Avoiding the Supermarket Approach When Pitching Bloggers

Note: this post was originally published on One Degree.

At a night club recently, I felt the need to tell a guy that I was taken. He then looked at my friend and said, “OK, what about her?”

It’s something I call the “Supermarket Approach”: if you knock enough products into your cart, eventually, one with a honey nougat centre will fall in.

I’d never think it a good plan to dump a bunch of things into my basket and hope the one I wanted would be there. Just as it might to be the best course of action to randomly target single girls.

Or send emails to every blogger in Canada.

That does, however, explain the theory behind such blogging pitches as,

“Hey, I like your blog and I want to tell you about a totally irrelevant product” and “Your [cut and paste] blog exists so I thought you, [your name pasted here] would be interested. You guess why.”

And while that’s not a targeted approach, if you do it enough, you will get some results.

Rob Jones who writes the music blog, The Delete Bin, explains his experience:

“I do think that many marketers tend to think of bloggers as a sort of digital grist-mill, which is a big mistake. A lot of the time, in my particular context, the best pitches and experiences I’ve had have been with artists who are reaching out personally. They understand that marketing through blogs is a partnership, and that it should be mutually beneficial. We’re both after a bigger audience, after all!”

While it is time-consuming to research each blog/blogger and individually tailor pitches, doing so increase the likelihood that she/he will respond – and write about what you’re asking her/him to write about.

A personalised touch is respectful, sets a better tone and will help her/him view you (and your company) in a positive light. The best responses I’ve received as a marketer have been to pitches that focused on why she/he might like the product rather than on the fact that I’d love it if they wrote about it. And I’ve been most responsive as a blogger to pitches that were targeting me based on what I was actually interested in.

So how can you best do this? Let’s assume you’ve done some research and have a list of bloggers in mind for your outreach. Here are some of my suggestions, based on what I aim to do when I pitch. And, to avoid the continuous use of the generic term “blogger”, for the suggestions below, let’s assume her name is Jeanne.

To guage interest and how to tailor, you should try to read:

• A number of Jeanne’s posts. It will give you a better idea of her style and the topics and products she tends to write about. This might provide an angle for your pitch.
• The About and Contact pages along with the FAQs/ Pitch policy ones. Beyond her name and email address, these pages might provide insight as to whether Jeanne is in fact the proper person to pitch for the campaign. (For instance, say the product is location specific: an ice cream available only in Canadian supermarkets. A search leads you to her blog and a number of 2008 posts where Jeanne showcases her unique dessert creations and writes about how much she enjoys living in Winnipeg. Her love for baking might be enduring – but the About page informs you that she’s recently moved to Las Vegas for a job opportunity. Or that she’s since sworn off dairy and sugar. Or, maybe, that she’s not interested in receiving pitches.

When crafting your pitch:

• Make it short, easy to scan – and to the point. Describe the product in a way that doesn’t sound like the description’s been copied and pasted from the press release.
• Address Jeanne by name. Avoid mail merge – or be sure to double-check the fields. (As an aside, my favorite bad pitch had the following greeting: “Dear Author of ‘Monica Hamburg Presents: Your Dose of Lunacy’”. If only there was some way of determining who was writing this blog…)
• Be sure to introduce yourself and mention how you are involved with the company/project. It makes the pitch friendlier, more human and more transparent.
• Make clear very early in the pitch why you are targeting Jeanne specifically. Blogging is a community – and bloggers within niches or cities might know each other, so a templated “I know you’re revered in the foodie world” etc. might not be too flattering if Jeanne later finds that the same pitch was sent to many other foodie bloggers.
• Address the value of what you are proposing. What’s in it for her? You might choose to offer Jeanne a few products so she can run a contest for her readers. Many bloggers appreciate your providing something for their readers more than a treat you are willing to offer just them.
• Address what it is you’d like her to do. Don’t just tell her about the project and hope something will happen. (E.g. You might offer to send her the product so that she might write a review.)
• Create and link to a Media Kit/Page created for the product. This will allow you to write a brief and to the point pitch – and Jeanne to learn more, if she wants to.

