Complaints by journalists about PR people being too aggressive are as old as PR and journalism themselves. But in the past 12 months a growing problem—“PR spam”—has elevated the potential for PR-media conflict to an entirely new level. When PR people working from lists of media contacts blast out generic, one-size-fits-all e-mail pitches to numerous journalists at once, many recipients take offense at the impersonal approach.
Worse, when e-mail reaches journalists who shouldn’t have been on the list in the first place, because the pitch is not relevant to their interests or because they’ve made it clear they aren’t interested in cold calls, they get mad. And now they are starting to get even. In 2009, numerous complaints about PR spam flared up in the blogosphere, and some A-list bloggers even called for blacklists of individual offenders and their organizations.
PR professionals who follow the media relations rules are growing increasingly frustrated by this contention and distrust. The good news is there are two things you can do to clearly signal your commitment to respect journalists’ traditional boundaries. First, start putting “unsubscribe” links on the bottom of any e-mails to media who aren’t longtime personal friends. And second, learn the rules of the road in direct marketing, especially the CAN-SPAM rules that are increasingly relevant to public relations.
‘IF YOU NO LONGER WISH TO RECEIVE’
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 required direct marketers to put an “unsubscribe” link on the bottom of any “commercial” e-mail sent to consumers. Those who have complied not just with the letter but also the spirit of this law have discovered that offering consumers an “opt-out” choice not only keeps them out of legal hot water but, more important, creates customer goodwill as well.
The same goes for PR professionals. Including an “unsubscribe” link on your e-mail to the media is the best way to make it clear you’re serious about not violating their trust. If you honor your commitment to stop sending mail to any reporters who want to opt out of future communications, you will gain the media’s respect and win more friends than the contacts you lose.
Creating an unsubscribe link can be as easy as putting an invitation at the bottom of all e-mails to reply directly to you with a simple “Unsubscribe” message, such as:
“UNSUBSCRIBE: If you do not wish to receive news alerts from me, please accept my apologies and send me a return e-mail with the word ‘Unsubscribe’ in the subject line. I will make sure you do not receive future e-mails. Thank you.”
If you use a media database with a distribution capability, it most likely inserts the “Unsubscribe” message into your e-mails for you and automates the reply, so that the recipient only needs to “Click on the following link” to be removed from the list.
HOW THE CAN-SPAM ACT AFFECTS YOU
PR people who do send impersonal e-mails to lists of media contacts are not necessarily always spamming or breaking anti-spam laws. But understand that as PR outreach touches broader audiences on the Web, it starts to resemble direct marketing. There are even a number of legal analysts who regards news releases as “commercial messages.”
The CAN-SPAM Act defines a “commercial electronic mail message” as any e-mails whose primary purpose is “the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service.” It penalizes anyone who fails to identify their e-mails as promotional and who fails to provide easy opt-out unsubscribe options. It exempts “transactional or relationship messages,” as well as noncommercial messages from nonprofits and government agencies. So personal, relationship-building communications by PR people are not affected.
But if and when the courts decide that news releases are “commercial” messages, the practice of PR might well be subject directly to CAN-SPAM regulations. It’s not inconceivable that someday all PR news releases—and the e-mails that distribute them—will have to carry cautionary opt-out language, just as all financial news releases now have a paragraph of regulatory disclosure language at the bottom.
Therefore, today’s best PR practices include:
• Be crystal clear about the nature of the news and information in your e-mail. If you are promoting a product, identify as such.
• Make it clear that if your e-mail is unwelcome, you will immediately take the recipient off the list and never send them one again.
In short, to comply with CAN-SPAM, PR pros need to identify their e-mails as press releases, supply unsubscribe/opt-out links and honor opt-out requests promptly. PRN
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This article was written by Jay Krall, global product manager at Cision and former newspaper reporter. He can be reached at [email protected].