Improving the pitch
Mir from Woulda Coulda Shoulda is part of a panel on improving pitches to bloggers from PR people. She’s telling some great horror stories right now about the pitches she’s received. Some of the things she’s seen in e-mail pitches:
- Wrong names
- Being addressed as her blog name
- Forwarding carrots still left in the e-mail (since it’s clearly been copied and pasted to make it into your inbox)
Mir, and the rest of the panel, will make an effort to respond to bad pitches, and they’ve had some interesting results with the conversation that takes place from that.
What to do when the blogger doesn’t list a name on the site. GREAT question. Mir pointed out that her posts always say “posted by Mir,” so that’s one way to go. It is ok to say “Hi,” and then follow it up with a good pitch. Or even address them as a blog name, and then say, “Hey XXX, I know I just addressed you as your blog title, but I can’t find your name and I’ve been looking- write me back and let me know who you are!”
Unlike traditional media placement, the content is the driving force for the blog, and tends to be more important that numbers alone.
If you feel like you don’t know how to pitch a blogger, ask them. Bloggers are more than happy to tell you how it is.
Big theme here- read the blog, know the blogger, do the pitch.