Indeed, it is a more involved process than sending out a slew of the same pitches to a large group of bloggers. But it helps you learn about the people you are writing to.

And leads to more contacts with honey nougaty goodness.

DIY Band Promotion: Mykel Exner Talks about Selling Kill Matilda

Mykel Exner is the Bassist for the band “Kill Matilda”.  He recently sent my friend, Bill Allman, an email in which he thanked Bill (who taught him at Trebas Institute)  for emphasizing that a band must not leave their promotion to management and the importance of taking control of your own brand and management.  Bill told me about the email and I asked Mykel to participate in an email interview about artist promotion.  Fortunately, he agreed.  Here’s what he had to say.  (Note: I took my questions out here as it flowed better without them.) 

About the band

Kill Matilda is a do-it-yourself band that has been touring Canada since 2009. We are a 4-piece female-fronted hard rock band that began in Vancouver and has since based itself out of Montreal and South Western Ontario. We’ve self-produced, recorded, released and promoted our self-titled EP along with 3 music videos to support the release – one of which, “She’s A Killer” has been put into rotation on MUCHLOUD, providing us with national exposure. We’ve gone from complete unknowns to playing large festivals like NXNE and opening for acts like Econoline Crush and Die Mannequin. We are blessed with an amazing front person, Dusty, with a killer voice. We have been making a reputation for ourselves for putting on high-energy, fun to watch live shows. We’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the most talented and dedicated artists and professionals, who’ve seen value in our project and have helped us by lending the skills and talents that have brought us to new levels that we never thought possible.

The DIY Movement 

Initially, when you first dream of being in a “well-known” band, you dream about being “discovered” by someone and having them take you and your music to the heights of being a “rock-star” – or even just simply heard and appreciated by a larger audience. The reality of the music industry today is that NOBODY is willing to take the chance with their money or time to push and promote an artist that isn’t already making a name for themselves.

We’re facing a crisis in the Canadian music industry where “Music Industry Professionals” are not equipped with the skills and know-how to even make posters to promote shows they organize. Bar owners don’t see the value in investing in promotion for shows that are booked in their establishments and most bands don’t even know how to begin to promote themselves or the shows that they are a part of. From the inside of this beast, the system looks broken. If you aren’t a jack of all trades, i.e. a photoshop pro – a video editor – a photo editor – a booking agent- along with being an artist and performing musician, you’ll never have anyone take notice of your music or project.

No one is going to take you by the hand, discover you, put you on the cover of the Rolling Stone, put your song on the radio, pick out your first single or do anything for you… unless you’re willing to pay for it… and pay big for it

How Kill Matilda raised nearly $2000 in donations in a week via their merchandising sitelet 

We’ve investigated fundraising options out there like pledgemusic.com and others but the thought of “All or Nothing” fundraising really scared the crap out of us. In reality we didn’t need a lot of money to help us reach our goals. One big incentive we found helped make it easier for fans to help us was to include a limited time offer to have their name in the credits of our new album “I Want Revenge”. That push really drove a lot of the action we saw. Providing those unique and one of a kind incentives to your fans really open the door to their wallets.

Building an fan-base online 

Basically, we built a strong online fanbase through having a lot of good content online and following that up with a killer live show. We have Youtube videos of us bringing people along on tour, and we provide personal experiences for our fans when they come to our shows. We interact with our fans online a lot and I think that providing that personal interaction combined with kicking some ass on stage live over a long period of time really helped us achieve some of our goals and gave our fans a feeling of being a part of our growth and pride in “growing” with us.

Here is one piece of free advice to performing bands… Mention your Facebook Page on stage as a part of your banter. We urge our new fans to like us on Facebook so we can connect with them and comment on pictures of their cats..dogs…babies… all of that. Give your audience directions and where exactly they can find you. It’s amazing going home after a good gig and logging onto Facebook having fans “requesting” your friendship and “Liking”and commenting on your page.

