Pitching Is For Baseball Players Not Bloggers

There's been a bunch of buzz lately about how to "pitch" bloggers your product/brand and or service. And most marketers (whether they be PR companies, Ad agencies or even old school 1.0 digital agencies) are struggling with the right way to approach this.

I've heard some of the dumbest ideas in meetings which usually start with the sentence "let's send the bloggers..." at which point I generally put my hands in my shaking head and try not to look like I'm going into seizures.

My opinion on the matter is pretty simple. Getting witty emails, fun packages, or even an invitation to the CEO's summer manor for a get to know you spa day, does not take the place of genuine engagement. It means participating in conversations that matter, it means contribution and it means understanding reciprocity and the value you BRING to the network before you attempt to extract value FROM it.

Mitch (Joel) calls it "in praise of slow", and in his words

"Digital Marketing is not a one night stand (like more traditional advertising - "wham, bam, thank you ma'am")"

Now would we like to be able to sit in a room, get paid a schwack of dough and help you figure out how to 'go to market' with a deadline of next month with some fancy pitch to bloggers? Sure we would. But that isn't going to get you what you need and in fact may do more damage to your brand than anything else.

Pitching is for baseball players not bloggers. :)