LA.foodblogging
An Example of Great PR
It’s no secret that I have had some harsh words about PR requests in the past.
This morning I got an excellent example of a great PR request. This was a request to post events on my Digesty.com foodblog aggregator. Here is the email (reprinted with permission):
Hello,
Esotouric offers offbeat LA bus tours that sometimes include unique
food components. We’ve collaborated with Tai Kim of Scoops on creating
flavors themed to our tours, picnicked on dumplings from 101 Noodle
Express, etc.I’m interested in reaching out more to the LA foodie community, and
wonder if it would be okay to occasionally post announcements of our
upcoming tours when there is an interesting food association? For
instance, on July 12 we’re launching The New Chinatowns, a tour
exploring the history and culture of Monterey Park, which concludes
with a dim sum and wine pairing at Wing Hop Fung.
http://esotouric.com/newchinatownsCan you please let me know your policy on such a post?
best regards,
Kim
Esotouric
http://www.esotouric.com
Here is why I think that this is an example of great PR:
- By saying “I’m interested in reaching out more to the LA foodie community”, Kim is being upfront and honest what her intentions are. She isn’t saying “I know your readers will want to know about this” or “thought you might be interested in…”. There is nothing wrong with wanting to reach out to the foodie community, it’s nice to hear honesty
- Without being too wordy, she tells me exactly what it is that she wants to share. Unique bus tours with specific examples of content and stops. Most PR emails I get are really long, wordy, with multiple sections and headings. I’m lazy, I’m not going to sort through a pages long email to extract something that might be interesting for our readers (sorry readers.)
- This is the line that I found most endearing: “Can you please let me know your policy on such a post?”. I find that question to be so respectful and genuine. I appreciate being asked what my policy is, and I did write back to let her know that the posts didn’t fit Digesty, but that I appreciated how the request was presented and could I post her email her.
- I also appreciate the email for what it is not. It is not pushy, not presumptive, not condescending, not impersonal, and frankly, not the ordinary PR requests I get
I probably would help publicize more events if they all came wrapped in emails like this.
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
Discussion
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It’s still a mass email. She addresses you as “hello”. How tough is it to write “Hello, Jonah”? A little more effort, I think.
Actually, it takes a LOT more effort to customise emails to separate individuals. Mass emails serve their purpose and PR types don’t get paid all that well, in fact, for the volume of work that they do.
That this email appealed to Jonah and caught his attention above and beyond the usual crap that flows in means that this person did a great job.