In 2010, before we left Vancouver we asked our fans which track off the Kill Matilda EP they would like to see made into a music video and through a series of votes and comments they picked “Fault Lines”. It was a pretty fun experience to see people actually care and provide their opinions on what Kill Matilda should do next. Ask your fans questions about what they like… what they don’t like… those sort of exercises get your existing fans talking about you and thinking about you when they start thinking about a question you’ve asked, or associate you with the topic you got them thinking about.

Promoting the “She’s a Killer” video (viewed over 14,000 times on YouTube).

The key is constantly reposting and sharing and reposting and sharing. Encourage your fans to do the same for you. Research who promotes music videos online in your genre, show them and talk to them about your video. Create an “online street team” to post your video on relevant pages and just don’t be afraid to share and re-share! We’ve used “She’s A Killer” to promote Kill Matilda to new listeners and used the video to help us gather a lot of opportunities. (BTW!!! If you like that video share it!)

Social Media in general

Social Media has basically been responsible for Kill Matilda being able to have reached where it has today. Just being able to exist, get further, reach more people, have them listen to our music, watch our videos and enjoy it is really amazing and fun. Without it we wouldn’t be able to operate at all.

My personal favorite was tweeting at Bif Naked and having her check us out. She loved and shared my personal favorite Kill Matilda song, “Geisha With A Switchblade” with her followers. Being a big Canadian rock fan-boy that make me feel like a kid again.

Tips for musicians doing DIY promotion

1. Be pro-active not RE-active. Have your own website. Facebook/Myspace/Twitter profiles are good, but a dotcom is the BEST!
2. If you don’t care to share about your bands shows or videos or songs online… then why should anyone care about it? Think about your comparables… sound like Tool? then go after Tool’s fans… Sound like Radiohead? Go after Radiohead’s fans. Don’t think you sound like anyone? Then ask someone else. You have to have a comparable otherwise no one will care at all.
3. Don’t just promote your music! Promote all music you think is good! Promote other bands shows! Let people know that you are a part of a scene and that you care about not just your success but the success of your favorite bands and your friends bands.
4.  Learn that there is a difference out there between a “booking agent” and a “promoter” ANYONE can book a show, cats and dogs can book shows.  It’s a simple process of saying, “Hey you wanna play at this place at this time?” Booking agents do not promote shows. Get this through your head and you will not be disappointed when no one shows up to your show. Take control of your own promotion because quite simply, the booking agent, the bar owners, the other bands and fans that don’t know about you DONT CARE who you are if you dont give them a reason to care. Its amazing how many show posters we here at Kill Matilda have been required to make for booking agents across Canada. If you allow someone else to control your destiny… to poster for you… to promote for you… to hold your hand and tell you its going to be alright… you might wanna take up another lifestyle choice.
5. It is EVERY member of a band’s job to promote. One person should take the lead of course in being pages and website admins BUT if your lead guitarist is “too-cool” to promote… stick your foot in their ass and set them on the right track. No one is too cool to promote, except for bands and musicians that no one has ever heard of or cares about.

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Find Kill Matilda:

Site:  http://killmatilda.com/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KillMatilda

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/killmatilda

Twitter: @KillMatilda

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Want to learn more about Artist promotion? You might also enjoy other posts in my Artist Series.

Engage Your (Film) Audience

I’ll be speaking tonight at Projecting Change through Social Media (Club), an informational session for the Projecting Change Film Festival.  Stephanie Michelle Scott (my Twitter Workshop/Twitter Parlour partner) and I are conducting sessions on Twitter – however, since we are both passionate about film and have a film backgrounds we’ll also discuss some tips/examples with regards to social media for film in general.

Here are some of my thoughts.

