable. It's clearly written by lawyers and HR people who have no clue about the social media space. It basically tells everyone how to protect the Wall Street Journal, without even touching upon how to be effective and use the space to the WSJ's advantage. They missed the entire point of social media.

Today, I read that Wall Street Journal reporters are no longer going to honor embargoes unless it is given an exclusive. (For my non-PR readers, an "embargo" is a piece of news that is shared with a news source under the pre-agreed condition that the news source will keep from reporting that information for a set period of time) This is the WSJ's way of taking its ball and going home. It's a very baby-ish way of saying, "We don't think we need to work as hard as everyone else for our stories. If you don't come to us first and give us an exclusive, then we won't print your story at all." Waaaaaa! My guess is they'll end up losing more stories than they gain.

Now, my favorite aging news wire service, the Associated Press. Notice I did not use the AP logo, lest I be sued. They are starting to charge bloggers who use more than five words from their stories! They actually have a chart showing how much they will charge. Last week, a blogger conducted an experiment. He "bought" a Thomas Jefferson quote from the AP (which they have no right to charge for, since it has been in the public domain for centuries). The AP purchase bot wasn't even sophisticated enough to know the difference between the quote and its own material.

According to AP's arcane rules, a blogger cannot even site an AP article and give it full attribution with the post. The ability to comment on material in the news and in online sources already in the public domain is the backbone of social media. By issuing a series of silly assaults on the blogosphere, the AP has instead unleashed a torrent of ridicule upon itself. It should have instead helped bloggers spread its material and helped bloggers properly attribute the material. Most bloggers already do that, but a gentle reminder to offenders would have gone over far better than the campaign of shock and awe that they're running now. The last time I checked, social media people are far less expensive to hire than lawyers.

 

Blogger Relations Case Study - Curls and All

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a webinar with PR Newswire on using social media in public relations. It was only a 45-minute presentation, so I was only able to touch on a few subjects. One of my listeners was a representative from a small company called Curls. After the webinar, I got a very engaging and targeted personal email from someone named Shaun at Curls. It's the best example of blogger relations that I've personally experienced.

Shaun took note of my effusive curly locks, and offered to send me some of their product. It arrived a few days ago and I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Shaun's "pitch" was very effective for a number of reasons. First of all , it was very targeted and personal. It is obvious that I have very curly hair, and people with curly hair is Curls' target audience. Secondly, they offered to send me free product to try. Third, they send me a brochure with more information, including the address to their excellent Web site, where I can look for more information.

It is very gratifying to see small companies opportunistically reaching out to the blogosphere, making personal connections. As my friend David Meerman Scott says in his landmark book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, "The Web has opened a tremendous opportunity to reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs."

I am impressed with the outreach efforts that Curls is already involved with, and think that if they're considering a social media outreach campaign, they would have great success. I'll be looking for them on Twitter!