Tag Archive for 'email'

Beware The Bold Button And Bad Formatting

Published
by
Robynn
on October 3, 2008
in Communication skills
. 0 Comments

Formatting your email with bullets, bold, italics and caps can be functional and useful when used (very, very sparingly) at the right times. But, if you don’t have anything really gripping to say, then putting every second phrase in bold is certainly not going to help your cause.

This was exactly the type of press release a marketing journalist received recently. About 50% of the text was in bold. And just to add a little extra emphasis, the headline and footer were in red. I felt a little like a deer staring into blinding headlights, I wasn’t sure where to start or what I was supposed to do…except to close the email. Phew, it was far too much effort to try and read. See for yourself, here’s a sample of the press release:

[Name], Managing Director, [company name] and [company name], will bring his expertise in the independent sector to [event name]. [Name] serves as the elected Vice President of WIN (Worldwide Independent Network), Chairman of the Board for AIR (Australian Independent Record labels association) and is also a current board member of MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival), PPCA (Phonographic Performance Company of Australia) and ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association).

This reminds me of the comments that Dorin Bambus, previously the editor of Blunt, said in some Encyclomedia research a while back on PR best practices. Commenting on email formatting, he said:

Press releases should make the reader think something is cool and interesting and newsworthy, not alert the reader to the fact that the writer thinks this to be the case. I can read, I don’t need every IMPORTANT piece of info “signposted” for me. It’s very annoying.

Popularity: 20% [?]


Marketingweb’s Tips To Get Your Press Release Published

Published
by
Robynn
on June 10, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 2 Comments

The editorial staff at Marketingweb receive over a thousand press releases each week. In order to make sure that your media release stands out, they’ve very kindly published their top nine guidelines on how to get your story published.

These simple guidelines and tips can be applied to any journalist you plan to contact, although certain journalists will have their own pitching tips and preferences regarding email attachments and follow-up calls. Nonetheless, it’s a very good summary of some of the best practices in pitching your PR stories.

Also have a look at Encyclomedia’s Media Pitching Tips Revealed series. It’s a free email series with tips and advice straight from South African journalists on what works best and what PR tactics to avoid.

Popularity: 9% [?]


The Way You End Your Emails May End Your Media Relations

Published
by
Robynn
on May 30, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 2 Comments

Stuart Jeffries wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday on “A guide to signing off your emails“. He raises some interesting points about netiquette and how PR practitioners should avoid faking a sense of intimacy through over-familiar email endings.

Although Stuart yearns for a return to proper business correspondence, personally, I always avoid what feels like overly formal communication, such as addressing someone with “dear sir”, or ending an email with “yours faithfully”. It just feels dishonest. Not that it’s untruthful, but rather, by using these standardised formalities, it strips all sense of individuality. Your real message, feeling and tone gets muffled.

Don’t get me wrong though, there is always a place and time for the formal, business communication style. Also, I’m certainly not suggesting a descent into colloquial, over-familiar chit-chat with the business contacts and journalists you email.  As an example, I did a double-take today when I opened an email from a job applicant I have never met, which started with “Hi there”. Hmm, not really appropriate as a first time introduction, considering the applicant already knew my full name.

So what is appropriate in emails to journalists? Is “warm regards” too warm and fuzzy? Stuart Jeffries seems to think so, although he’s received far worse. In my case, I’m a warm-blooded human being, a pretty friendly one at that, so I regularly use “warm regards” to end my emails. Although, if I’m emailing a complete stranger I normally opt for the slightly more stand-offish “kind regards”, or more formal “best regards”.

While “warm regards” might still be debatable, “love and kisses”, “xoxo”, “ciao” and “cheers” definitely are not. You might well be filled with divine “light and love” at the time of sending, but these phrases are reserved for friends and family only.

You can’t try to imitate a closer relationship with someone by using an over-friendly ending to your email. You’re more likely to cause the opposite reaction and irritate the journalist.

Phrases like “God bless” and “take care” can also be irritating when received by a stranger. The words come across as empty or insincere when you are asking someone that you have never met to take care. Why? What for?

When in doubt, rather stick to a neutral email ending, such as:
Regards,
Kind regards,
Best regards,
Thank you,

By the way, by not using a sign-off at all, you will come across as curt or rude. Read more about email sign-offs and other email etiquette on NetManners.com.

Popularity: 18% [?]


Email Subject Line Tip - Get Noticed

Published
by
Robynn
on April 25, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 0 Comments

My resident media expert at Encyclomedia, Chantal, was speaking to a radio producer yesterday about his contact preferences and pitching tips and he gave a great tip that I’d like to share with you. It’s simple, perhaps it’s even really obvious, but I can guarantee you that very few PR practitioners practice this.

After pitching your idea to a journalist over the phone, when you then email your media release, write the following in your subject line: [Journalist’s name], we’ve just spoken - [concise headline].

For example: Thabo, we’ve just spoken - Purple pumpkin discovered in Potgietersrus.

