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Fairly Odd Mother

Frantically waving my magic wand to make wishes come true.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Want to be lazy at PR? Fill in the blanks


Yesterday, I received this heartfelt, personalized email from someone in the PR realm:

Hi Christina,

I had seen that you wrote about [reference article subject etc] and thought you might be interested in this new initiative we just launched with. . .

As my father would've said: Close, but no cigar.

I imagine that someone at this PR agency (and, yes, it's a bona fide agency), went through a bit of trouble to craft a pitch letter for bloggers. They probably told their employees "make sure you find out the person's name" (though Liz didn't get a name on her pitch letter, and Kristen's person called her Karen).

But, to go through the trouble to get my first name and then forget to throw something in about [reference article subject etc] is a new kind of fail.

PR people? I know there are good ones out there (I work with many of you).

But for the rest of you, let me make this easier for you: Blog Pitch Mad Libs:

Dear (insert name),

I enjoyed reading your (adjective) post about (noun). Our brand of (product) would be so appreciated by your audience of (noun) lovers in (city or state). In fact, we are so confident of this, we'd like you to give away (quantity) of (product) to your readers!

Please contact me at (email) to discuss this opportunity further.

But, so help me, if I get a pitch letter like this with none of the adjective/noun words filled in, I'm outing the agency who sent it.

Labels: ,

posted by Fairly Odd Mother @ 7:09 AM 

5 Comments:

Blogger Mom101 said...

This post really was (adjective) for your readers, Amanda. Well done.

7:21 AM  
Blogger Patois42 said...

As I'm reading the pitch, I'm thinking "She's not telling us what the article was because she's protecting the PR person who wrote it."

Oh my (deity of choice).

8:20 AM  
Blogger Mrs. Q. said...

Holy [expletive of choice]!

I worked in PR so perhaps I'm biased: I would have outed the agency. And highlighted the letter teacher-stylie and sent it back.

When I worked at [consumer packaged goods company], if we got such a pitch-poor letter, someone would have been in deep doo. I don't know why it's any different when the company is a blogger.

12:56 PM  
Blogger Melani said...

I got an e-mail one time about my blog...how well put together it is and did I want to feature it on their whatever that had to do with designs of clothing!!! I deleted it otherwise I would have copied it here for you, talk about lame! and such a form letter

1:02 PM  
Blogger Issa said...

Dang it, Liz stole my idea. Figures. :)

I get the, Hi Issascrazyworld.

Come now, you really think that is my given name? Dumb shits.

3:37 PM  

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