This obviously won’t meet the needs of everyone but some elements here could be useful to those of you who pitch bloggers. Most of the PR pitches I get are lousy, so bad I even wrote an entry on how to pitch me. None of them read it. I don’t think this PR person did either but she used common sense guidelines. Angie wrote:

Hi Kathleen,
I came across your website and had an idea that I wanted to run by you regarding contributor opportunities with Fashion Incubator.

I work with QuadPhoto; a professional photography studio with nine locations throughout the U.S. You can learn more about us by visiting our website: www.quadphoto.com With studios in major fashion industry-saturated cities (NYC, Miami and L.A.), fashion photography is one of our areas of expertise. As a website that provides professional advice to aspiring designers, your readers are sure to be interested in the different ways that they can use photography to promote their lines and make a name for themselves. Possible topics of interest for novice designers are “Preparing for a Photo Shoot,” “Affording Fashion Photography on a Tight Budget,”Communicating with Your Photographer to Obtain Images that Accurately Represent your Line, ” etc.

Might you be open to posting tutorials/guidelines,  written by one (or more) of our fashion photographers on Fashion Incubator? This would be a great way to educate your readers about a segment of the fashion design world that is often overwhelming but necessary to succeed in an image obsessed industry.

Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Angelina Berghela
QuadPhoto Media Relations
1540 Central Avenue
Albany, New York 12205
Phone: 518-458-1600

Strengths:

1. She addressed me by name, many don’t or they call me “Kay” or “Kathy”. Only one person on this planet is allowed to call me Kathy. I don’t mind nicknames but call me “K” or “KF” like everybody else.
2. She didn’t pretend she’s a big fan of my site. My ego is not so fragile that she needs to be for me to be interested in the client she’s representing. I certainly hope she has better things to do with her time than to be absorbed in the minutia of apparel manufacturing.
3. She included her client’s website. You would be absolutely stunned how many PR people don’t do this, perhaps naively hoping they can control the relationship. While there are advantages to their facilitation of the relationship, there is no way I’m going to consider their client without looking them up so it’s nice she saved me a click.
4. She explained the benefits of featuring content from her client although it was largely unnecessary. She had me at “Quad Photo”. Explaining the benefits made it clear she understood the intent and purpose of my site. If anything, she read enough to flatter me by understanding I’m committed to the best interest of my readers.
5. She made good suggestions for content. Articles in the format of guidelines and tutorials are likely to appeal to my readership regardless of the firm selected. Obviously by providing the content the company is featured but intellectual generosity goes far on the web.
6. She thanked me for my time. Not really necessary but it speaks to her general character.
7. She included her full contact information. You’d be surprised how many forget to include a phone number. Sure, I prefer email but if I’m really hot for it, I may pick up the phone instead.

Lastly, Angie is employed by HS Media Marketing. I tried to send them a compliment on Angie’s approach but their web form wasn’t working. I guess they don’t have all the internet bases covered.

Anyway, expect some photography articles to pop up. That’s another thing, you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t follow through. Oops, I forgot to mention I want original content, not something that will be splogged across the web. Oh well, can’t have everything.