{"id":604,"date":"2008-12-07T20:30:12","date_gmt":"2008-12-08T01:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=604"},"modified":"2008-12-07T20:54:52","modified_gmt":"2008-12-08T01:54:52","slug":"karen-lives-in-canada-relevance-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2008\/12\/07\/karen-lives-in-canada-relevance-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Karen lives in Canada: Relevance Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s probably the most important element in blogger relations. <a href=\"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2008\/11\/02\/revisiting-the-3rs-of-blogger-relations-part-1-respect\/\" target=\"_blank\">Respect<\/a>, which we revisited a few weeks ago, is important. Relationships, which we&#8217;ll talk about again in a future post, are certainly the grease to the wheels.<\/p>\n<p>But your pitch won&#8217;t bear fruit unless it is <a href=\"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2008\/08\/13\/the-secret-sauce-for-the-perfect-pitch\/\" target=\"_blank\">relevant to the blogger<\/a>. It may be a great offer or a wonderful program or a great product. But if it doesn&#8217;t match up to the blogger &#8212; her interests, her family, her location, it&#8217;s a bad pitch.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s have some examples, shall we. These are all pitches sent to my friend Karen who:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>lives in Canada;<\/li>\n<li>has two boys, four and nearly 10. No babies, girls or teens;<\/li>\n<li>no longer writes a personal blog, although she did at one time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>She also has a dog and has attended more than one BlogHer conference. Her most recent project is the <a href=\"http:\/\/craftastrophe.net\" target=\"_blank\">Craftastrophe <\/a>blog. All of this is publicly available information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are just a few of the pitches she has received since October. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Verbatim subject lines with company and product names redacted:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Editorial Pitch: The Newly Redesigned XXX Cup Helps Toddlers Learn the Mechanics of Drinking from a Cup for Only $6! (with two jpg attachments)<\/li>\n<li>5 Crazy Ways to Get in Shape (received twice)<\/li>\n<li>FW: Keep New Year&#8217;s Resolutions with XXX fitness DVDs &#8211; Weight Loss and Dance and Be Fit lines, Exhale, Shiva Rea, and Hemalayaa &#8211; Experts\/DVDs available<\/li>\n<li>[MOVIE NAME] on DVD 12\/26 &#8211; DVD Review?<\/li>\n<li>Research Project&#8211;Your Help Needed (a noble effort by university undergrads. Unfortunately the contest was for a Target gift card. No Target in Canada.)<\/li>\n<li>[Product] Nourishes Frazzled Parents (sent November 26th with the salutation Happy Thanksgiving. Except Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October\u2026)<\/li>\n<li>GIFT OF SAVINGS HOLIDAY PROGRAM THE LATEST IN WAYS TO SAVE AT ALL XXXX  STORES (US store chain, none in Canada)<\/li>\n<li>Special Blog Savings from XXX (free shipping offer from a company that only ships within the US)<\/li>\n<li>Branching Out: A Christmas Tree for a Jewish Family? (Umm, I\u2019m at a loss here\u2026)<\/li>\n<li>XXXX Keyless Entry Perfect for Runners (with attachment)<\/li>\n<li>Story Idea: Products that Promote Self-Esteem to the TWEEN GIRL MARKET by [TOY COMPANY] Tween Expert <em>and <\/em>[XXXX] Friendship Bags Exclusive to Tween Girls  (no explanation necessary I think)<\/li>\n<li>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: [XXXX] brings Eco-Luxury for Babies<\/li>\n<li>PTA &amp; XXXX Offer Parents New Family Entertainment Options at Retail (in the United States)<\/li>\n<li>XXXX Helps Expecting Parents Set Up Fast!!! (apart from the fact that Karen isn\u2019t expecting, nor is she expecting to be so, this was also geographically focused to Los Angeles)<\/li>\n<li>New Fun, Fizzy and Delicious XXXX Multi-Vitamin &amp; Multi-Mineral Supplement ( a short pitch note with a LONG press release about a PAST US contest)<\/li>\n<li>XXX Invites Americans to Anonymously Voice Their Political Opinions <em>and <\/em>CDC selected you to participate in our flu webinar for bloggers! (umm\u2026)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And here are are few that you have to see to believe.<\/p>\n<p><em>I&#8217;m all for brevity but you really need to give a reason. One is enough!! (emphasis intentional)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen11.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-607\" title=\"karen11\" src=\"https:\/\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen11.jpg?resize=483%2C344&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"483\" height=\"344\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This one just cracks me up. Everything the PR rep has to flog, except possibly the kitchen sink.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen21.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-609\" title=\"karen21\" src=\"https:\/\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen21.jpg?resize=500%2C322&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"322\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>No subject. No salutation. Canadian citizen ineligible for contest. Fail. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen31.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-610\" title=\"karen31\" src=\"https:\/\/\/\/i0.wp.com\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/karen31.jpg?resize=500%2C315&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"315\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Some of these were decent offers, for the right audience. Some are dumb, full stop. But none were relevant to the blogger who received them. That makes them bad pitches.<\/p>\n<p>Take the time to research the blogs. You do stand a better chance of cutting through the clutter if you have made the effort to develop a relationship, but it&#8217;s okay if you haven&#8217;t had time to get to know the blogger personally if the pitch is relevant. Even better if you add value.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s value? To quote a previous post:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;A personal blogger writes about things he is interested in, generally from the perspective of how they impact him. He\u2019s telling his story, and you need to give him a good reason to include your story in his. That means putting your product or service into his context, not talking at him from yours with a press release, list of features or carefully crafted message point.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2008\/08\/13\/the-secret-sauce-for-the-perfect-pitch\/\" target=\"_self\">post <\/a>where that paragraph first appeared has some specific suggestions on how you can add value.<\/p>\n<p>I know we can&#8217;t always do as much with a program as we&#8217;d like; sometimes the client or the boss just can&#8217;t be moved from the idea that the product is intrinsically wonderful.<\/p>\n<p>But really, we ought to be able to do better than the examples I&#8217;ve brought you today.<\/p>\n<p>Be relevant.<\/p>\n<p>Or be one of my next examples.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relevance. It&#8217;s probably the most important element in blogger relations. Respect, which we revisited a few weeks ago, is important. Relationships, which we&#8217;ll talk about again in a future post, are certainly the grease to the wheels. But your pitch won&#8217;t bear fruit unless it is relevant to the blogger. It may be a great [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}