How to write an effective PR email pitch

I originally planned on writing a post simply griping about how my main email adddress has been rendered useless because someone put it on a media list and sold it to a number of different companies.  This stinks on multiple levels. First, I couldn't possibly respond to the sheer number of the emails I now receive.  Second, nary a one has been relevant.  This is a business and career blog and my other blog (http://topshelf.entrepreneur.com) is a business book review blog.  Yet, I seem to be slammed with multiple pitches a day about:

• beauty products
• computer hardware and enterprise software
• novels (including those for kids, young adults and science fiction) as well as cookbooks
• staffing levels in the health care industry.

And, this is just what I pulled out of today's trash.  I now spend half the day unsubscribing from these and deleting them out of my mailbox.  I've even created filters to catch the words "press release" and "for immediate release" so that they go into a separate folder as they come in. Unfortunately, it doesn't get them all.  Regardless, by next week, I expect I'll be sending them directly to the trash.

You can just imagine what I'm thinking about the PR industry each day as I delete 20 or so of these with my morning coffee.  And, I can't even print the words I often use to describe those PR spammers who don't have the courtesy to include an unsubscribe option. I've tried writing back to a few, but most don't honor my request to take me off their list.

Nevertheless, just when I was losing faith in the PR industry, I had two interactions in the past two weeks that gave me hope, and helped me boil it down to the two things you need to make a good email pitch:

1.  An "opt-out" or "unsubscribe" option.  This is a good reason to use a service that provides this.  Otherwise you can always do what this gentleman did below.

Somehow I ended up on the ABC-TV list re: upcoming shows, etc.  I got a few, then the gentleman from ABC included a nice note on the top of his next release asking "If you no longer want to receive these releases, please let me know."  I wrote him back and told him that while I personally found them interesting, I couldn't have them cluttering up my in-box so would have to unsubscribe, and thanked him for giving me the option. He then responded by obliging and thanking me for my personable response.  I haven't received a press release since, but it gave me another reason to like ABC besides Modern Family.

2.  Do a little bit of research and you won't need to have an "opt-out" option. just when I was thinking I was overloaded with books I needed to review for my book review blog, I got an email:

1. Addressed to me personally (with my name spelled right!);
2. That included a pitch for a book right in my sweet spot (networking/social media/marketing);
3. Mentioned my Top Shelf blog and the Downtown Women's Club (so clearly not a mass mailing); and
4. Was extremely brief, to the point and extremely well-written.

I include it below because I believe the PR industry takes a lot of knocks (some of it well deserved as outlined above), and doesn't get enough credit when they do a good job like below.  So, for our PR readers, take note (reprinted with the author's permission).

Hello Diane:

I am working with Maribeth Kuzmeski, author of The Connectors:  How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life.  I was looking at your Top Shelf Reading Picks blog, and saw that you review many books on similar subjects to this book.  I would like to extend an invitation for you to review a complimentary copy of The Connectors.  Since you have launched your own women's social networking site, you understand the importance of building meaningful connections with others in business.  

Here is a quick description of her book:

...

Does this sound like a book you would be interested in reviewing?  If so, simply reply to this email and I will follow up with you to get you your complimentary book.  We are just looking for honest feedback, and we would value your opinion.

Thank you for your time.  I hope to hear back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Danielle Ackerman
http://www.redzonemarketing.com/

I had no intention of taking on any more books at the moment, but will make an exception for Danielle.  Her note made me realize that it's a lot of bad apples ruining it for the good ones.  Which is a shame, but because I'm now inundated with irrelevant, un-opt-outable news releases, I'm considering switching to a new email address, which will mean that 100% of email pitches will fall on deaf ears.  And, that's a shame.

Diane K. Danielson is the founder of the Downtown Women's Club and the author of The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?) and The Downtown Women's Club Beginner's Guide to Facebook.

Comments

[brenda be]

Great example, Diane. Thanks for reprinting it here.

[Katy Tafoya]

Diane, this is great. So often, the "how to pitch" article comes from the other side of the table. Like you, I get quite a few unsolicited pitches (I run both a women's blogsite & community with weekly giveaways AND I have a local blog that caters to the LA area). I love the ones that can call me by name and mention what I do.

So far the majority of pitches sent my way are pretty right on (though I still can't quite figure out how I get invited to local MA events). Because of that I never gave much thought to the opt-out option. But come to think of it that would be quite useful.