How NOT to Reach Out to Bloggers
Earlier this week I poked fun at SEO vendor that posted rankings that weren't particularly impressive and were, in my opinion, downright funny. I'm must be in a sour mood because now I'm going to poke fun at a company that seems to be trying to generate buzz and presumably links, but has made a pathetic attempt at it.
Let me start with the e-mail I received from the vendor not too long ago (names have been changed):
Hi Mario,
My name is Somebody, and I'm reaching out to you on behalf of Acme Inc., a digital advertising agency in New York City. We are currently in the process of setting up a viral international buzz campaign for our client and are very interested in working with you and your blog.
The campaign involves a game between bloggers across 6 countries, including Germany, USA, UK, India, France, and NL. The game is all about guessing which company is behind the buzz campaign. The winner will receive a very nice gift!
For more details, I would like to send you a buzz kit which will help clarify everything. If you are interested in participating in this game, please send your street address to somebody@acmeinc.com.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.
Thanks,
Somebody
So lets start with the nit-picking, shall we?
- First off, my first name has an ”s at the end of it. There's no better way to let a website owner know that you're not really paying attention than by spelling their name incorrectly.
- Second, trying to build buzz with a game about guessing who is trying to build buzz is a silly idea. If there are details about the game that would convince me it's not silly, they should be included in the contact e-mail e.g. this is going to be a Leonardo Da Vinci-style solve clues type of game.
- Third, a first prize described as a “very nice gift” makes me think the winner is going to get one of those pens with the blue-LED light built in. A cool conference trinket, but hardly worthy of a website owner's time.
Needless to say I'm not participating in this one. And I'm expecting the campaign to flop so I may never know which company was behind this effort.
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Tristan,
I didn't hear anything else about the campaign. The doesn't mean it failed. I just didn't have any way to track it's progress and I didn't see any other bloggers that I follow write about it.
Hi Marios,
Just wondering if you were able to follow this "buzz" campaign at all to see if it was able to gain any traction with other bloggers, etc.
Chris,
I check the Yahoo Answers page every now and again. I just happened to see your question right after you posted it so I wrote an answer.
There is a way to keep track of questions with specific words though. If you do a search you'll notice an orange RSS button at the bottom of the search results. You can then subscribe to the search and receive updates via your RSS reader. I also restrict items to the last 7 days so I only see new stuff.
Yes, I get those kind of pitches often too. I file their pitches so I can keep track of what buzz marketing companies NEVER to work with.
By the way, I found you through your response to my question on Yahoo Answers. I was really impressed that you answered so fast. Was that a coincidence or do you have a way to know when people post questions you can answer?
Yes, agreed lame idea.
Best
Asa Bailey