Pitching Parent Blogs - Top Tips

British parenting blogs are getting rather a lot of attention these days. Various papers are reporting that the "mommy blogging" phenomenon has officially landed in the UK, and the Tots100 index of parent blogs shows at least 500 UK blogs in this sector that are updated more than once a week.

As the blogging community has grown, of course, the blogs and bloggers are becoming increasingly attractive to the PR community. After all, why spend a fortune trying to get editorial in Practical Parenting magazine, when you can get almost the same exposure through one of the top UK parenting blogs – for free?

However, PRs should take note that parent bloggers are getting savvy to your ways. Susanna over at the Modern Mother blog is sick of being asked to do things without being paid, and her views are shared by many of the commenters on this post. Other bloggers resent being asked to promote your client’s brand out of the goodness of their hearts, or in return for a £20 freebie you’ve got lying around the office.

If you’re interested in reaching the growing audience of the UK’s parent blogs, here’s some tips for PR pros:

1. Research the blog first. Don't pitch a baby product to someone who has school-aged kids. Don't ask about little Emily if the blogger's child is called Esme. Remember that bloggers generally write in a personal not professional capacity so when you get it wrong, they're that much more offended than a journalist is when you get the name of their publication wrong. 
2. Read blogs. You'll soon notice parenting blogs tend to read like diaries of family life with the focus on personal experience. So why would they (or their readers) be interested in a press release? They're not a journalist - they don't really want to spend an hour turning the news about your client's new lotion into an amusing 300 word anecdote. Instead, look for ways to provide the blogger with an experience that will result in good, entertaining copy - to test out the product, to attend a product launch with other bloggers, to visit the company HQ.
3. Make life easy. Most parenting blogs are written by people with other day jobs. Or if they're not in a paid job, they're looking after demanding small people. So don't saddle them with a competition that requires them to set questions, write rules, check entries and pick a winner, before lugging the prizes to the Post Office. Take as much of this load away from the blogger as you can, so the competition doesn't cost them any additional time or effort.
4. Mummy bloggers will tell you they're part of a supportive community. Take it from someone who's seen the underbelly of parent blogging first hand - they're not. There are rivalries, cliques and feuds to rival anything you'll find in a traditional newsroom so if you're doing anything that involves more than one blog or blogger, do a little research to make sure you don't start a war in the process.
5. If you offer a blogger a review product, and you need to have the item returned, don't ask them to arrange the shipping. Don't ask them to write something positive. Don't post fake gushing comments on their review saying how much YOU love the product even if they thought it was crap. Yes, all of these things have happened.

Comments

[Milla]

yes, wise words all!! let the freebies roll in and the demands be few. Ahhh, bliss.

[Tim Atkinson]

What Milla said. (And are there really such big bad rivalries between mummy bloggers?)

[Exmoorjane]

Yup, all sensible stuff here. Still bemused (but chuffed) at my mummyblogger status (and roll on more nice trips like Disney!) but yes, PRs do need to be careful. Big bad rivalries? Maybe, but none amongst my band of bloggers (I save my bile for other targets!).... in fact, come on, spill the beans?!

[Sally]

Hi Tim and Exmoor Jane

Yes, there are feuds! I think it's inevitable that divides will appear in any community, and once there's money on the table, those divides become more and more apparent.

For example, I recently received an email from one parenting blogger complaining that there wasn't enough attention being paid to "experienced" Mummy bloggers and our index should give weighting to "published" bloggers who had written newspaper columns.

Another complained that certain bloggers only got freebies because they were part of a clique of bloggers who all commented on each other's blogs (yes, I know, that's what some of us might call a "community" :-) isn't it?) and gave each other pointless awards, whereas SHE had been shortlisted for an award in a national newspaper, no less.

Another incident I saw was a blogger complaining about the Mummy bloggers being interviewed by journalists - because the blogger knew for a FACT that their traffic was lower than hers.

