Outreach, PR firms, and Blogging

Thu, Aug 27, 2009 Posted By:Eric Friedman

Interactive Advertising

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Since starting this blog I have been getting an increasing amount of PR firms pitching various products, promotions, companies, and more. My information is easy enough to obtain, or you can even fill out a form and I like being this reachable.

Lately it seems that the quality of these email “pitches” has gone down. It is not that I write about them in the first place, but it is as if they do not even read blogs to begin with (let alone actually reading this blog).

It is possible that I have been writing long enough simply to have my email on some PR blast lists (annoying) but even if this is the case, the quality “requests” have gone way down.

Below is my list of greatest offenders, offenses, and examples of what not to do.

1. Ridiculous news story happens and CEO of X Co. would be happy to discuss it
2. New product announced that has literally NOTHING to do with my blog or audience
3. Interview available with person X but no context given for a reason
4. Product or service announcement with no link and usually 8-10 paragraph description
5. Feature launch for a company I did not know existed – PR firm looking for a follow up article
6. Paid links in an article
7. Paid links on the homepage
8. So called “sponsored” posts – pay per post
9. Outreach by a unqualified individual
10. Mail merge failures
“Hi :namefield: I enjoy your :variable: blog, and wanted to discuss….”

I can’t tell you how many times I get an email with something from the list above. I sometimes write back to give advice or feedback on the so called “outreach” and offer tips (seriously) and I have never ONCE heard back. I know these folks get the emails as I have feigned interest in later emails and gotten a response.

Either way this is simply a rant on the state of outreach and the so called “social media experts” that are everywhere.

Like always the personal and eloquent connections and outreach work 10X better than spray and pray but I have to assume there is some success rate as the volume of these inquires is increasing.

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This post was written by:

Eric Friedman - who has written 646 posts on Eric Friedman – Marketing.fm.

Analyst at Union Square Ventures, blogger at www.marketing.fm and operating experience within SEM, SEO, and Social Media. You should follow me on twitter @EricFriedman

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  • angelia110

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  • Rob Walker wrote a little about this yesterday: http://www.murketing.com/journal/?p=3906 ... Good stuff.
  • I will check it out
  • Eric,
    I liked the article; so much truth in it.

    But how would you approach the blogging community in your market? I have my own company making product "x", and every time I write (I think) a sincere email to the blogger, willing to have them try a sample (at no cost to them) I get no response back.

    How can I write in such a way that I appear sincere and genuine? Any tips?

    My emails are short, two tiny paragraphs and one link to check out our products and ask them for the size/type of the product they would like to try.

    Anyways, thank you for this post.
    All the best!
  • Become human.

    I noticed your email address is info@ - why not Chris@?

    I also noticed there is no team page on your site (perhaps I missed it) but
    after getting the note, I would check to see who is on the other side.

    Also, Google your name (like I just did)
    http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Chris+Fofiu&fp=8...

    Who is on the other side? Which Chris are you? What comes up re:
    Chris+PiadoStyle? Is this all legit? Put yourself in the shoes of the
    person you are emailing and go through steps you would do before writing
    back\accepting the offer.

    When I get an email, I will click the link sure. But I want to know who is
    on the other side. Are you the CEO\Founder\Principal at PaidoStyle?
    Great! Then its not a PR firm behind the offer and you genuinely have an
    interest.

    If you genuinely have an interest in me and my blog, then that feeling will
    be reciprocated with your offer. If your goal is to mass email a group of
    bloggers hoping for a review\link back, its the wrong approach.
  • Thanks Eric! It's good stuff! I will re-evaluate my emails!
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