Some blog pitches are so bad you wonder, really wonder, about the person who pressed <send> Others are just a bit off. A rare few are excellent – you can’t wait to write or participate in the program. Later in this series, I’ll talk a bit about the secret sauce that makes some pitches really stand out.
Today though, I am going to share a few that just make you go Hunh?
First, this pitch from a PR agency that appears to have forgotten… the pitch.
Clearly, it is meant to be a soft-sell teaser to get the mom blogger to opt-in to learning more cleaning tips. But, leaving out the information about WHO the pitch is for doesn’t make a blogger want to know more. It just makes her laugh. Typos and the poor salutation don’t improve the situation.The email also wasn’t signed; after the "Thanks" there was some space and the email footer.
Finally, as we’ve discussed here many times, most mom bloggers don’t write about cleaning tips. Here’s my favorite cleaning tip: set aside the money to hire a cleaning service or marry someone obsessed with cleanliness and willing to do the work. Camouflauging your cleaning product pitch as a fun activity for kids won’t change that. Grade: Fail.
Next, we have a pitch for a "Life changing contest on Facebook." Yawn.
When I dragged this out of my spam folder Thursday morning, my first reaction to this teaser campaign was that it was mostly boring, bad grammar and lame blogger exclusive notwithstanding. I did however note that it was from a firm that has something of a reputation in blogger circles for — let’s be polite and call it "excessive emailing." I wondered what the follow-up might be.
I didn’t have to wait long.
Notice the similar language to a pitch included in a previous bad pitch post. I won’t leave you in suspense; yes, it is the same agency, and no, I won’t name it. Here’s the thing — one day doesn’t even give the blogger a chance to read her email, let alone decide whether she has any questions. This isn’t following up; it is stalking.
The follow-up email also wasn’t from the same person who sent the initial email. Of course, both emails were sent by a bulk email program that must have had a glitch and attached the wrong sender name to the follow-up. Grade: Fail.
Lessons learned:
- Teasers and exclusives. They have to be good, really good. Connected tightly to something the blogger cares about and will write about. Otherwise, you’re just looking for free advertising. Which you won’t get.
- Follow-up. No sooner than a couple days after you send the pitch. And make it a follow-up: short and sweet. Don’t resend the whole pitch as they did in the example above. If the blogger didn’t get it for some reason, and it sounds intriguing, he’ll ask for more info.
- If you use mail-merge, make sure your technology works properly.
- Exclamation points do not make otherwise uninteresting copy interesting. Use them sparingly if at all.
- Don’t try to fool the blogger; she knows there’s a client and a product. Stealth pitches just set off alarm bells about your agency.
Tags: blogger relations, bad pitch
LOL, I received the pitchless pitch you mentioned. I had the same reaction and actually sent off a quick note asking who the firm was representing and what they were selling. If I hear back, I’ll let you know about it.
And I’ll let them know about your blog and your services.
I keep getting press releases from the same PR rep on a weekly basis. They are for a brand that I actually use and would love to write about. But on at least 5 occasions, she has told me I could receive free samples and she has yet to deliver. But she still has the energy to send more press releases to me!
Why do PR reps think that I even want to read a bunch of press releases? I’m not going to give you free advertising if I can’t actually try out your product or see it for myself. Entice me with a free product sample of something I would actually use (hello, it should be pretty obvious if they are contacting me on the product review blog). And don’t offer samples and not deliver. Very lame!