How To: Pitch Bloggers
Going a little off-topic today, I’m going to address an issue I deal with daily - public relations people sending me press releases. In general, I appreciate the effort and can often find great things I wouldn’t have found out about until after it was too late or not at all. However, if PR folk followed a few steps that I shall propose below, a considerable amount of time and energy could be spared on both ends.
I don’t speak for all bloggers in this post, just me. Some bloggers indulge in throwing up press releases and adding a sentence about how great something it is. Others ignore them completely while some (like me) are in middle ground and bite on the obscure, interesting ones.
Checklist for Public Relations People
1) Has the press release been on TechCrunch, Mashable, Digg or any other such sites? Bloggers love their RSS and have probably heard of it already and not found it interesting enough to write about. Regardless of whether they have heard about it or not, bloggers love having exclusive content. If bloggers write about your press release that has already been on the blogosphere it makes them look like just another insignificant part of the echo chamber. Not good.
2) Does the press release adequately fit the blogger’s genre? I get a lot of press releases that fall into this category. I like technology, plain and simple. I often leave that new-fangled Web 2.0 and social network stuff to other sites. Before considering writing about your press release I think to myself “Will this get comments?” - keep that in mind. If you’re not sure, browse/search through the bloggers archives to see if they have written about similar topics in the past.
3) Are you sending the press release days in advance, right at launch time or a week after it has been announced? The earlier the better. This gives bloggers time to prepare a great post before the post embargo ends so they can be the first out there. For example, I was given information about OpenDNS’s shortcuts feature before it went live. I took the extra time to write a thorough post showing users what the feature was and how they could use it to better their Internet experience, et cetera. As such, the article did well and I even got linked in the NY Times.
4) Do you know the blogger’s name? Use it. I can’t begin to tell you how many blatant copy-and-paste press releases I have received. Some were horribly impersonal such as “Dear Editor”, while others were completely off base with “Dear Greg”. My name is plastered all over my site, please use it. Most bloggers have an about page, read that at first to find out their name. Furthermore, add a personal touch with something along the lines of “I know you have been adept at blogging about site optimization recently so I want to share with you…” and close with “If you’re ever in Silicon Valley, drop by our headquarters for a tour!”.
5) Are there any other value-added perks along with your press release? This includes everything from beta invites to the service’s closed-beta, exclusive rights to post something (ie, you only send the press release to me for the first day), a full version of the software to good product images or screenshots that can be used in my post. If your press release is about a hardware item, you will get a reply from me asking if I can review it. Don’t make me ask, just send it over (bonus points if it’s for keeps):
Paul Stamatiou
334306 Georgia Tech Station
Atlanta, GA 30332
(It’s already in my whois)
Furthermore, can you provide any benefits that the blogger can handout to his/her readers? Exclusive downloads, ringtones (just kidding), beta invites, et cetera.
6) If a blogger writes about your press release or replies to your email, reply back. Even better if you comment on the blogger’s article.
7) Future correspondence is great, just don’t expect a reply back for every single email. Do I look like I’m Michael Arrington? I don’t really care if your company has a new CEO, unless it’s Steve Jobs. Also, think to yourself “Can the blogger write a substantial post on this press release?”. There’s only so much I can talk about when it comes to the Microsoft Zune being offered in Pink.
8) Think twice about contacting bloggers about things they are not cool enough to be a part of. Press releases about TED or FooCamp just make me feel bad. What’s that Tim, I’m invited to next year’s FooCamp!?
9) Do not send the same email again if you don’t get a reply. This triggers the “oh hell no” response and causes most bloggers to immediately delete any further emails from you.
10) “We would like to fly you out to…” is a great way to start an email. Even better if it ends with “meet Steve Jobs”.
11) Bloggers, do you have anything to add?
The Next Step for Bloggers
Get GMail Blogger Edition (beta) to recognize which press release emails bloggers reply to (and if they reply positively or negatively) and offer a feature to auto-reply/auto-delete emails based on past user actions with predefined rejection emails.
Spell my freaking name right is a one. I get so many emails spelling my name wrong it kills me. Like you said, it’s all over the place!
Paul, can you expand on “Get GMail Blogger Edition (beta)”? I have done a quick search, and this post is the only mention of this anywhere.
@Keith - sorry for being vague.. that was something I just made up. ;-)
Hey Paul, I think you’re on the cover of Time Magazine this week???
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20070827,00.html
Picture in the top right of the cover….where did they steal THAT from!
Thought you’d get a kick out of the link. Cheers.
Dude, Paul… I see what you’re trying to do here — you’re trying to get Apple to fly you out for a meeting with Jobs. Just make sure I’m invited.
Haha, you’re too clever Mike. ;-)
Yeah, right on blogger!
I’m with you on the free stuff, all the way. We write because we like to write, but if you’re going to ask us to pimp out our blogs to your corporation, please pay us well and with stuff that will make us feel warm and fuzzy towards you. Stock options will do.
We feel cheap and used otherwise, and that means we won’t play again. In the early days I was happy for a mention, a listing somewhere, or just some praise and encouragement.