According to this Kaya FM producer, he receives so many emails that even though you have discussed the idea with him, he may still miss your email. But by using his suggestion above, while scanning through the subject lines, he’ll be able to spot your email and media release straight away.

Popularity: 8% [?]


Replying to All in Email - Use Sparingly, Or Never

Published
by
Robynn
on April 17, 2008
in Communication skills
. 1 Comment

I’ve received a few marketing/spam emails lately, where the marketers have included the email addresses of their full recipient list for all to see. Although frustrating, this is of course nothing new. But I’ve never seen a reply, or a string of replies, quite like this before.

It started with a well-meaning email, where the sender, Siva, was trying to introduce himself and his new business, apparently ignorant of the fact that he was spamming everyone on his rather long list. After receiving what must’ve been several scolding replies, he then emailed everyone again (with all the addresses on view, again) to apologise for spamming them.

I thought this was a little strange, instead of just replying to the specific complainants and leaving it at that. But, as it it turned out, the comedy hadn’t even begun yet.

Wim sends a “reply to all” asking Siva for a price list, while letting everyone know (through his signature) exactly who he is. In the meantime, several people on the recipient list feel that they can follow Siva’s unfortunate example and send their company info and promote their sms competition lines to everyone too. It starts to get a bit ridiculous when Emma shouts this reply:

“PLEASE STOP SENDING YOUR ADVERTS TO ALL THE CC EMAILS! I’M GETTING BOMBARDED WITH EMAILS !!!”

To which Wim feels compelled to reply, replying to all, of course:

“I Agree… I only replied to a message sent to myself… So, some of you that swore at me, shame on you!”

A very frustrated Hermann, who had obviously emailed Wim privately before, now sends this message to everyone:

“I wrote you before DON’T SEND ME YOUR MAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“

 The final reply from Wim sends me into shrieks of laughter:

“Its N OT MY MAIL A-HOLE!”

Well, I don’t think this post needs much more explanation. Revealing all of your recipients’ email addresses is dangerous; and using “reply to all” can be professional suicide.

Popularity: 6% [?]


Email Tip - Keep it Professional

Published
by
Robynn
on March 4, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 0 Comments

There is nothing wrong with being friendly in your emails, friendly people are far more approachable and memorable. However, beware of pretending that the journalist you are emailing is suddenly your best mate.

A good example of a bad attempt to build rapport
Here is an example of an over-familiar PR pitch that an editor forwarded to me yesterday:

Greetings [editor’s name], I hope you had a great weekend - [partner’s name] and I certainly did! We had no commitments and just lazed away - a one in a million break.

The following [client] release is for your consideration, some pics are attached,

Regards, [name]

This sounds like a brief and friendly email, something that you would expect to receive from a friend. The only problem is that the editor does not know this PR practitioner and the ice-breaker introduction - the personalised little note about the PR person’s weekend - comes across as insincere. To make it worse, the editor’s colleague received the same email, with the same “personalised” note.

I’m sure that the intention of this PR person was to genuinely build rapport, but unfortunately it was perceived very differently. Here’s what the editor felt about it:

“Why don’t PRs just cut the nonsense and get down to business? Do they really think we are stupid enough to feel special with a note like this.”

Building relationships
If your aim is to build a relationship with a journalist (which it should be), don’t send her the same message that you send to every other journalist on your list. You build a relationship with one person at a time.

The best way to build a relationship though, is to do your research and send the journalist something that is truly useful and relevant to him or her. If you continue to do that, you will build a relationship on trust, which is far stronger than a relationship based on chatting about what you did over the weekend.

Popularity: 7% [?]


Instant Media Turnoff

Published
by
Robynn
on February 29, 2008
in Media Relations Tips
. 1 Comment

I’ve just finished a phone call with an editor covering the marketing and media industry in South Africa. She received a press release this week from a PR practitioner where 60 email addresses were included in the recipient list, for all to see. 60! Naturally, the editor said that she didn’t bother to read any further, it was simply deleted without remorse.

Think of this from a journalist’s perspective. If you see that a media release has been sent to 20, 30 or 60 (gasp!) other people covering your beat and industry, what thoughts would possibly be going through your mind? Probably something like this: “if Sally, Susan and Peter are covering this, then why should I bother?”

Personalised and exclusive
A journalist will not use your media release if there is a chance that another competing magazine or newspaper will cover the same story, or at least the same angle of the story. That’s why journalists love exclusives. It gives them a chance to give their readers something unique, something that their target audience can’t read, hear or view anywhere else.

Many PR companies aim to get as much coverage as possible and will send the media release to as many people as possible (including those who left the publication two years ago). But if you’re employing the “spray-and-pray” method to achieve this, then you’re probably wondering why you get no coverage at all.

Well, now you know.

And don’t try the BCC tactic. Journalists receive enough emails every day to spot the personalised emails from the … well, let’s just call it what it is: PR spam.

Popularity: 7% [?]