PR professionals are still missing the connection to use bloggers as media resources. It works like this, PR people have news to report and bloggers have readers who rely on them to post news. However, when it comes to a love connection between bloggers and PR people there is missing chemistry.
The major problem with PR people and bloggers is a communications breakdown. I often say that when developing a PR campaign you must implement a strategic plan and approach. That means understand the target audience you seek to pitch! I must repeat that over and over because this is what PR people tend to get wrong when pitching bloggers.
It is very important to consider the audience that the blogger attracts and how the PR pitch approach would appeal to that audience. Are you still with me?
Darren Rowse a.k.a ProBlogger revealed some interesting tips for PR people in his post about “What to do when a PR company pitches to you badly.”
Rowse reveals that there are common mistakes that PR people make when pitching bloggers.
He says:
Common mistakes in pitching to bloggers include:
impersonal emails – emails that are clearly being sent to hundreds if not thousands of people
incorrectly addressed emails – emails addressed to the wrong person/blog – I regularly get emails where it’s clear someone forgot to copy and paste my name in and delete another blogger’s name
irrelevant pitches – where the product being pitches has nothing to do with the blog being pitched (for example – today ProBlogger got pitched to link to a newly released cufflink!)
long press releases – long slabs of text don’t really inspire most bloggers
Even stressing that, “The list could go on and on.”
After reading the mistakes identified by ProBlogger it was very clear to me that PR folks are not implementing a strategic plan and approach to communicate with bloggers. PR professionals lack to do their homework before making contact and they have POOR communications skills! They might as well be operating as high paid telemarketers!
ProBlogger also revealed that when it comes to PR people who get pitching right, he estimates that 1 in 10 do it well.
Consider our seminar to learn how-to Pitch like a PR Pro