Now I know the effort it takes, and my popularity is rising, I want gold, and a car, and some cakes, and the stock options of course. And a gold car full of stock option cakes.
Paul,
Thanks for the article. For a person who does push press releases (though not often), it’s good information. I’ll keep it linked for reference, and also be sure to push you my next release in advance. ;)
This is perhaps one of the best posts I’ve read on any blog in quite a while. Kudos to you.
You may well have just defined blogging Utopia :-)
Back to the 20+ PR releases that I got this morning now though :-(
That would require PR people to do actual work. That will never happen, all their efforts are going into sucking up to the top 10 lunch possibilities in their rolodex who still work for mass-media. The rest is a mailing blast done by an assistant who made the mistake of suggesting, a year ago, that this new internet thing might be worth investigating.
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Haha, you’re lucky that didn’t get flagged as spam by Akismet, Andy. ;-)
Great stuff. I just found your blog for the first time and I’m really impressed. Keep up the good work.
That is actually really interesting and I am glad I read it.
Paul, great stuff - hopefully PR people will read this…
I work in PR, and write a few blogs, so I like to think I know what works and what doesn’t. However, even though I think that everything you wrote is self-evident, it’s nice to have it confirmed by someone like yourself.
I hope can count myself among the few who might actually know what we’re doing online. I’ve pitched you once before, and I think it was decent - but that’s really up to you to decide :)
Keep up the great work!
I agree 100% on the echo chamber effect that can happen with an A-lister is first with a new story. Perhaps PR people can do some mingling with C and B-listers to give them something interesting to write about, which is then linked to by an A-lister. I know - it is more work…
Hey Paul,
“Has been the press release been…” Go fix. :)
danke!
excellent post, thanks “Greg”
I actually just got one of those e-mails earlier today, they spelt my name right and asked me my shoe size. The company was launching a new basketball shoe line in November (and I run a basketball website) :-) They definitely got a reply
Great post paul and i totally agree with you.
First i though it was cool to get special invites and press releases, but the next thing i know everybody else and their sink got it as well. That pissed me off. Next one that came totally on about a un-related industry.
I just ignore it most of the time and, when I do send polite emails back telling them its unrelated I gets no response. Thanks for making me feel special marketers.
Marketing people have a lot to learn about bogging and bloggers.
Great post, Paul - and definitely one I appreciate as a blogger who gets pitched, as well as a marketer working for PR agency who has reached out to you before for client projects and technology announcements. Let me know if you’re going to be in SF at all in the middle of this month and I can get you an invite to a blog event one of our clients is doing (that’s for your suggestion #5 above about getting special invites). I’d love to fly you out for the event, but can’t do it for this particular one. Keep up the great writing.
A few other things PR people need to get back into doing are:
1. Explain in a personal note why the product/site will be interesting to that blogger’s readers.
2. Include a Reviewer’s Guide on how to use the product/site, what to look for that their customers/users go “Wow!” about, and include some screenshots.
3. Be a resource for bloggers even when there is no client to pitch by sending tips and links, as well as comment on posts, to show you’re part of the community.
Oh my - I just blogged on this exact topic (used to be in the agency and now in-house) and I can’t believe all the common threads. Granted, I’m not as popular, so I’ve had no one pitching me yet (sniff, sniff). Maybe that’s a good thing?
@Rohit: Thanks for the offer Rohit, unfortunately I don’t have any plans to visit the west coast until next summer or until I graduate next fall.
Maybe Nokia read your post, because they offered to fly me over to a mansion party in Beverly Hills from NY for some product announcements on Sept. 27th. Hotel and Flight included. Of course I said HELL YEAH!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I’m the assistant PR director for an Internet marketing company and the director and I have been looking for a better way to pitch to blogs. I found your post linked from Search Engine Guide and it’s exactly the kind of information we’ve been looking for.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the information and the excellent post. I think it’s something we’ll be referencing time and again. ;-)
Hey Paul,
I agree with you, for the most part. In my case though, and certainly in my experience (both with pitching bloggers and being pitched myself at telltenfriends.com), simply using a blogger’s name isn’t enough.
I received two pitches today; they were almost equally crappy. Both used my name, but that’s about it. I hope you can agree that there’s a huge difference between “Dear Paul, (insert mass-mail pitch message here)…” and:
“Dear Paul, I love your blog. I found you in a search for (insert relevant, truthful search term here) and I particularly enjoyed your articles on (x) and (y). I thought this item might be of interest to you, as (okay to insert pitch message here).”
Trust me, PR types: the extra work will be worth it. Shorten your list of publishers to contact, spend the extra time to attempt to start a relationship, and the uptake will be considerably more successful, across the board.
I hope this was helpful, Paul.
P.S. You never know…I might be leaving this comment now so that I’ll be a friendly when it’s time to pitch you :). That’s a strategy that might prove successful, no?
Really like your blog Paul.
Intelligent and balanced articles
PR has its place but blog guidelines should be followed
Mike