Promotion (is a part of your production)

• Find Your Audience Early. Figure out who your audience will be (you likely already know) and start reaching out early.  Start your research ASAP and begin building your audience relationships pre-and during filming.
• Generate and Release Content.  Consider what you can put out to create interest during the process.  What kinds of material would flesh out your story more (text, video, pics) or give it an added dimension.  Remember that your characters had a life before the film too.  (In a post on this topic I wrote: “Allowing the character to live in other platforms before the film is released – and whilst the film is being made – gives the character a larger/broader  life – and helps with publicity.”
• Examples:
• Twitter can be an additional platform for the story.  Perhaps you could take pictures and create a part of the story that goes out only via this medium.
• Get the audience (and others on Twitter) involved via a Twitter chat.  If the film is screening on television have people watch and live-tweet or comment (use something like Cover-it-Live)
• Are there characters who were interesting but received little screen time?  Can they become more of a part of the story online?
• If there are follow-ups to the non-fictional account you provide in the film, allow the people involved to record a video about what has happened since.

• Targeting and Blogger Outreach.  You are best to truly pitch bloggers when you have something to actually show them, content-wise.  (As you know, everyone wants to make a film – but few actually end up completing one.)  Really contemplate who would be interested in your project – don’t just target the most popular film-related blogs.  Remember that your audience isn’t only composed of film fans and people who read movie-themed blogs.  If you’re making a documentary about, say, dancers struggling to find work, you might reach out to others who blog about similar struggles.  You’ll get more buy-in if you:
• Remember to personalize the pitch as much as possible.
• Target those who might be truly be interested – not just because their blog is of the same general genre as the film.  (Meh: “you write a humorous blog and this is a comedy film”.  Better: “You write about the craziness of the internet – and that’s what our film is about!”)  Note: this takes a fair bit of research – but it might be worth it.
• Consider the blogger’s time.  As is frequently mentioned – for most, blogging is a hobby and a labour of love. Watching a trailer might happen.  Watching an entire film is less likely.
• Address what’s in it for them.  Don’t be smarmy about it – but if there can be something in it for them, let them know.  Often this aspect is neglected and the pitch is is basically: “Here’s how you can help us out!” – without addressing why they would want to.

Crowdsourcing Content

This is a great way to get clips for your film – even if it’s just short clips or vignettes – providing your outreach tactics are effective.   A few examples of films that have invited people to submit clips for their productions include:

• “Life in a Day“: Director Kevin MacDonald and Producer Ridley Scott invited creators from all over the world to capture their world in 24hrs on a single day (July 24, 2010) and upload to YouTube.  The winning content was then edited into the final film, a Sundance hit. (Watch trailer).
• Of course, not everyone has the clout and reputation of these mainstream directors.  But independent productions can also fare well in obtaining crowd submissions. For instance, “Lost Zombies“ received thousands of submissions of “zombie encounters” – far more than anticipated. (They are now in the final submission stage.  More information about the project on the Lost Zombie site, on this post and on 4D Fictions post/interview.)  

• “DSB the Movie” a film which “tells the story of the Netherland’s DSB Bank NV which was declared bankrupt by court in October, 2009.”  All elements of this film were crowdsourced including the film’s logo, producer, scriptwriters, soundtrack, editor, camera, actors, and publicity.  (Read about it on David Meerman Scott‘s post – which includes an interview with the director.)  Crowdsourcing everything is not something I would recommend doing – but it certainly worked for this production.

For a documentary film, audience-produced content can be particularly compelling since people can submit their own, personal, experiences – and particularly cost-effective since people can be filming anywhere rather than your sending crews to other locations.

Crowdfunding

Here’s where your social media savvy can really come into play.  Filmmakers are now asking people to micro-fund their film – be it by simply asking for funds, offering financers credits in return for cash, or selling products to make some money.

You can set up funding on your website (make that the key aspect of the site) or use one of several platforms set up for micro-funding such as IndieGoGo and Kickstarter.

Getting people interested in financing some aspect of your film will be (slightly) easier if you have something to show them.  Which is why compiling materials and working on YouTube videos early on about your production will be doubly useful.

Keep in mind – it might take a number of years to get the money you need.

Spanner Films has written a useful guide on how to Crowdfund your film includes the following tidbit:

“If you are planning to make a campaigning film like The Age of Stupid, then you should definitely try to find a way to access the people out there who are already aware of and give a monkeys about the issue you want to highlight. If you can get some campaigners believing in your idea early on then they can be a huge help finding investors. You need to explain clearly why investing in your film is a strategic and cost-effective way to further your cause.”

