Open Letter to Fitness and Health Brands Pitching to Bloggers

On average, I get pitched 4-5 times a week, from some PR rep for a “large fitness or health” brand wanting me to blog about their fabulous {insert product name}. Having worked on both the corporate and agency side of marketing/PR/advertising myself for 12 years, I can tell you that at least 80% of these pitches I get frankly suck.

I know, yes, yes, that is not a nice PC thing to say. But truly, the majority of pitches I get are really awful or completely miss the mark, and surprisingly many of these pitches are coming from high priced PR firms representing very well known brands you’d think would know better, but apparently not.

But, I’m not here to complain about the bad pitches, nope, I want to help you big brands do a better job at pitching us fit bloggers because I can only see more pitches coming my way and coming the way of the fit blogosphere.

MizFit, and I talk constantly about the pitches we get because most often it’s the same brands. So, MizFit and I decided to do a joint open letter where MizFit would speak more from a trainer’s perspective and master of the fit blogger comments, and I would echo sentiments from the marketing/business perspective. So here we go:

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Dear Big Fitness and Health Brands,

First, thank you for putting my blog Back in Skinny Jeans on your pitch list as I appreciate the fact that the blogs you put on that list in the first place are the ones you consider influencers in the fitness/health niche. I am grateful for your recognition.

To develop a long term relationship with me Stephanie, top fitness/health blogger, I would like to share some tips and advice with you so that both of us are getting the most of our time together because to be honest, right now, most of you are completely missing the mark, and I’m filing you in the “Examples of Bad PR” folder in my inbox for future blog fodder.

To pique my attention, here’s what I would like, please:

• My name, Stephanie Quilao, is written all over my blog on every post and in the “About” page, so use it. Do not address me “Dear Blogger,” “Hello Back in Skinny Jeans” or “Hey Fit Blogger!” Yes, I’ve gotten versions of the “Hey you!” When you don’t use my name, it tells me that you are either lazy, cold, or don’t really give a rat’s ass about who I am.

• Stop talking at me and talk with me. 8 out of 10 times, this is how your pitch sounds to me, “Dear Stephanie, us, us, us, us, {insert product name}, us, us, us, us, {insert press release}, us, us, us, us, enough about us, let’s talk more about us, and what you’ll tell your readers about us.”

You sound like the adults in Charlie Brown, and I tune out because we’re not having a conversation, you’re shoving your agenda at me. Listen to me and my readers. If you actually read my blog and the comments you can see what we actually care about. Selling your ski gear and parkas while it’s still summer is your schedule not ours. My message is about holistic eating, overall wellness, and building self love, show me how your company's brand compliment mine, not just, "hey, buy our stuff because it’s fit related."

• Your pitch should not be all about you, it should first be about my audience and next me the blogger, and how my readers will benefit from your product or service, and how I the blogger will benefit by posting about your product. As a blogger this is what I care about; relevance, quality, traffic, exposure, and revenue. Your pitch better address at least one if not all of those subjects. If not, I start hearing Janet Jackson’s, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”

• I will be up front with you too, and tell you that I will only blog about products and services I would use myself. You can send me a sample, but if I do not like it, I won’t write about it because I avoid doing negative reviews as I like to focus on things I like. My audience knows this about me, which is why I don’t do reviews often, and when I do, the review carries more weight because my readers know it is something I believe in and that I would use in my own life.

• Stop drowning me in pictures, ads and videos of perfect looking fit models. Yeah, some fitness goddesses are great, but how about including some real every day people. One of the main reasons people come to blogs instead of glossy magazines and sites is because we talk about real life where women sweat, have flabby parts, wear mis-matched workout clothes, and struggle with weight.

We’re tired of looking at all the perfect people in the perfect workout clothes doing weights and cardio perfectly. We want to see more pictures of people who look like us or at least look like versions of attainable examples of everyday people. I will never look like a Gisele, Jillian, or Jessica and trying to is what got many of us into un-healthy living in the first place.

• I don’t want to interview a marketing or PR person from the brand you are representing unless it is a Product Manger who actually is in charge of developing the product and wants genuine feedback. I want to interview your brand’s designers, creatives, inventors, scientists, nutritionists, or medical professionals because those people are actually doing the things my audience finds interesting.

• And lastly, stop treating me like “just a blogger.” I’m a business too, notice the ads in the side bar? Like you, I have revenue goals, marketing goals, traffic goals, and profitability goals. You would never expect another business to do stuff for free, so stop asking and expecting me to do stuff for you for free because there is a perception that bloggers are not real businesses.

We are real businesses, in fact, because of this economic crisis you are going to need us more than ever because you can no longer justify your $80k 1-page glossy ads in the dwindling magazines. With us bloggers, you can show some better ROI because we have a focused, growing, and highly interested audience. So start wooing, and start offering us mutually thriving opportunities!

Thank you for listening, hope that helps, and I look forward to your next pitch. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Stephanie