How to get a blogger to read, not ditch, your email pitch

While social media and newsfeeds provide bloggers with a myriad of sources for stories, email continues to play a vital part. However, many who are trying to catch the eye of a writer fail to do so because their approach lacks care and attention.

Creating relationships and a positive impression plays an important role in getting noticed and is more valuable than the few minutes saved by using a shotgun approach to distribution.

So, what makes me hit delete during my daily marathon trawl through my inbox?

1. They don't know my name. It's not hard to find out my name and we'll get off on a better, and more personal, footing if you use it.

2. They don't know my niche. It's obvious from a lot of the emails I get that the sender has no clue what I write about. It would take just a few minutes to go through my previous posts, or look me up on LinkedIn. Do your homework because while you might have the best coffee grinder neither I nor my audience want to know about it.

3. They are hassling me. Follow-up emails are fine. In the sea of emails I am met with each morning I may miss one or two, so please feel free to give me a nudge. If I don't reply then leave it be, I'm probably not interested and I don't have time to reply to everyone to that effect.

4. The emails are long and boring. Get to the point quickly and, better still, illustrate that point. We like appropriately sized pictures and graphs, and logos. Include links to your Facebook Page so we can see what your public is saying or to your LinkedIn profile or online press room for background information. Most of all, keep the information short and easily digestible so we "get it" quickly, we have a lot of emails to get through.

5. They don't use BCC. I'm not sure if this is a personal dislike or universal, but when mailing a list of bloggers please use the BCC option. In most cases I realize an email isn't only being sent to me, but don't make it blatantly obvious by putting swathes of email addresses in full view.

Tags: blogger, blogging, journalist, PR, press release, press room, public relations