Bloggers: The World’s Most Overlooked PR Pitch

If you learned about PR and marketing in the “old school,” you probably only think of pitching news to editors. If this is your only approach, you’re at the mercy of journalists who get hundreds of unwanted pitches and press releases every day.

Welcome to what David Meerman Scott calls “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” In this new world, bloggers may be your best (and most overlooked) ally. Think about it. They need to write. A lot. And they run out of topics to blog about. Enter your pitch or press release. If targeted correctly, you could end up with several bloggers writing about you. Each one gets roughly between 10 and 10,000 readers to his or her blog, which increases your exposure that much more.

So how do you pitch to a blogger?

1. Research. Do a search for blogs in your industry, be it “pet blogs,” “home improvement blogs,” or “headboard blogs.”
2. Make a list of websites, contacts and email addresses. Keep a spreadsheet of this information. Throw out any blogs that haven’t been updated in a year or more.
3. Become a fan. No one likes being contacted with a pitch without the sense that you’ve read (thoroughly) their blog. Spend a week or more reading through posts to get a feel for what the blogger covers and whether they’d be open to receiving a pitch.
4. Write a well-crafted email. Most bloggers deliberately don’t leave phone numbers on their site. So make your email count. Introduce yourself, give a compliment about the blog, and tell them why you think they’d be interested in your story. Provide contact information, your press release and the invitation to contact you for additional information.
5. Don’t expect a response. Even if a blogger decides to blog about you, they don’t have to let you know. Create a Google Alert to see when your company’s name pops up online to see what the results of your blogging pitches are.