Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

How not to approach a blogger

by Rachel on May 23rd, 2007

Scaramouch over at YesButBoButYes recently received a pitch email from an agency, looking to him to help them push the latest piece of content for their client Anheuser-Busch. The suggested point by point response is pretty funny and well worth a read. I asked him of I could do a different kind of response so he sent me the original and below I’ve suggested why this sort of thing can be handled far better. As they say in the first sentence they need help, so here is help on how to approach a blogger. (and I’m writing as though it was addressed to me, it’s far smoother!)

Dear Webmaster,

Hi there! Forgive the intrusion…On behalf of Anheuser-Busch, we are the agency that handles Rolling Rock beer, and frankly, we need your help…

Did you look at the blog, did you read the posts when you decided you needed this particular person’s help? They have a name (or an alias) which are usually displayed on each post and in the about section. Address your plea to the person or, in the case of YBYBN which is a group blog, at least make obvious that you know it is a group of people and you are not sure which one gets the mail!

Rolling Rock beer has a new video and we need to get people to watch it. We scoured the web to find cool sites like yours to drive traffic to the Rolling Rock website to watch the new video, Foul Ball..

This is not too bad; clearly states what they are after, what they have been charged to do. They think this is a cool site, so there’s a compliment. Of course, it would be more of a compliment if they made reference to the site and some cool post they loved, you know, indicated that they had at least read it instead of pulling it from a list that someone keeps. Next challenge about this statement - why should I come to your site to watch it?

Foul Ball is the latest in a series of videos you may have seen. The first two being Man Thong and Beer Ape. Foul Ball takes place at a baseball game where a foul ball ricochets all over the ball park, hitting a bunch of guys smack in the balls… Yes, it’s funny, and you WON’T see it on TV. It’s for Internet only.

This paragraph tells you clearly who it is targeted at - guys. However, they missed a big trick here - how about linking to the previous videos which I may not have seen. But you can’t as they do not appear to be on the site (but they are on YouTube) and even if they were on your site you couldn’t link as it’s all one big flash file with no deep linking.

We looked at well over 1500 sites, and we’re inviting you to participate BUT, we can only work with 150 of you. So, the first 150 who respond will become part of the Rolling Rock Webmaster Team (yes, you get something for helping). Read on.

This could explain why there was no name…that’s a lot of sites to send an email to. How about instead of doing a blast email from a list, you look at these, assess them against what you need to do and target the ones that may actually help you. Instead of making it a pointless competition that belittles the people you are trying to contact.

Participation is easy, all you have to do is place our Rolling Rock Foul Ball banner ads on your site for two months and we’ll give you a $50.00 Amazon.com e-certificate. Down the road, we’d like to call on you again to help us with various marketing campaigns.

Here’s the meat of the issue. You don’t want to give me something cool to talk about, a piece of content that I can share with my readers, you want me to run advertising for 2 months. For $50. When is the last time you looked at the going rates for advertising online? And did you look at the site that you sent this too? It runs advertising…it also has a link that you can follow to place ads on the site of various types and the costs involved. If blogs are running ads, they are often part of some network whether text based or image/banner ad based. You have to go through the correct routes to get your ads on those sites. I wonder how many of the 1500 sites you sent the email to run no ads? As it does not appear you have visited them, do you know? The advice here - take a look at the site, assess the ads they run and then work with the system they have in place.

We’re already a little behind, and we need you to have the banners up as soon as the video is available. So, you MUST reply to this email within 3 days with your name and email address. We will send you an email with a link to watch the video, give you the details, and sign you up.

So the plan is running late - I can understand that (been there, done that!) At least you are warning me here. How about actually sending me a link to the banners so that I can work out if I want them on my site. Even better, if you want to spread the word, how about letting me have the video to talk about.

Yes, this is legitimate and we are really their advertising agency. Look at our website at . This is a great opportunity if you want to make easy money and gain more exposure for your website. Let’s help each other out!

I went and looked at their website; it’s a typical digital agency one - flash heavy, not easy to find things and link to them. And whilst they appear to have a lot of good experience in building experiential sites, they seem to be lacking in the social media skills. And how does me running your ads give me more exposure for my site - what’s the reciprocation here? Do you give your webmasters a link from the Rolling Rock site and drive traffic back.

I’m pretty sure that out of the 1500 people they blasted, some will take them up on their offer. However, the lack of knowledge in the mail makes me angry at fellow industry colleagues. You are condescending to the sites you have sent this too, you are offering money, at extremely low rates, but nothing else. How about sending out the content to the sites instead, how about making it downloadable and shareable, get it out there so people can see it. There are ways to track that - not as easy as if it was on your site, but still trackable. You can do far more than you have.

Of course, when I write something like this, I’m always opening myself up to criticism. I don;t know everything that comes out of the office where I work, but if you point anything we do like this out to me, I can at least spread the lesson in person ;-)

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POSTED IN: Advertising Agencies, Buzz Marketing, Engaging the Customer