Eight ways to get your Mom Blogger pitch deleted

How much do you know about this mom blogger?

By Harriet Fancott, Limelite PR Senior Associate

Mom bloggers are prolific writers, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and caregivers. Many are former professionals, and yet despite this, businesses often fail to treat them as valuable partners in promoting their message.

Here are eight surefire ways to have your pitch ignored:

1) Start your pitch with “Dear Mommy Blogger.” Expect this one to hit the delete bin before she gets to the first line. Personalize all correspondence from the first pitch to followup emails.

2) Don’t read her blog. You can’t fake this part; you need to know who she writes for, what she writes about, if she’s PR friendly, and whether she does reviews or giveaways.

3) Mis-target your pitch. If she writes about healthy food, don’t send a pitch for potato chips. If the blogger is a breastfeeding advocate, you won’t get a glowing review for formula, and you may damage a potential relationship.

4) Send a generic, overly commercial email. Say things like, “You have a great site, and we think Product X would be of interest to your readers.” Your pitch needs to be personable and translate into a fun, relevant or interesting story. Mom bloggers are looking to build community not exclusively promote products.

5) Ask a blogger to do something valuable to you for free. A good pitch offers should be mutually beneficial. A photography studio asking a blogger to include a full-page ad on their blog as a post is not beneficial to the blogger. Another guaranteed “delete,” is to ask for multiple posts right off the bat.

6) Expect a positive review or plug in exchange for a free sample. Mom bloggers need to maintain integrity with their readers, which means writing honestly about products and services. That said, if your offer is of significant value, be clear about your expectations.

7) Write a really long pitch. Mom bloggers, even new bloggers, get a lot of pitches. Don’t waste their time; get straight to the point. Start with your most important points, and put all boilerplate information at the bottom of the email.

Don’t connect via social networking. Pitching to mom bloggers is about relationships. Follow them on Twitter, join their Facebook page, interact and chat with them as people. When your friendly pitch arrives in their inbox, they’ll know who you are and read your email.

Feel free to share your mistakes or tips for pitching to mom bloggers.