Bad Pitches
July 17, 2010 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Front Page, Media Training
When you are pitching ( talking to media about having you IN their outlet) you need to make sure it matches what they do. Match the outlet!
Here is an actual pitch sent to me via email this morning:
Hi Dr. Wright,
Hope all is well. I wanted to give you some information that I think your readers will find useful.
School’s out for summer! And while parents of young children are busy coordinating family vacations, summer camp and play dates at the pool, an unexpected summer cold can put the brakes on all those activities.
Pre-school and elementary school children can get up to 12 colds per year, and while colds are more common in the fall and winter, summer colds occur more frequently than you might think because of exposure to air conditioning…
It goes on from there talking about how somones DAD and a nurse can talk about how to recognize summer colds and how a brand name over the counter medicine ( who competes with ANOTHER over the counter medicine that had to be taken off the shelf) is a good choice.
This does not fit Wright Place TV on any level, so of course the answer is no.
This person has not even bothered to read the blog or even look at it to know it’s a bad mix. Normally, I just delete bad pitches but this time I wrote back what she wrote and told her, its not a good match on ANY level.
Can you spot the mistakes?
1. We do not do anything on kids unless they are running a business
2. You said you think my readers would like it letting me know you have no idea what the blog is about.
3. Your expert to interview is someone’s DAD who is an expert in summer colds- sorry, that is lame, especially because I am a doctor.
4. Clearly this is an ad for the over the counter medicine, you would do better just getting ad space.
4. This is not a Mommy-prenuer blog
I understand what they are doing and there are some places that they are a good fit, this PR person was lazy and just sent out a blast. I am not likely to consider ANYTHING she sends because I know she is not specific and it’s a waste of my time. Which means one of her clients could miss out on a good opportunity.
Need some good tips on PR?
