Don’t call influencers “influencers” in your pitch
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Your client or boss gives you an assignment:
Create a media list, including “basketball influencers and enthusiasts” and pitch them for our client’s upcoming event with a well-known basketball celebrity. (Think March Madness is influencing this post?)
You complete your research and built a targeted media list made up of traditional media, bloggers and influencers/enthusiasts. Now comes the writing of the pitch. Perhaps like most public relations and communications professionals you struggle with exactly how to pitch people that fall under this “influencer” category. There are many nuances for pitching those who actively talk about a specific topic online, and I’ve watched one trend emerge that I’m not a fan of.
The majority of pitches I read begin something like this:
Dear <Insert Name>,
As a basketball enthusiast I wanted to reach out to you to… STOP RIGHT THERE!
An opening sentence like this automatically conveys to me that I’ve been targeted as part of a group–not as an individual. I may not refer to myself as an “enthusiast,” or even know what that means. I may be a basketball coach, mother of two kids who play basketball, a college basketball analyst–something much more targeted. Knowing these very important differentiators may change both THE ANGLE you pitch and HOW you address them in the pitch. For example, a basketball analyst may be interested in numbers and trends or a more in-depth interview, versus a parent who may want access to multi-media assets or a meet-and-greet with the celebrity.
Where can you find out how these people define themselves? The best place is their bio–and those are pretty easy to locate if they’re active online. A few suggestions:
- Website or blog. Look for a bio or “about me” page.
- Twitter. People have 160 characters to describe who they are.
- LinkedIn. It’s the professionals social network. If they’re here, they have a bio.
Remember–you’re pitching individuals. While a group of people may fall under a general (or generic) umbrella term, it doesn’t mean they all have the same interests or focus. Next time you’re getting ready to pitch an “influencer,” make sure you know what makes them tick. Talk about the topic you’re pitching them in a way that connects with them and shows you value them as an individual.
What ways are you personalizing outreach to active online conversationalists/enthusiasts/influencers?
18 Comments on this post
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Connor Keppel said:
Great post! Well done. Another point I would make is try creating and filling out your own about.me bio. I did this and I actually think that it help come up with some great ways to describe people and cliché pitfalls when corresponding with them. Once you can accurately portray yourself, it will come easier when doing so for others. What you don’t like being called, they most likely won’t either!
March 25th, 2011 at 11:11 am -
Dave Van de Walle said:
Bravo! Personalization is key, Sarah. (But you know that.)
Also, I’m starting to find the term “influencer” to be pretty lame. I know you’re an influencer, but, if I call you out as an influencer – what does that do for those who are NOT influencers? Or who think they should be called influencers?
I ran into a “thing” recently where I got an email response from someone that said “when you build up your influence, call us.” What? Huh? It was obviously canned, and I could tell that, but it was still off-putting.
March 25th, 2011 at 11:15 am -
PRsarahevans said:
Oh no! “When you build up influence…” That feels like, “don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Influence is such a broad term. I don’t look at it as overall reach. If someone has a strong group of 15 people who are active about a topic, that’s an influencer. You are doing a great job, Dave. Keep it up!
March 25th, 2011 at 12:47 pm -
Kairi said:
Wow, Dave.. “when you build up your influence, call us” sentence even hurt MY feelings. I totally agree with Sarah, that it doesn’t matter how big the group is, that you are influencing, as long as it is a passionate group. 15 passionate people beats 1000 people who are indifferent.
And thanks, Sarah, for the post. =)
March 26th, 2011 at 7:31 am -
kim/hormone-colored days said:
Excellent point about focusing on the individual. As some who has been blogging since 2005, I’m on a lot of PR lists. At this point, when a pitch mentions I’m an influencer, I roll my eyes and wonder what they want from me, but usually hit delete before I bother to find out.
March 26th, 2011 at 7:42 am -
Melanie Baker said:
I think a big part of it is that, to date, that “create a list” order has been a huge pain. Slow, manual, spreadsheets, etc. So once you’re immersed in just getting that built, the real, live people in it just sorta become this homogenous group: influencers. You care if they fit, not about their uniqueness.
Which is a bit ironic, given that to build a good list, you have to research each person individually anyway, learn about them, and determine if they’re the right target demographic, etc.
