When bad pitch meets sketchy software
By Francis Moran
Thankfully, we don’t get many pitches to this blog from fellow PR types trying to get us to cover their stuff; it’s obvious to all but the most dense that this is a corporate blog that really isn’t a conduit for media relations or blogger relations activities.
But such is the sad state of the PR business that it does happen. And it happened this morning.
Donatien Ratke from a French company called MailerLite — I’m deliberately not linking to the site — sent me not one but SIX emails this morning suggesting this blog write about his company’s “Next-generation email marketing tool.” That he even pitched this blog is a PR failure. Worse, though, is that I assume Donatien used his own new, next-generation email marketing tool, resulting in six identical emails, a clear failure of the software itself. Further, since I have absolutely no relationship with this company, have never given it permission to solicit me and the email has no opt-out mechanism, the whole thing qualifies as the worst sort of spam. That a so-called “next-generation email marketing tool” would even allow such grievous breaches of anti-spam regulations is a further catastrophic failure.
So, Donatien: Welcome to the harsh new world of blogger relations. You got your write-up, but it’s probably not what you were seeking. I hope the users of your new tool don’t make such a total hash of things.
