Bloggers owe their success and influence to their ability to express views, opinions and raise issues in a very specific manner. This is why many of them have developed specific expectations when it comes to pitches.

These tips and tricks should help you meet these expectations.

1. Things to remember while pitching

  • Be friendly.
    Your email shouldn’t sound too “official” (i.e. boring). Use a “normal”, relaxed tone and style (but don’t be too familiar). Also, be honest and stick to the facts: your pitch shouldn’t read like an ad. Finally, if you don’t get a response, or if you get negative feedback, don’t lose your temper: harsh words will only make it worse.
  • Keep it simple.
    Keep your email short and be straightforward. You story should fit in a few sentences – bloggers don’t have the time to read more than this anyway. You should only try to sell one big idea at a time. Then, if your contact decides to write something about you, you’ll get the occasion to go through the smallest details in your next email or phone call.
  • Share contact details.
    Don’t forget to share as many contact details as possible with your contact (phone number, email, Facebook or Twitter details, etc). He/she should be able to decide how and when he/she’ll contact you. When this happens, you’ll need to respond immediately: most articles are written on a tight schedule, so be prepared to react on short notice.
  • Provide relevant additional content.
    At the end of your email, add a few links that might be interesting for your contact if he/she decides to write something about you. These links can point to full product specifications, photo galleries, a matching press release, etc. These links can be really important, as your contact might even use them in his/her article!
  • Do your homework.
    Read a few recent articles from your target blog, until you find one that’s related to your story (if you can’t find any, then you may have picked the wrong blog). This will allow you to start your email with a nice/clever reference to a past article, and show your contact you actually care about what he/she does. This will be appreciated.
  • Show them you’re unique.
    If your contact has already written about your competitors, the main point of your email should be to show why you’re unique, how your company stands out in its own market, why it’s better than its competitors (of course, all this will have to be proven with facts and figures). Bloggers want something new and specific to write about – they won’t publish the same article twice.


2. Things to avoid while pitching

  • Don’t copy/paste your press release.
    In general, bloggers don’t care about press releases. Most press releases sound too “official” or are too long for a blogger to read them while browsing his/her email. Instead, be friendly, write a short, concise email, and use a very personalized approach (see above). It will take more time and effort, but it will be way worth it.
  • Avoid attachments.
    Don’t clutter your contact’s inbox with heavy attachments. All the information you want to present must be contained in the 2 or 3 first paragraphs of a regular email. Also, many attachments will get you directly to your contact’s spam box. If you want to provide interesting additional content, add a couple of hyperlink at the end of your email (see above).
  • Don’t let your interns pitch for you.
    Most bloggers won’t care about your pitch if it has been sent by an intern, or by someone who has no real power to represent your company. They’d rather talk to your CEO. Show them you care, by getting one of your top-level representatives to send the pitch and respond in person: information always seems more important when it comes from a higher level.
  • Don’t write things you wouldn’t want to be published.
    You can write in a relaxed, straightforward way, but always remember there’s no such thing as an “unofficial” conversation with a blogger. Everything you write might be published, so be careful not to disclose confidential information, nor to loose your temper or write things you might regret afterwards.
  • Don’t follow up every 2 hours.
    Some bloggers think it is OK to follow up, some simply hate it. If you do decide to follow up, please wait a couple of days. Your contact might be temporarily too busy to respond, or not even interested in your story. Whatever be his/her choice, writing 3 or 4 times a day will only create unwanted and unnecessary pressure.


These few tips and tricks should allow you to send relevant pitched to a handful of interesting bloggers. Nevertheless, always remember that pitching bloggers is far from being easy: only time and efforts will allow you to build interesting, long term relationships with the bloggers that matter most for you business.