How To Pitch An Email

By Peter Da Vanzo



We've all, at some point, received the "request-for-a-link" email. Such emails are useless, on a number of levels, the main reason being that the offer is lousy. However, such emails also tend to get the pitch wrong, so further limit the chances of getting the link. Getting the pitch right - the way the offer is described - is a bit of an art.



I've been looking back through the emails I've received and there are common characteristics displayed in those I ignored, and those I responded to.



There are two aspects common to all such emails, the offer and the pitch.



The Offer



The offer must be compelling. No matter how good the pitch, if the offer doesn't advantage the recipient in some way, then the sender is unlikely to receive a response.



Take, for example, the PR offer.



I receive a lot of these. They don't get read. Why? There's no advantage for me in doing so. There is advantage for the company that wants free coverage, of course, but not me. Unless the information is ground-breaking, and hasn't been circulated widely in the public domain, then the typical PR email "offer" is very poor. The offer is essentially this: "give us your time and effort for nothing so we can advance our cause"




Well, no. No I won't :)



But lets say the offer is to my advantage. Either I'm receiving some genuinely useful information, a good opportunity, or a good incentive. It can still be let down by the quality of the pitch.



The Pitch



Here is an email Aaron received recently:

Subject: About an Advertisement on Your Blog



Hellow.

I've recently created a software for automated social bookmarking.



Just wanted to ask, if it is possible to order a post about our tool on your blog, written by you ?

You don't even need to install and actually test the software if you don't want to, just mention that there is something out there that is worth using for seo purposes.

Here is a website: (removed)



Thanks.

There are a few obvious problems in terms of both the offer and the pitch.

About the Author:

Peter Da Vanzo is the founder of Search Engine Blog.com, a news resource for the search engine marketing industry. He is also a regular contributer on SEO Book.