Bad Pitches: Shouldn’t This Be in PR 101?

So, I know the topic of bad pitches has been done to death, and honestly, you’d think this wouldn’t even really be an issue.  At the Mom 2.0 Summit, my friend Ciaran compared bad pitches to bad pick-up lines, which is an accurate comparison.  But, if you are teaching dating tips, you wouldn’t even really talk about bad pick-up lines.  Because that should be a given, right?

But with bad pitches, it isn’t.  Because I receive SO many bad pitches that it’s really shameful.

….but before I get to them, take a look at our about page.  It’s not so hard to see the name of the person who queries should be sent to, right?

Let’s start with the way the emails are addressed:

• To: Ms. Chris,  Blogger Mom’s Favorite Stuff (huh?)
  
• Hi Ms., (wow, how personal!)
• Mom’s Favorite Stuff Ms. Chris Blogger (mail merge FAIL)

Is it THAT hard??

Then, there’s the ubiquitous “I love your blog!”.  Wow, really?  Thanks!  Have you read it?  Because you called me Ms. (Note, I’m not referring to those who say – “I love your blog” and then provide a reason or at least know my name.  I mean those who obviously include that in every pitch).

Here’s a fun one:

We’d love to invite  you and your editorial team to an upcoming screening of our film – would you please let me know who I can touch base with?  Below is info. on our upcoming LA screening however we have screenings is various cities should your staff be based elsewhere.

The LA bureau would love to attend.  But they are a tough group with lots of demands – they’ll want still Perrier and Christmas M&Ms in their green room…

This author totally forgot who she was writing about…

At any rate, I really hope you will consider this for momsfavoritestuff.com.  It’s a great resource for parents (I can say so first hand) and I think it would be great for mommieswithstyle.com readers.  It is truly a great find.

Oopsie!

This sounds intriguing, if not entirely editorially appropriate…

I hope this email finds you well. I was just checking up on an email I sent a few weeks back, about one of the most fun and interesting shows to sneak out of Australia, called Puppetry of the Penis – you may have seen them on HBO’s Real Sex or on Leno a few years back. Puppetry of the Penis celebrates the ancient Australian art of genital origami, which has resurfaced thanks to the Morley Brothers – Simon and Justin, who will launch the national tour in NY beginning Aug 4 for the next four weeks.

And….one last one…

Please follow and become a fan of the {redacted}. If you could also tweet or facebook about it we would really appreciate it.

Is that it?  Anything else I can do for you?

Tagged as: blogger outreach