It's all a bit silly, but it definitely happens and while the bloggers themselves don't need to concern themselves with any of that nonsense, the PR pros would be smart to keep it in mind.

[Tara @ Sticky Fingers]

Can I also add to that list, treat us with a little respect.
I've been asked to write a guest piece for a national campaign. They received it, said it was just what they were looking for then I didn't hear from them again. Like I have the time to bash out carefully written pieces? I barely have time to write for my own blog!
I have also been given a lovely pitch, right up my alley, suits my kids, i reply to say yes please that would be lovely and then NOTHING. Ignored. So rude!

From all my years in a newsroom and laterly on the features desk, I have firsthand experience of some of these PRs and they are shockingly bad so parent bloggers shouldn't feel too bad. it's not just you!

I think it's very sad that PRs just blunder in thinking mummy bloggers are a rich source of 'advertising'. Yet if they just took the time to ask, maybe do a bit of research, the rewards could be vast.

I've had a couple of brilliant PRs contact me. Totally switched on, totally understand the blogging community. It's rare, but they are out there!

And rivalries and feuds? Are you sure? Where on earth have you been hanging out! I haven't come across one yet in nearly 2 years of blogging. But I would say that if I discovered 5 other blogs were offering the same competition/review as me I wouldn't been so keen to take it on. Guess it's the journo in me, but I'd want at least some exclusivety!

[Sally]

Tara - I'm a journalist - I only hang out in the seediest sort of places...

[Yummy Mammy]

Feuds!?!?!? I have found the other Mummy Bloggers nothing but nice, polite and a huge source of support with my own ongoing dramas.

Personally I think that PR's need to pick their market carefully. For example there are certain freebies I would love, being a hard up single parent and all that, so I never look a gift horse etc etc, things that would be of benefit to be, that if it's good then sure enough I will tell all the other Mammy's about. But then there are others that well, I simply can't be bothered with. I recently got about a 10 page email from a PR going on about something or other. To be honest I read the first 2 lines got bored and read no more. See I don't have the time to know the ins and outs or whatever it is you're trying to get me to plug. A week later I got a right snotty email from the PR asking why the link to their product wasn't on my site!!!! Eh!!!! Another email I got was to review something. Looked ok at first, upon receiving realised there was not only very pressing deadline involved but that it was going to take up a good bit of time. Nope. Sorry, just don't have the time. And if they'd read my blog they'd have known this.

[Sally]

Thats shocking, Yummy Mammy!

[Jo]

I agree with what's been written in the above comments.
Companies should take the time to do a little research and then add in a much needed pinch of respect, plus some time.

[A Modern Mother]

This has got to be a great opportunity for some PR agency to rake it in. Develop a mummy blogging outreach division -- let's face it, mummy bloggers need a different approach than journos. Whoever gets that first is going to win big time.

And one more thing -- PLEASE STOP SENDING ME PRESS RELEASES!!!!

[Melanie Seasons]

I used to work exclusively with Mommy bloggers back in the States, and trust me - all the same mistakes were made and continue to be. It will get better here, but it takes time. PRs in the UK are still learning not to send releases to any type of blogger, let alone mums.

What struck me as odd in the UK is the idea that many mummy bloggers do in fact expect to be paid for a post. Public relations is not bought, it's earned based on a mutually beneficial relationship. It shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what public relations is - and if a PR jumps on it as an ‘opportunity’, it shows the breakdown in the integrity of the industry.

I think mummy blogging here will most likely go down the same route as American mommy blogging. I often found I barely had to pitch any moms in my latter years in the States - they were so keen on being involved, getting free stuff, etc, I - as the PR - would get e-mail requests asking if I would pitch them.

I'd say that's a couple years off here though...

[Sally]

Melanie

Really interesting comment, thanks. Actually, I saw something only this week that makes me think we're getting to that point of paid-for posts a lot quicker than some in the industry might expect - I'll try and find time to blog it tomorrow, and I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Sally