Pitching Fails #3: Guest Poster Can’t Find the Win-Win Opportunity

And this problem is not unique to him…

Welcome to pitching fails, where we dissect losing pitches that went off like a lead balloon.

If you study these well, you will learn exactly what not to do, which will help with any pitches you might be crafting now and into the future.

Imagine getting that date, gig, interview, or whatever it is you’re after. If you continually improve your communication your dreams will begin to appear well within reach.

So, let’s look at today’s pitch:

Overall, it’s not a horrible pitch.

The sender did righter than he was perhaps conscious of…

But didn’t quite hit the nail on the head.

So, here’s what there is to unpack:

Fail #1: Weak Opener, Dude

I hate to keep harping on this, but since I’m liable to receive pitches like this on any given week, I don’t think I’m anywhere near done beating this dead horse.

“Hi” as an opener is problematic, mainly because it shows no thought was put into this letter. Whatever follows is almost sure to be generic slop, which is quite right in this case.

Have you been to Content Marketing Musician lately? I think it’s harder to find a page that doesn’t have my name on it.

So, our hapless friend has no excuse, but either way:

Address your message to a person, always.

Fail #2: Not Specific Enough

I’ll give the poor guy credit for including the URL to one of my websites in the subject line…

This at least tells me that he hasn’t mistaken me for BuzzFeed, HubSpot, Hootsuite, or some other company with a blog.

And he’s also clear in what he’s asking…

But “I dropped by your website, checked out some stuff, and kind of liked it” is so not specific, and so…