Ask a Blogger to Promote you and you take your Brand into your Own Hands
Look up for a moment, at the title of this blog.
Yes, it's a blog about many things, but based around marketing, and Permission Based Marketing at that.
Now look in the right hand margin for the contact details. I give out my email address because Gmail has a great set of spam filters! But I prohibit, as you can see, that email address being used on mailing lists.
I still get people with a death wish sending me SPAM. They form cannon fodder when I'm in the mood. I blog about them, but not in the way they want.
When you email a blogger and ask for publicity you take one hell of a risk.
Motionbox took that risk today. Or, rather, its PR agency did. They use Abraham Harrison LLC. I've linked them from the spammer's name.
I have no idea who they are, nor do I care what their service is. What I care about is that they are spammers. That fact is going to get their domain blocked soon. I won't be the only blogger they've annoyed today.
Here's what they said to me:
Hi Tim
Motionbox just announced a new PRO service yesterday and I thought that you and the readers of Marketing By Permission would be interested. We'll [edited out a marketing offer] There are now 3 levels of Motionbox service - Basic, Premium, and PRO.
Motionbox PRO is a comprehensive video hosting solution and includes archival storage, web-based editing, streaming and embedding, all in up to 1080p HD quality. I would love for you to try out Motionbox for free and let your readers know what you think. I've put together this site which boils it all down - feel free to repost any or all of it:
[edited the link out]
If you are able to post or tweet about Motionbox please send me the link so I can share it with everyone. I am here if you have any questions.
Thank you so much,
Lowell
--
Lowell Dempsey,
Motionbox
[Lowell's Email Address]
Well, Lowell Dempsey, you just damaged your brand, well, your client's brand. Currently that can be a career limiting thing to do.
Currently?
Damaging your client's brand is always career limiting.
That offer I edited out was a plug to get me, and you, to try their service. I suppose you can, if you don;t mind doing business with spammers, especially ones who don't have the wit to do more than harvest email addresses and send out mailings uncritically. This was a damned poor attempt at viral marketing.
I replied to Lowell Dempsey:
Do you seriously think that was a good idea?
You do see the title of the blog?
And where my email address is, you see that too?
What do you expect might be about to happen now?
If Lowell ever comes back, I guess he'll see what happens. I hate spam.
Lowell Dempsey is the "Social Media Outreach Co-ordinator". Nicely co-ordinated, Lowell.
Update: Lowell emailed me: "I apologize I'll remove you from our list."
The thing is, Lowell Dempsey, you were never permitted to put me on your list in the first place. See the notice in the right margin? So your apology's rather out of place.
7 comments:
I am president of Abraham Harrison and want to thank you for your fair and bold post about how we failed when it came to respecting your request not to be included in blogger outreach and PR. I think the problem is that we don't fancy ourselves spammers or list-harvesters, we fancy ourselves digital PR and we're reaching out to you not as a consumer but rather as journalist and writer -- and we're not particularly of selling you anything but of offering you content that you might consider using to feed your blog -- if you so choose. Also, this was never a mindless, automated, outreach -- Lowell was there vigilantly answering any replies, queries, or "I am not interested, please remove me" requests.
Anyway, you were explicit on your blog so for that, I am sorry.
Heck, I appreciate your posting this and I appreciate the time and energy you put into your post. I am sorry it took me a couple days to get back to you on this -- Lowell and Dan have been pestering me to make an official comment here and I have been off line.
I am much obliged and, again, you were explicit as to your desires -- though I do believe we were not looking for "do not add me to a list" but rather "not interested in any PR pitches." From you, we learn.
Hi Chris, and welcome. I appreciate your comments, both emailed and posted. I agree that your approach could have been considered to be journalistic, yet I don't think there is an indication on my blog by other content that I'm open to full on unsolicited approaches.
I'd have sent the first email in a totally different way, though I do see from other bloggers that you have had what might be termed success with a direct approach. People do post articles, the type you hope for, about your clients.
The challenge is that you need to be substantially more selective in your selection of email addresses from blogs. After all, it is harvesting, and it is unsolicited commercial email. And your perception is not reality as the sender, my perception as the recipient is.
It is by no means certain that I would have responded well to a "may we send you something commercial to comment upon" email, but it is likely that I would have responded less publicly.
Exceptionally well-said. My business partner, Mark Harrison, wrote me, in an email this morning, calling this a "gentleman's discourse," and I agree.
Never a truer statement was said when you stated my "perception is not reality as the sender, [your] perception as the recipient is."
That is so true and thank you for your reminder. We hope we always think of "perception is reality" + "Point of view" but I daresay we don't always get it right every time.
Thanks very much. Thank you for your warning shot across the bow, and I will speak to the team about trying out an even more flirty "may we send you something commercial to comment upon" email -- though I must say that we do have one of the shortest pitches in the entire business.
We hate attachments, scrolling in-line content, and all that other stuff, but we could be even better targeting, gifting, and taking our bloggers' needs and desires into account.
Thank you.
A gentleman's discourse is precisely what this should be. I'm glad you see it that way. This sets you apart from other organisations in the same marketplace, and, potentially, makes your service worth client consideration.
There is, of course, one challenge, a theoretical challenge, with sending any email asking for permission. I say "theoretical" because you are US based and not subject, per se, to EC directives
In Europe one is not allowed to use email, unsolicited email, in order to solicit permission to use email.
Since you are addressing the online world I do not see a way around that, technically. Instead one must work on the probability of a complaint, an official complaint, being laid with a regulator, coupled with the level of penalty available to that regulator.
By the way, if I can say this without sounding patronising, I think your response and continuing response has been exactly of the style required.
What could have wound up as a true media/pr disaster is now something much less painful, stressed and belligerant. It was courteous and well thought out.
I saw this on facebook and thought -- wow.. what a great discussion and discourse as well as an illuminating experience for everyone- even those of us who are bloggers.
Hi Stevie. These things only go 100% wrong of the reaction is wrong. Chris has responded in good taste, assertively, yet with sufficient humility to save the day. That is the mark of a professional response.
It was not a PR success, yet it is now better than neutral. That has to be a good thing.
Well, thank you very much, sir.
Post a Comment