A few examples of projects being crowdfunded include: “I Am I“, “My Million Dollar Movie” and “Iron Sky” which, writes Ross Dawson, has “four different mechanisms for raising money directly: a store selling merchandise such as T-shirts, a sneak peek of the first minutes of the film for which fans can pay any amount from 1 Euro, Fan Investments for qualified investors and up to 99 individuals in EU and some other countries, and ‘War Bonds‘, which are basically framed certificates.”

Casting
There are also many examples of productions (e.g. Paranoid Park, Moderation Town) which cast online (e.g. via YouTube etc.).  This can be effective for certain parts, can drum up publicity and can allow you to watch more auditions than you could in a single casting session.  (I don’t like the process of seeking votes for submissions – but I’m also speaking from an actor’s perspective.*).

There’s obviously lots more to say on how to leverage social media for film.  Please comment below with your suggestions, examples and input.

For further reading, a few posts on the topic are bookmarked here (including some I’ve written).

Product vs. Presence

This is just a quick plug to mention that I contributed an article to the May 2010 issue of Dan Schawbel’s “Personal Branding Magazine“.  My piece is entitled: “You’re not a Product: But You are Your Presence”.

Here is the issue summary:

Volume 3, Issue 4 is focused on celebrity spokespeople, and includes interviews with famous individuals, such as Kathy Ireland, a former model turned entrepreneur, and Vanna White, from the TV hit “Wheel of Fortune.” Celebrities are able to maximize their brand, leverage it, and even endorse products and other companies. In this issue, you will learn how to become the ultimate spokesperson for your own personal brand, and achieve success. You’ll read tips and tricks on how to turn your voice into money!

Dan is offering a free sample (containing 9 of the articles) on his blog.  Apologies though, I’m posting about this late, so I’m not sure that if you end up subscribing you can receive the full version of this particular issue anymore.

However, I will post my article next month on this blog for my lovely and patient readers.

Online Voice – Part 3 – Why do people care about your blog?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katie_made_me_do_it/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

(Note: This is the 3rd part of a series I’m writing in preparation for my  Northern Voice talk on “Finding Your Online Voice“.  (1rst & 2nd)

On the survey I sent to bloggers, I also asked:

“Why Do People Care About Your Blog?

What do you think (or have you heard as feedback) that makes people read your blog?

There are many, many blogs around. The fact that a blogs has any audience at all beyond the blogger’s immediate family is often a testament to a blogger’s persistence (sticking around, continuing to blog, and allowing their voice and audience to develop).  Oh, and there’s also that ever important content thing.

The feedback I get is mostly with respect to my Your Dose of Lunacy blog.  People tend to read it because they think it’s funny.  I also hear: because “you find the weirdest things” (some people can walk tightrope, noticing the freaky appears to be my gift).  Another popular response is that they have the same raunchy sense of humour, or taste in inappropriate, but (for obvious reasons) feel they should resist making that aspect of themselves public. So my blog appeals to them.  And is an outlet.

Basically, people read that blog because it’s funny.  If it ceased to be, I would lose my audience.  They go there for amusement.  That’s fine with me because it gels with why I write the blog – fittingly, it’s to amuse.

Here are a few reason the bloggers provided for why people read their blog:

