Bad Pitches

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?

Grab the PR Challenge!

When Sound bites go Wild

When Sound bites go Wild

Many of you have heard about John Mayer using the N word in a major interview with playboy. I am a fan of Mayer’s and have tickets to his concert in Philadelphia.  You can imagine my chagrin at this. What was he doing? What was he thinking? Someone told him he needed to be edgy and controversial to be a good Playboy Magazine Interview, but they didn’t tell HOW to. So he threw out the only shock factor he could think of. Low brow humor and dishing on his ex girlfriends in ways that were not appreciated.

So the lesson here is Media Training is important. Details of the outlet you are working with are important. Keeping some integrity is important. He is getting a lot of fame however, people including me see him in a different light. Lucky for him, the tickets were purchased a while ago.

Guess Who is ON!

This week I am back in the studio for the first time since October! I’ll be interviewing the ladies from Sniffle Buddies and the Guys from Biddingbar.com I am celebrating 10 years on the “air” with my TV show. Officially, everything is seen by cable and not broadcast from a tower anymore so almost nothing is ON THE AIR anymore!

These two are very different business that came into being because of a real need seen in the market and two companies that really care about the people they serve. Whether you watch it on TV, online or on iTunes, be sure to check out this show!

To subscribe on iTunes, just go to iTunes and Search for Wright Place TV. It’s free and you will always have the new shows.
We are booking our February 2010 Shows!
Events: I hope you are joining me for live shows at the Leadership Summit in Ontario California. Lisa’s Events are always a great place for networking and learning! Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »