Blogger Relations: Where has all the creativity gone?

There are two principal components of successful outreach strategy. For simplicity’s sake let’s call one Execution and the other Content.

Execution is all the tactical stuff – targeting the appropriate bloggers or reporters, getting the details right — the simple things like name, blog name, email address, following through appropriately, sending review or sample product promptly. Execution is the HOW.

Content. That’s the pitch, the message, the story, the program. Content is the WHY. As in why should I care? Your pitch better answer that simple question straight up, or you will strike out.

Successful outreach programs get both of these elements right. Some recent examples:

• 1-800-FLOWERS Spot A Mom campaign,
• the work Edelman has done for Quaker Oats,
• Peapod, which recently invited bloggers  on facility tours and full disclosure, was a sponsor of the Boston BlogHer BBQ earlier this month.

No question about it, there are PR and marketing people who really get how to do it right, and are fortunate enough to have clients or bosses who trust them, who let them get it right.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them.

I still see far too many execution errors — the dear blogger, dear xx, sending the same pitch to the same blogger at multiple blogs, forgetting to delete template notes, reforwards of messages without deleting the signature (a recent one had 94 sigs).

Irritating but eventually — hopefully — this will self-correct as tools and training get better and marketers become more sensitive to the potential for stupid, preventable errors. Forming the habit to re-read emails and check attachments before pressing send would be a good start.

The more serious problem is the content.

Agencies are still casting too wide of a net, with too generic a pitch. The lack of creativity is astounding. As is the expectation of what might interest a blogger.

From the inbox:

• Invitations to promote a contest or support a charity (regardless of whether the blogger has ever expressed any interest in same)
• The negative competitive pitch. Lead with something negative about the competition and then show how you are so much better. These often are ham-fisted and make the company look like a bully.
• Requests for the blogger to write about or review a product without an offer to actually send the product. Extra demerits if the blogger asks for product, and the company offers a jpg instead. Or worse, promised product never arrives.
• My perennial favorite – press releases (especially when they have no cover note)

We also seem far too reliant on BIG programs – trips, free appliances, free consumer electronics. Lately, Twitter seems absolutely cluttered with bloggers announcing yet another giveaway. More More More. Free Free Free.

I’ll leave aside the issues raised by the potential changes to the FTC’s guidelines for commercial endorsements and testimonials.  I think these are manageable, although I do question whether affiliate marketing should be lumped in with commercial endorsements and testimonials. I think not — more next week.

Problems with the BIG blogger relations programs

First and foremost, are they sustainable? One of the phrases that comes to mind is: Begin as you intend to continue. But can they? I think Frigidaire’s current appliance campaign is very clever, but what happens next year?

Another problem is noise. The signal to noise ratio is increasingly out of whack. There are a lot of giveaways and contests announced on Twitter every day, but I’m not sure I could tell you a single brand. It’s becoming a muddle. Full of ethical landmines like companies offering cash to the first 50 reviewers to post about something on iTunes.

Where’s the creativity?

Why aren’t we spending the time to find those commonalities with our customers that create truly memorable campaigns and foster long term relationships. It can be done. We just don’t take the time.

Instead we rely on formulas. For example the tried and true brand ambassador program. There’s NOTHING wrong with a brand ambassador program. Except if the same bloggers get all the invitations to participate, how wide is your message spreading, and what else is it competing with?

Events. Invite x number of bloggers to DisneyWorld or a spa, treat them really well and hope for the best? What are the expectations and are they being met?

And then there’s my favorite – the solution in search of a problem. The latest example is Dunkin’ Donuts’ Dunkin’ Run iPhone app. Sure, it’s cute and clever, but does it solve a real customer problem?

How well do these programs match up to marketing objectives and do they deliver?

The smart folks are measuring. They know when they hit and they know when they miss so they can fix it for next time. In fact, I expect that the good programs I mentioned above  had some form of measurement based on a consumer behavior, not just clip counting or ad equivalency.

This is where we need to place our focus — on developing meaningful relevant campaigns that deliver results.

Relationships are very important, but when you sit down to develop your next program or new business pitch, ask yourself if you are asking the right questions?

Does the program meet the marketing objectives or are you trying to make a favorite tactic fit? Are you going back to the same well, or bloggers,  over and over, because it’s easy, familiar?

This is even more important when outsourcing all or part of a project. You don’t want a cookie cutter program or something developed to meet the goals of another client.

You want a creative program that delivers to YOUR goals.