It should be painfully obvious by now, but if you’re pitching someone, for the love of God – make sure you’re pitching the right person. For example, if the journalist you are trying to pitch has this name: Katherine Riley, make sure you’re pitching the right Katherine Riley and not Katherine E. Riley. It’s confusing, I know, but if you could do that, this Katherine would really appreciate it.
A little background
With the holiday season coming up, droves upon droves of PR people (including this chump) are on the hunt for journalists and bloggers on the gift guide beat. It’s a yearly thing, and it’s one of those things about the job that needs to get done. Unfortunately for journalists and bloggers, their inboxes get flooded with unwanted and usually irrelevant pitches.
Take Katherine E. Riley, for instance. She’s a data journalist over at Flourish. Guessing from the tweet above, she’s getting spammed with a ton of pitches that I hope are intended for E! News’ gift guide writer, Katherine Riley. I mean, that’s the only logical answer here.
I can see how people could get this confused, but cmon, this is pitching 101. Do your homework. It literally took me a couple of minutes to find the right email address for the other Katherine Riley over at E! News. It takes work, but again, we know how some PR people can struggle with this.
Either way, with the holiday gift guide season here in full swing, be sure you’re pitching the right people. People like Katherine E. Riley get enough email, let’s help them a bit with one less plopping in their inbox.
If you enjoyed this post, check out the rest of our “PR People: Don’t Do This” series, be sure to check out some of the previous entries here, here, and here. Feel free to share them on Facebook or Twitter, we’ll appreciate the love.
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