4. Pitching Do’s and Don’ts

There’s art in pitching websites: skills you can learn, mistakes to avoid. Just as in any writing task, pitching involves time, thought, planning, and refinement. This chapter introduces basic do’s and don’ts for you to consider as you prepare your marketing materials. There are subtle ways a pitch can go wrong, and important ways you can help strengthen your message. In this chapter, we write about a variety of how-to practicalities, from targeting to etiquette, to help you on your way.

As a developer, you probably don’t want to get on the bad side of a blogger. Once you’ve made yourself unwelcome at the door of your favorite blog, it’s hard to ever find open arms again. Even worse, you don’t want to do that “special something” that takes you to a new level of notoriety among the blogging community. Word gets around on Twitter, on podcasts, and in personal discussions, and you don’t want to be “that person.”

What can you do to avoid the mistakes that could turn you into the wallflower at the App Store dance or the hardware soiree? In this chapter, we describe common mistakes that developers sometimes make when pitching products to bloggers and tell you how to avoid making similar gaffes. All it takes is a little knowledge about what others have done in the past to make sure that your pitch has a bright future.

Think of bloggers as your partners. They want to find exciting new products just as much as you want them to write about yours. Bloggers want to work with you to help promote good quality work. Even if you’ve created the best product that has ever existed, you may tick off bloggers by breaking basic rules of etiquette. Likewise, you may secure a great review just by being a good guy. Avoid alienating trends and position your pitch for the greatest possible effect.

Know the Site

Provide context when creating your pitch. The more you can explain your product, its niche, and its strengths, and tie it to a blog’s interest, the better it will find traction and coverage. Not every blog is right for your product—and not every blogger is a good match for a review. A bit of groundwork helps you target pitches more effectively. Here are some handy ways to do that.

DO Address Requests to Specific Bloggers

When you know that a blogger has a prior interest in your product arena, leverage that knowledge. With regards to software, some bloggers specialize in tower defense apps, some in navigation apps, others in word puzzles, and others in Getting Things Done. Other technology bloggers focus on hardware and accessories (see Figure 4-1), with less of a personal and professional interest in the software side of the house. If you work in a field that crafts creative playthings, you might find some bloggers interested in fantasy cosplay, while others focus on SciFi memorabilia or manga. Authors might want to target specialists in romance, fantasy, political philosophy, or biographies.

Figure 4-1. Steven Sande is your guy for hardware reviews at TUAW.

Do a bit of research and direct your pitch to the person most likely to respond positively to it. Although most blogs provide a basic guide to their blogging staff, there’s an easy way to find out exactly where the interest and expertise of each blogger is focused: Follow their writing over a period of time.

A personal pitch is appropriate, especially when you show that you’ve done your research. For example, “Dear Erica, I know you’re really into German board games, and I have a product I am sure you’re going to like.” Refer to a previous review if you can tie your product into an ongoing coverage theme. “Dear Steve, I noticed you wrote a great review of Organize Lite, and I have a docking station that does something similar, but it brings a lot more—literally!—to the table....”

Connecting to people directly so long as it doesn’t come across as creepy or stalker-like is both fine and encouraged. Just don’t send the same pitch to multiple bloggers at the same site. When more than one reviewer picks up a personalized pitch, it causes lots of headaches, duplicated effort, and bad feelings.

Want an example of the “creepy, stalker-like” behavior we’re referring to? Steve received a series of tweets from a developer pitching a new Mac app. Steve decided to see what the developer had to offer and responded to him. Now Steve’s inundated with tweets asking why he hasn’t yet written a review of the app. The answer? He wasn’t impressed with the app, which duplicates a functionality that’s already in Mac OS X. Now, he’s also really not too happy with the overly enthusiastic developer.

DO Aim for Series Posts

The more you’re familiar with a site, the better you can tie your pitch into the way the site does business. Site insight (forgive the aural redundancy there) helps promote product coverage, whether for a review, how-to post, or news post.

Slotting your product into a blog’s columns gives your pitch an important context. It explains how the product fits into a site. For example, a typical series we work with at TUAW includes Product of the Day (e.g., iPhone App of the Day); on other sites, it might be T-Shirt of the Week or Cuddle Critter Du Jour, Holiday Gift Guide (see Figure 4-2), N Solutions for Some Problem (e.g., 10 Great iPad Keyboards for Travelers); or on another site, 5 Budget Moisturizers for Softer Skin), among others.

