The Best Pitch I've Received

You've probably heard me rant over some bad pitches from time to time. As a matter of fact, they inspired me to create the section in my sidebar titled "Before You Pitch Me," which contains posts from a number of PR, marketing and social media colleagues, as well as from me.

So it was with great relief that I opened a pitch email this morning and was greeted with a comparative ray of sunshine. The message, from Julie Szabo, was simple:

Subject: We made this 2-minute video for you

Okay, good. I know I'm dealing with a video, and I know it'll only eat up 2 minutes of my time.

And then the body of the email:

Hi Scott,
Our video says it all. It's on this page that we made just for you.
[Link to the video]

That was it. Plain & simple. Naturally, curiosity got the better of me and I clicked through to the video to see this:


You'll note that in the video, Julie & Darren:

1. Addressed me by name
2. Made a note of where I'm from
3. Acknowledged that they read the section of my blog about how I like to be pitched

The rest of their message was a broader one about their new ebook, Getting to First Base, a social media marketing playbook, and who it's for. I'll be reviewing it in a future post, but I can tell you that if the authors are following their own advice as they reach out to busy people, then it's going to be a very positive review.