I had an amusing experience when submitting a press kit for a client to a hand-created list of blogs. Let me preface this by saying that the major criteria for each of these blogs was that they had pages or verbiage on their sites that specifically stated they were open to receiving press materials or news about new products they can feature that relate to their blogs, in this case sports and travel.
The reply from one was: “Remove me from all lists.”
I could’ve left it at that, but the absurdity of having a page asking for this type of reaching out and then vilifying those that do it compelled me to politely point that out.
I replied, “No problem, [Name]. To clarify, however, this is not a spam message from an automated mailing; I obtained your information from your Press/PR page that seemed to indicate you might be open to hearing about travel products and possibly entertaining offers to advertise with your site. If this is not the case, I apologize for having bothered you.”
All to which he wrote, “I’m open to having people approach me in a constructive way and building relationships over time. I am not open to press releases.”
Okay…
So on a page entitled “Press Kits and PR” with an opening paragraph stating how interested you are in hearing about new travel products for promotion on your site, you’re not interested in press kits about new travel products. Second of all, how do you expect anyone contacting you to build a “meaningful” relationship with you over time if your reflex to such an email is to never talk to you again?
Often issues like this are more subtle, but even smaller inconsistencies with presentation and expectation can create unpredictable results and waste time on both ends. My efforts aside, he had to volley a string of emails with me this afternoon because of a misleading section of his site.