Miranda Lievers Blue Olive Photography	As a business blog we are read by all sorts of clients – past, present, and future along with people in our industry from other photographers to wedding planners and the like. We’re also often surprised to hear that we have a lot of readers who fall into neither category – girls who don’t even have a boyfriend following along with our wedding work because the images themselves resonate with them. Our blog allows people to get to know us as people more than our work on its own ever could, and I love that!
Classifies her blog as: Business
.
Erica Lam The Style Spy	People can relate to our tone of voice, they know there are real girls behind the site, it’s like talking to your girlfriend in person. We cover everyday brands – it’s affordable fashion – most fashion outlets are high-fashion, unattainable. People can relate to us. The inside scoop. People want to read stuff they can’t find elsewhere. So we have many built relationships with brands to ensure we get the best information to share w/our readers.
Classifies her blog as: Style/Fashion/Shopping
.
Monique Trottier So Misguided	The feedback and comments are usually from people who want to thank me for sharing a particular book or insight. They care because they’re interested in the same sorts of books, or they want to share what they find interesting. It’s nice.
Classifies her blog as: Book blog, with a bit of technology, marketing, tap dancing and party tricks
.
.
Eagranie Yuh The Well-Tempered Chocolatier	I write about chocolate.I was going to leave it at that, because that’s probably one major reason people read it. Other reasons include the curation factor: that I’m sourcing chocolate and talking about issues so that other people don’t have to look for that information themselves. And also that I present an expert opinion – my background in science and chocolate makes me a credible source.And, the voice thing. People like my voice. I like to think that I make an esoteric topic (artisan chocolate, science) accessible and fun.
Classifies her blog as: Food (specifically chocolate, often science, sometimes pastries/sweets/candy)

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/katie_made_me_do_it/3768103622/&#8221; title=”I care about you. by _mandrew_, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2628/3768103622_da1ecf7e7c.jpg&#8221; width=”333″ height=”500″ alt=”I care about you.” /></a>

Presentation: Fun with Psychology, Sociology and Social Media

Here’s a talk I gave on Tuesday for “Vancouver Social Media Professionals Meetup” with a title that just rolls off your tongue: “Fun with Psychology and Sociology – and how it relates to Social Media“.

If you can’t garner much about content via this slideshow, just assume it was brilliant. Or wait for the series I’ll be writing on the subject on OneDegree.

Take Me To Your Interviewer

Apparently, when I get interviewed, I look like I’m being hypnotized for cult activities.  Or perhaps it just seems that way from this freeze frame:

Click above or here to see an interview I did in Toronto with Get Involved about Social Media and Social Change.

Presentation for Chicks Who Click

I’ll be presenting “Twitter: Tweeting, Following and Finding” at the Chicks Who Click Conference.  Here’s my slide deck, if you want to take a look.

I believe there are a few tickets left for the event, so you can still register if you want to attend.

Wish me luck!

Social Media Game for My Charity Connects

Last week, at the My Charity Connects conference, I conducted a game session based on Beth Kanter and David Wilcox’s Social Media Game (SMG).

Given that I only had about an hour and a half to describe the tools and play the game (and much less knowledge of the internal workings of nonprofits than the creators of SMG), I abbreviated the game significantly. In brief, I picked 8 tools to work with and requested each group respond to the following 3 questions:

1) How can this tool be used? (Within your organization or in general – can be as creative as you like)
2) What do you see as potential drawbacks to using this tool (within your organization or in general)?
3) Likewise, what are the benefits?

(You can find the cards, below, btw)

I took about 20-25 minutes to go through a speedy presentation about the 8 tools (Which included: Wikis, Social Bookmarking and Flickr) – including questions. Then the attendees got into groups of 3, 4 or 5 people to discuss.

Each group got 3 cards, of which they could pick 2 they wanted to focus on.

They had about 35 minutes to come up with answers.

For the last 25-30 minutes the attendees told us all what they had come up with.

It turned out well, I feel, in spite of the short timeframe – but given that circumstance, it also turned out very differently than I’d expected.

What ended up occurring was that, generally, a few people in the groups offered how they had been using a particular tool – which everyone else (myself included) found very inspiring.  For instance, one nonprofit used delicious to organize the archive section of their website.

The attendees were given handouts, at the end, which contained all the “cards” (printed on regular paper), for their reference

Changes I’d make:

• probably use 4 tools, in that time-frame
• forget the drawbacks/benefit part and focus just on whether the org could use the tool and how
• Session attendees: Do you have any other thoughts for improvement?

P.S. Beth, thanks so much for writing about my version on your blog!

Cards:

And My Twitter Presentation today:

And you thought I was done talking.  Never!

I’ll be presenting this at My Charity Connects today.

Once again, your positive thoughts help  🙂