E-mails may seem quaint a few years from now, when computer
chips have been planted in our brains and we're all having
mind-melds without the assistance of a modem. Until that day
arrives, however, e-mail is the way people communicate, with
sending and receiving e-mails cutting into a growing portion of the
business day. And for PR pros, e-mail presents a double-edged
sword.
Sure, e-mail is the quickest way of pitching the media, and many
reporters prefer e-mail to snail mail for the initial point of
contact. But as e-mail proliferates, so, too, does its errant
stepchild -- spam. It's one thing to spit a reporter or TV producer
an e-mail with, say, a press release in the body of the e-mail or a
PDF attachment, once a relationship has been established. Yet it's
an entirely different animal when you're relying on e-mail simply
to get through to reporters, whose spam radars are getting more and
more sophisticated.
PR executives "have to earn the right to e-mail," says Jack
Burke, president of Sound Marketing Inc. and author of "Creating
Customer Connections: How to Make Customer Service a Profit Center
for Your Company." Although spam is making the ability to get
through to the media even tougher than before, in many ways it's a
blessing in disguise, he says. "If you're trying to start a
relationship, the easiest way is by good old-fashioned U.S. mail.
Technology is not the answer, it's a tool and e-mail is one more
tool to nurture and develop the relationship...In some cases, it
could be the worst tool because you're presuming reporters want
this information, which is only going to alienate them."
If you don't pay extra special attention to how the e-mail is
crafted -- and what verbiage is used -- it's a good bet that your
e-mail will be lumped together with other e- mails construed by
reporters as spam and summarily tossed aside.
The problems associated with spam are getting acute. Roughly 40%
of e-mail traffic in the United States is spam, up from 8% in 2001
and nearly doubling in the past six months, according to Brightmail
Inc., a major vendor of anti-spam software. By the end of this
year, half of all e-mails will be unsolicited. (About 40% of U.S.
Postal Service is business marketing). And according to Ferris
Research Inc., a San Francisco-based consulting group, spam will
cost U.S. organizations more than $10 billion this year in terms of
lost productivity and the additional software and manpower needed
to combat spam.
What's more, just as quickly as anti-spam technologies become
available, the spammers come up with new technologies that enable
them to do an end run against such devices. It's a vicious cycle
and one that makes the job of PR executives increasingly difficult
when trying to get members of the media to respond, no less
bite.
PR NEWS queried PR execs last week on the best way to get around
the growing problem of media misconstruing your email as spam.
Several pointers bubbled up to the surface:
Don't abuse the subject line. Make it snappy. Many existing and
new spam software desktop programs allow users to scan an e-mail's
subject line for ALL CAPS -- the digital equivalent of yelling at
someone -- buzzwords and abbreviations typically used as PR-speak.
Avoid the words "leading," "solution" and "back-end" at all costs.
Avoid overly promotional phrases. Instead of "Today's News That
Will Change The Industry," try "Acquisition News for Roundup Column
You're Writing," advises Stephen Brown, PR director at Macquarium
Intelligent Communications.
Drive messages with targeted e-mails to specific journalists,
and avoid mass e-mail blasts since a mass e-mail, where everyone is
"bcc'd" may trigger a spam filter and drop your message into the
black hole. When bcc'ing a group of reporters (or anyone) be sure
to include at least one name (perhaps your own) in the "to" or "cc"
line.
Send information via plan text -- not HTML -- due to the ease of
use. HTML e-mails can also transmit viruses, if the e-mail is
opened.
In the body of your e-mail, keep it simple. Use plain English.
As Stefanie Sterken, a senior account executive at Text 100 Public
Relations, puts it, "Write your e-mail as you would for a highway
billboard, with your audience driving by at 60 mph."
Vocus, which provides PR analytics, conducted a survey last year
of 142 journalists, primarily from newspapers, magazines and online
publications to gauge their needs and desires for receiving and
gathering news. The survey, titled "Using Technology to Meet the
Demands of Today's Journalists," asked reporters how companies can
improve their e-mail communications. According to Vocus, 38% said
an e-mail with a 24-hour contact number was the most important,
followed by e-mails with "downloadable images" at 36% while 19%
said they prefer e-mails with complete financial information.
Indeed, the onus falls on PR professionals in dealing with spam.
Don't hold your breath waiting for any governmental regulations. A
slew of bills are currently swirling around Washington as well as
several state capitals to regulate the transmission of unsolicited
commercial electronic mail on the Internet, but no consensus has
yet to emerge.
Amplifying Burk's comments, David Libby, principal with Libby
Communications Inc., an Oakland-based PR firm, says spam should be
a help to PR executives and not a hindrance. "Spam is probably the
best thing that could happen to the PR industry," he says. "It
forces [PR] executives to focus on the media and the audience and
not to blast out press releases to any Tom, Dick or Harry.
"You have to realize that a human being is on the other end"
when sending e-mails, Libby adds. "Journalists want to be appeased
and they want timely information. Unfortunately, for the most part
PR people just batch-and-blast e-mails."
Contacts: Jack Burke, Sound Marketing Inc., [email protected];
Stephen Brown, Macquarium Intelligent Communications, [email protected]; David
Libby, Libby Communications, [email protected];
Pam Small, Ignition Strategic Communications, [email protected];
Stefanie Sterken, Text 100 Public Relations, [email protected]