Tara Hill
Account Executive

Horrifying PR Faux Pas

October 29, 2018

It’s a spooky time of year, as trees shed their leaves exposing gangly skeletons and jack-o’lantern faces glare at passersby on chilly, dark evenings. No matter how scary things get, your PR practices shouldn’t stoop to these horrifying faux pas.

 

Pitches Worth Boo-ing

Journalists are bombarded with an avalanche of email every day that is often physically impossible to read. They see bundles of internal emails related to their tasks, teams and more, interspersed with a constant influx of story and product pitches. Keeping this in mind, it’s a mistake to approach a journalist as if they are guaranteed to read what you have to say.

 

One of the worst things you can do is send a note with a subject line that looks spammy, generic or overhyped. This is a surefire way to see that the recipient won’t so much as open your email. Journalists are not interested in tricks, but happy to accept treats. Taking the time to build out a quality pitch that highlights the story or product’s best or new features in a meaningful way that offers a value proposition for the journalist and their publication (a great story or a new angle on a hot topic, perhaps). Sending overhyped, disingenuous or boring content won’t excite a journalist to hop on board with your story.

 

Black Cats and Blacklists

One truly horrifying faux pas is failing to personalize interactions with journalists, analysts and everyone in between. It can be tempting to blast out an announcement quickly and skip the step of learning about each recipient and tailoring the pitch or message specifically for that person. If this happens, though, you run the risk of getting sent straight to spam and being blacklisted by journalists. Talk about spooky!

 

Be sure to personalize each pitch by getting to know a journalist’s area of coverage and recent stories. I can’t stress this enough. Journalists hate pitches that have nothing to do with their wheelhouse or that are clearly part of an email blast. Yes, personalizing takes a lot of time, but so does sending out multiple pitches and follow-ups that never get opened or seen. Your time will be well spent researching each journalist and finding a way to build a relationship with them through your interactions vs. rather than sending out batched emails, which drive journalists batty.

 

Zombie a-PR-calypse

Whether you have been in PR for a year or 20 years, you likely relate to the tedium that certain practices can spark. After working on projects or in certain spaces for long periods of time, it can be challenging to stay enthusiastic and creative. Sometimes it’s a ghoulish prospect gearing up for an important launch or announcement by compiling a list of hundreds of highly-relevant press. While the occasional creativity dry spell is to be expected in any industry, nothing can make a PR professional seem more like a zombie than getting stuck in this rut of repetition.

 

If you find yourself trapped in this mindset, make it a priority to spice up your routine and try different approaches to the daily grind. Come together with your team for brainstorming sessions when you feel fresh out of ideas. Try starting the day off with a Ted Talk or podcast for inspiration. Designate a bit of time each week to have a creative brain dump and list any and all ideas that come to mind. Find some tricks that work in your work, but don’t let this faux pas get the best of you.

 

Rather than be haunted by PR faux pas this season, bewitch your clients and press contacts with quality, personalized pitches and a hint of creativity in all your strategic PR efforts. As you work your magic you’ll see greater results.

Tara Hill
Account Executive

Horrifying PR Faux Pas

October 29, 2018

It’s a spooky time of year, as trees shed their leaves exposing gangly skeletons and jack-o’lantern faces glare at passersby on chilly, dark evenings. No matter how scary things get, your PR practices shouldn’t stoop to these horrifying faux pas.

 

Pitches Worth Boo-ing

Journalists are bombarded with an avalanche of email every day that is often physically impossible to read. They see bundles of internal emails related to their tasks, teams and more, interspersed with a constant influx of story and product pitches. Keeping this in mind, it’s a mistake to approach a journalist as if they are guaranteed to read what you have to say.

 

One of the worst things you can do is send a note with a subject line that looks spammy, generic or overhyped. This is a surefire way to see that the recipient won’t so much as open your email. Journalists are not interested in tricks, but happy to accept treats. Taking the time to build out a quality pitch that highlights the story or product’s best or new features in a meaningful way that offers a value proposition for the journalist and their publication (a great story or a new angle on a hot topic, perhaps). Sending overhyped, disingenuous or boring content won’t excite a journalist to hop on board with your story.

 

Black Cats and Blacklists

One truly horrifying faux pas is failing to personalize interactions with journalists, analysts and everyone in between. It can be tempting to blast out an announcement quickly and skip the step of learning about each recipient and tailoring the pitch or message specifically for that person. If this happens, though, you run the risk of getting sent straight to spam and being blacklisted by journalists. Talk about spooky!

 

Be sure to personalize each pitch by getting to know a journalist’s area of coverage and recent stories. I can’t stress this enough. Journalists hate pitches that have nothing to do with their wheelhouse or that are clearly part of an email blast. Yes, personalizing takes a lot of time, but so does sending out multiple pitches and follow-ups that never get opened or seen. Your time will be well spent researching each journalist and finding a way to build a relationship with them through your interactions vs. rather than sending out batched emails, which drive journalists batty.

 

Zombie a-PR-calypse

Whether you have been in PR for a year or 20 years, you likely relate to the tedium that certain practices can spark. After working on projects or in certain spaces for long periods of time, it can be challenging to stay enthusiastic and creative. Sometimes it’s a ghoulish prospect gearing up for an important launch or announcement by compiling a list of hundreds of highly-relevant press. While the occasional creativity dry spell is to be expected in any industry, nothing can make a PR professional seem more like a zombie than getting stuck in this rut of repetition.

 

If you find yourself trapped in this mindset, make it a priority to spice up your routine and try different approaches to the daily grind. Come together with your team for brainstorming sessions when you feel fresh out of ideas. Try starting the day off with a Ted Talk or podcast for inspiration. Designate a bit of time each week to have a creative brain dump and list any and all ideas that come to mind. Find some tricks that work in your work, but don’t let this faux pas get the best of you.

 

Rather than be haunted by PR faux pas this season, bewitch your clients and press contacts with quality, personalized pitches and a hint of creativity in all your strategic PR efforts. As you work to do so, you’ll be able to work your magic and see greater results.