Sunday, March 08, 2009

Pitch Tip #372: Email Marketing Software



Lately we've been getting a lot of pitches that are sent via email marketing software. We love email marketing software -- when we're using email in a marketing campaign.

When you send a pitch letter using this software, you're using a shotgun to do the job of a scalpel. And it implies a few things about the pitch:

* You have a metric ton of emails and would get carpel tunnel syndrome trying to email the pitch to each one individually.

* The news is actually an ad, direct mail or phishing scam.

* The news is not important. If it was sent out in bulk fashion, everyone is getting it. Why should I care about the pitch?

* You're more interested in mass broadcast of a message and seeing who opens the email vs. telling me something I actually want to hear.

It's no surprise that the people sending us pitches via email marketing software have been wildly off topic -- the equivalent of sending a press release about Cougar, er, Barbie's 50th to a machine tool blog.

We don't recommend people use things like Facebook for email marketing and we don't recommend you use email marketing for things like media relations.

If all of this technology is supposed to help us work smarter instead of harder, shouldn't we actually be focusing on smarter pitches and not more emails to blast?

Oversized Novelty Pistol/BBQ Grill uploaded by brykmantra

6 comments:

  1. GREAT blog post. Couldn't agree with you more. Media contact database services are (or should be) designed to aid in the creation of focused, targeted media lists. Not so that you can see how many journalists you can "spam"!

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  2. Anonymous3:11 PM

    completely agree with tressalynne.

    we use a media contact database service and find it invaluable as a JUMPING-OFF point.

    the database gives you a name to start with, but you still have to do your homework and qualify.

    @m_dunn

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  3. Anonymous2:22 PM

    I think this is offbase. There are many times when a mass email is the best tactic to take - even if it isn't directly in the wheelhouse for a writer. Media Alerts on breaking news, or wide-appeal stories both can go out to lists of 300+ media and be appropriate. Sometimes angles fall between the cracks as well as far as defined media coverage categories go. I personally always refine the database lists I export, but always err on the side of sending an email to a questionable contact than eliminating that person from the list. You never know who will be interested in a story, as long as the pitch is good.

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  4. Anonymous9:43 AM

    Something came up for me today re mass email lists. I have been receiving, on a daily basis, roughly 3-5 press releases from an organization in the UK called the Economic and Social Research Council. None of them are remotely on topic. I've asked before to be removed from their lists, and the emails have stopped temporarily. This week I started receiving a flood again and sent another email. This is what I got in reply:

    "we use a webbased media database system to provide lists for our press releases. It is probable that your news service is contained on this database and that is why you are receiving press releases from us. As this database is not maintained by us, unfortunately, it is not in our control to stop these releases to you. My advice would be for you to add our email address to your junk mail filter."

    When I wrote back indicating this was not good enough and that they should be able to control their own lists, I received this:

    "As I have already explained, you are not on our lists. I therefore assume that your organisation is on a database which we buy access to. Unfortunately, a third party - such as the provider of our news distribution lists - would not remove any name from their database at the request of anyone other than the organisation wishing to be removed.

    "If you wish to be removed from these databases, I would recommend that you contact the providers of media lists (there are several) and ask to be removed."

    I really don't think this is a satisfactory response.

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  5. Anonymous3:34 PM

    @Kevin, what a crazy experience with the media database auto-replies you're getting. You get the blasts, but you're not on the list. Right.

    @Brian McWilliams,
    I agree that sending a media release in mass format is fine most of the time but only because I consider it different than a pitch. I also make it a point to develop a one-on-one relationship with the editors I'm sending releases and pitches to. Pitches are always done on an individual basis. And I like to vary sending media releases in mass format or individual to maintain those relationships.

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  6. Anonymous5:00 AM

    I am really pleased to see you have what I am actually looking for here and this this post is exactly what I am interested in.

    Well explained, Thanks!

    ReplyDelete