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So here’s a 500-word appetizer before we serve up a few we’ve been keeping warm. This includes our signature dish: "Three Strikes and You're Out-ed."
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Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 20:04:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: NAME
To: BAD PITCH BLOG EMAIL
Subject: live campiagn intro to bloggers
Dear
I just recently started a blog called the BLOG NAME.
We keep our readers up-to-date on how to use online video as a sales and marketing tool.
As you well know, Google Inc. recently announced they were planning to allow advertisers to place video ads on their vast network of websites.
Quietly under Google’s radar, COMPANY.com launched on May 16, 2006 disrupting Google’s announcement to be the first and only company to take a slice of the pay-per-click video advertising pie.
Why Should This Interest You and Your Readers?
1. I thought your readers would be interested in hearing about a new risk free way to gain new customers. On June 12 and 13th we are giving away over $100,000 in Online Video Advertising Campaigns and Commercial Productions Services to the first 20 accounts that sign up.
Click the link below to learn more about our $100,000 video ad giveaway. URL
2. We are looking to organize marketing blogs into a premium online video advertising channel. Here is an opportunity for you to earn high CPMs for airing non-intrusive video ads on your blog that you must approve first.
3. The complementary commercial that COMPANY NAME creates for your readers can also be used to test with Google video ads as well. Feel free to compare and contrast. We will also even help your readers with their testing of Google video ads along with their trial of COMPANY NAME.
4. Do you want to attract more readers? For any blogger that refers us 5 or more advertisers that renew after the free test we are willing to create a commercial and air it with one of our publishers.
This campaign will go out to a minimum of 100,000
Their list consists of the following.
60,253 Media Directors and Planners
45,287 Internet Businesses
1,000,000 plus -Small Home Offices
5. Last but not least for any advertiser that you refer from your blog you can earn a 200.00 one time commission or 5% of the revenue for the life of the account.
Imagine Google paying %5 of the 3 .5 billion or more that they earn from ad-sense to partners.
This includes advertisers that sign up for the free test campaign.
So if you are interested in discussing how we can benefit your readers and partner please email me.
June 12th and 13th is around the corner and wouldn’t you want your readers to get an online video test campaign at no charge?
You can review the complete press release here on my blog at:
URL
To Download This Press-Release In Microsoft Word format
(it includes a graphic of an Online Video ad), click the link below
URL
NAME
CEO- Chief Visionnaire, Executive Producer and Technology Architect
7 MORE LINES OF SIGNATURE FILE
If you would not like me to send you anymore emails please send me an email with the words unsubscribe in the subject line.
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Wow. We choked when we read the typo in the subject line. But luckily we maneuvered through and can summarize why the pitch sucks.
Typo-Ridden: Typos set the tone as Seth Godin will tell you.
Dear: When you leave the name blank, it reads like you are trying to get too familiar too quickly, dear.
Me,ME,me,mE: Starting sentences with "I" are a pet peeve of mine. My pitches should focus on you, not me. When you start the first sentence of a pitch with "I," it sends the wrong message.
Too Many Messages: Am I being pointed to a new blog, tipped off about a new technology or being sold? Multipurpose pitches ensure none of your ideas stand out.
Think Link: The Chief Visionnaire was smart to shorten the pitch with links to more background information.
Why Should You Care? More points for bullets on why the pitch matters. But there are too many of them.
Bad Math: Is it me or are there too many numbers in this pitch? The typos ensure the numbers make even less sense.
Titles: If you are CEO, you can stop there. Adding titles makes me wonder what kind of sports car you drive.
Pitch or Spam: The unsubscribe note at the end convinces me this is spam instead of a PR pitch.
Mass pitches may seem like a fast and efficient way to communicate with a large audience. But mass pitches are far from effective. Mass pitching in the social media realm also increases the odds that careless typos will be seen and vilified by many.
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | good pitch | bad pitch | bad pitch blog
3 comments:
Good example, Kevin.
I only had one PR class in college, so I may be off in this question: Is pitching media (or whatever you want to call it) taught in PR classes? If not, it should be. (Would you want to be a guest prof?)
As you point out, pitches should entirely be about how you and your audience can benefit from what I have. Not how neat what I have is, and then how you benefit.
We are all naturally ego- or self-driven that we have to force ourselves to put others first.
Mike
Mike - Thanks for the feedback. I'd be happy to consider a guest prof...I present to folks in the area pretty regularly.
When I was in school, the closest I got to pitching were my courses in logic and persuasion.
I applied some of this in my internships, but I did not really pitch the media until my first job out of school.
But instead of me prattling on, professors would be smarter to ask journalists to stop by and talk. They could cover the importance of writing skills in addition to pitching.
Mike:
People in professorial places think pitching is "something people do anyway" so they wouldn't think to do anything as low brow as role play. It needs to be taught - at any cost. I've been giving classes at Media Bistro on this topic, thinking for sure the students would all be newbies. Turns out the veterans want to make their lives easier...they mostly attend.
More: http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs1726.asp
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