Help! I’ve Pitched to a Ton of Bloggers—and No Response!

By Nettie Hartsock - Mar 28 , 2008

I’m a giant fan of do-it yourself PR, and there are many successful ways you can do your own PR when it comes to reaching out to bloggers. But I’ll share with you one sure way you won’t get responses to your pitch.

I actually received the pitch I show below from an “online specialist” at a major publishing company. The”specialist” even has the title of “Online Specialist,” and yet the pitch they sent was anything but special, and definitely not online savvy.

What’s the pitch? I will paraphrase it slightly so I won’t reveal and embarrass the pitcher.

The subject line was: “Get this book for Free – <title of book>.” Anyone who has the least bit understanding about how spam engines work, knows that you never put “free” in a subject line email. Also, frankly a good book pitched to a blogger as “free” in the very first approach is going to seem less than good if that’s the whole hook for considering receiving and reviewing the book.

Here the body of the email pitch:

START:

Greetings All:

A link to the book’s page –

Interested in securing a copy for review – drop me a line!

Cheers,
NAME OF publicist here

END

So here’s what this pitch really says to the recipient bloggers:

First, they’re on a mass blogblast book list. No personalization, no first name, and no mention of blogname. (Hmm, I might wonder if I were being pitched whether the pitcher has ever even read my blog.)

Second, the pitch says to the recipient that their blog is not worth researching to see whether they even cover this type of book.

Third, Cheers is the name of a great television show and an oft-used toast in the UK, but it’s not appropriate for signing off on a blog pitch. Cheers connotes a familiarity with the recipient that surely doesn’t exist within the context of this blog pitch.

Fourth, while it’s good to keep your pitches short, within the body of the email you should at the very least have one line about why the book is important and also at least one testimonial quote from the biggest person who has vouched for the book.

What can you learn from this?

If you want to build your own blog list of bloggers to pitch to, then you need to be committed not only to collecting those email addresses, but also to treating them with the respect they are due. No blogblasting, no “Greetings All” pitches, and never make the hook of your pitch simply that the book is available for “Free.”

Now go and pitch!