PR Practioners: Get Your Heads Out of the Pitch.. Personalize.

September 21, 2010 at 1:33 am · Filed under public relations and tagged: blogs, how to pitch to bloggers, personalize, public relations

As a student studying PR, I am constantly studying the newest sources and mediums that are being used by PR practitioners to reach their publics. Low and behold, social media is continually shooting to the top of the list of contenders.

When researching how people in PR should “Pitch” to influential bloggers, the tip that seemed most prominent amongst bloggers themselves is: Don’t pitch, Personalize. As stated in an article I found while researching, it was one of  the key tips I found for pitching to bloggers.

For people who are not sure exactly what is meant by “Personalize,” Wikipedia has the most socially current definition.

“Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the difference between individuals.”

What this means people of PR: Do not send bloggers template pitch messages. As a person looking to start a career in PR and currently a blogger, it is understandable that a blogger would not want to receive hundreds of pitches from PR professionals that do not care enough about the blogger to at least include their name let alone show that they are interested in the blog itself.

This sets me up for the next topic tip, when you are ready to sit down and personalize a message instead of spamming up an innocent bloggers inbox with pitches, do some research! I found when reading about pitching to bloggers that research, although grueling and time-consuming, will be beneficial for a number of reasons.

• Quality over Quantity: Research will help you target bloggers that are related to your rhyme of reason. You want to send fewer messages to bloggers that will actually be able to use your pitch, than to a lot of bloggers who find your message meaningless.
• Eye Catching vs. Garbage Fetching: Research and find your niche that will fit the bloggers niche. Get creative with your message. Find things in common and show that you are a dedicated subscriber to his or her blog. In a sea of pitches, make sure yours is the “whale” of them all!
• Relate Don’t Delegate: When you research, you will notice the style of the blogger. You may stumble upon an idea on how to converge your pitch with their blog. Do not tell the blogger what their readers would be interested in reading. Let them decide themselves after your message if they are able to make the connection between the both of you and their readers.

Ideally, create a relationship with the blogger. As said in The Bad Pitch Blog, a bad pitch has a real bad impact. Their mission is to shed light on the mistakes of the PR pitches around the world. The reason they made this their mission and the reason I am sitting here now flooding your mind with my two-cents is primarily to save PR.

“Because coverage, reputation and ultimately business is at stake.“

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