Then once you have a List of Influencers, the next step, given the way you’re already thinking, is, “What message works for Them?” Which, as you’ve pointed out, causes near-guaranteed alienation.
Since the project typically is: build list, pitch list, get coverage, measure results, etc., you’re always thinking ahead to the next step from where you are, which is too bad. It’s basically like conversing with someone who’s clearly not listening to you, but rather just waiting for their chance to talk again.
Companies are starting to get better at this — I know because they’ve been knocking on our door asking for help to do so, so we’re building a service to help fix the problem — but in general “influencer outreach” remains somewhat primitive and SO ripe for improvement. Which would be really easy to do if we just started with and remembered to ask ourselves from time to time, “How would you like that?”
March 26th, 2011 at 10:41 am -
Nikki Stephan said:
Awesome points, Sarah. Another easy way to personalize outreach is to reference a recent post/tweet/article that relates to why you are contacting that person. So instead of calling someone a “basketball enthusiast”, you could say “I’ve read your recent posts where you mention coaching your son’s basketball team, so I thought you might be interested in this upcoming event with X basketball celebrity.”
Make the outreach personal by referencing relevant and recent content that person has created and shared.
March 26th, 2011 at 5:17 pm -
PRsarahevans said:
Go Nikki!
March 27th, 2011 at 10:19 am -
chuck said:
Sarah … would you consider writing a future post on how to compile a media list?
March 28th, 2011 at 9:38 am -
chuck said:
Sarah, would you consider writing a post on how to compile a media list?
March 28th, 2011 at 9:49 am -
Virtual Private Servers said:
It o not do that when writing at times. I think it is better to refer to prior posts or accomplishments to get your point across to validate it more.
March 28th, 2011 at 10:42 am -
Joanna said:
Great post Sarah. While referencing a blog post or Tweet is a good first start, I believe that it is about building meaningful relationships with important (dare I say) influencers. This means interacting with them on their turf whether it be providing meaningful commentary on their blog or engaging them on Twitter. It needs to get back to simple human interaction, not automated one way communication based on the needs of you and your client. You need to introduce yourself, get to know them and their network and then when the time is right, provide content that they would find useful.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:57 pm -
Data Recovery Software said:
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March 29th, 2011 at 1:08 am -
Ed Rude said:
Something I needed to read.
People are individuals. Each individual likes to be an individual.Demographics is groups – no individual likes to be known by a group he/she is in.
The solution for a marketer?
Research the demographics, then find the individuality of each person in the group and respond to that while promoting stuff the overall group needs.The three info sources for that solution – Website/blog, Twitter, Linkedin – represent the best shortcut to finding the individual behind the demographics. Wbsites, Blogs and Social Media is useful – so in any sign-up form why not ask for website/Blog URL or how to find the person in Social Media – make it optional so that the person signing up for whatever does not feel intruded upon, but then follow your list, so that your list will follow you.
Interesting implications. And that is the reason I particularly like this posting.
March 29th, 2011 at 10:42 am -
fazal mayar said:
such a great post Sarah! When people wants to know who i am they check my social networks and not just the traffic of site or my ‘ about me ‘ page!
March 29th, 2011 at 12:19 pm -
Ken said:
I noticed a company website that posted photographs of a media event at their headquarters and when you scrolled over the pictures a little pop-up message read “influencer photo 1,” then influencer photo 2,” and so on. You get the picture, Not good.
March 29th, 2011 at 2:18 pm -
Charlie Seymour Jr said:
We all group people or we wouldn’t be able to operate in life. School kids, parents, friends, theater lovers, ethnic groups, political persuasions, etc.
And we’re all part of groups. Tall, short, business people, work-at-home folks, saleswomen, students, etc.
But we all want to be thought of as individuals.
“Hey… I’m am a person – treat me as one!” we think. And we’re right.
So when you want to send me something as a 5′8″, hazel-eyed, mustachioed, married dad of 2 grown women I will DEFINITELY pay attention.
It’s not easy to target our prospects like that… but when we do, they sure will pay attention!
Thanks for the article.
Charlie Seymour Jr
http://CreateYourOwnLegendNow.comApril 1st, 2011 at 9:34 pm
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