Pitching Fails #4: Excited Guest Poster Not Excited Enough to Do Their Homework

Your lack of enthusiasm betrays you…

Welcome to pitching fails, where we tear bad pitches a new one.

Study these well, because it is to your benefit. The better the communicator you are, the more you will get the things you want in life. Studying these pitches will help you become a better communicator. How’s that for a value proposition?

So, here’s today’s pitch:

As you can see, it’s pretty typical of the kind of stuff we’ve looked at so far.

So, let’s break this down.

Fail #1: Who is This Email for?

“Hi.”

Yes, hi, who are you?

Really? This is the best you can do?!

You’re interested in working with me, but you can’t even be bothered to learn my name?

How lazy are you, exactly?

The only acceptable time to open an email with “hi” is when you don’t know who your message is addressed to, and even then, it should be acknowledged, like this:

“Hi, I’m so sorry. I looked everywhere for your name but couldn’t find it. There’s something I wanted to ask you about…”

But there is NO excuse when you’re reaching out to someone like me because my name is my email.

Fail #2: Egocentricity

“I manage content for a site…”

Yes, really? So, why should I be interested?

I manage content for sites too. That in itself isn’t compelling!

You’ve got this all backward. You don’t open an email by talking about you. You open the email by talking about me.

Who am I to you, why did you reach out to me specifically, and what have I done that impressed you?