Figure 4-2. Most blogs feature regular columns that offer opportunities beyond basic reviews.

If you can aim your product at a series (like the TUAW Bookshelf, our DevJuice series for developers, etc.), you can smooth its way toward publication. Just make sure it’s a good match and that you’re not just reaching wildly for coverage. Series suggestions expand the way a blogger can consider your product, offering more write-up potential.

“I think this would make a terrific match to your Budget Business Solutions series,” tells bloggers (1) that you are familiar with the site and (2) have thought about the best way your product might work on it.

DO Consider Being a Podcast Guest

Although most big blogs are primarily text and image oriented, don’t forget that a lot of them have companion podcasts and video shows that are used to provide another media outlet. Offering to be on a podcast as a guest can be a good way to get word out about your product.

Podcasts can be either audio or video, and usually have a regular host or team of hosts. Spending 10 minutes or more explaining your app to the hosts and the podcast viewers/listeners can be effective in getting your story across. Podcast hosts are always looking for content for upcoming episodes, and are usually grateful when someone volunteers to talk to the audience about the product development process or perform a live demonstration. If there’s a live chat going on at the same time, offer to take questions from chat room participants.

DO Consider Non-Review Posts

Bloggers will always consider suggestions of how your product works beyond a review. Expand your promotional possibilities by offering informed and smart suggestions on ways your product is ideal for coverage. Using site knowledge and articles you have seen onsite, pitch alternative takes on things using your product. For example, “I saw you discussed [product name] to do [some task or another]. We have a solution we think is better for the following reasons....” Bringing your product into the context of existing coverage offers a way for bloggers to continue telling an important story with fresh material.

Don’t forget to pitch how-to and trend coverage with your product, not just reviews, for example, “Five ways to spring clean your hard drive” or “Interface trends bring a new freshness as designers move away from skeumorphism.” This approach helps you in three distinct ways. First, it adds a new avenue for write-up. Second, your app is more likely to be written about in a non-critical/positive fashion. Third, the traffic on how-to posts often exceeds that on review posts. A write-up that says, “Here’s a solution to solve some problem,” typically receives more eyeballs than one on “Hands on with [Product Name]”.

If you can tie your product into an ongoing news story, even better. When Spotify, the free streaming music app, first launched its service in the U.S., Erica installed it and found that its built-in sound controls weren’t satisfying. After some investigation, she wrote up a post on how to use Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack Pro (see Figure 4-3) to independently adjust the treble and bass playback. The write-up got lots of page views and was a great promotion opportunity for Rogue Amoeba, whose CEO helpfully sent over a license code and assisted during post development.

Figure 4-3. Your app can play a role in how-to posts, not just reviews. This post showed how to use Audio Hijack Pro to tweak Spotify’s treble and base playback.

A how-to that explains how consumers can use your product to solve a problem in the news (such as newly launched services, filing taxes, responding to hurricanes, political outreach, etc.) adds a useful hook for consideration. If there’s one lesson here, it’s that reviews aren’t the be-all/end-all of any product’s marketing strategy. All coverage is good when it gets your product out there into the public’s eye in a positive way.

Scheduling Out

Bloggers love to plan ahead but only to a point. Our news-event horizon may extend out a week or two, but usually no further than that. On any given day, we hunt for fresh, newsworthy items. If your product isn’t due to launch for three months, we probably won’t be interested in doing a review yet. (We may, however, do a “coming soon” write-up, so don’t think that you’re completely out of luck.)

For early reviews, we’re happiest working with short-term timelines of a week or two, especially when dealing with embargoed material. Under an embargo, posts go live when your product does. This early access gives bloggers extra time to test your product and allow it a more careful review than a last-second write-up.

Where you can, build time into your release schedule so bloggers can have that luxury of a slow review process.

DO Provide Specific Dates and Timelines

To make reviews happen, you must provide us with a specific set of dates and plans so we can schedule testing time, writing time, and work with embargoed releases. Try to avoid the “we just submitted this product for review” scenario, where your timeline is muddy or depends on a third party.

We can’t count the times we bit on a review for a product we thought was pretty exciting and had the post sit waiting publication for weeks or months because of difficulties with getting that product to market. Remember this: Many bloggers don’t get paid until their write-ups go live on the site.

It may sound a little selfish, but we’d rather you do the waiting before submitting the pitch than we do the waiting after we write an unpublishable item.

Steve cites a recent example where he was sent a hardware product in July that looked rather interesting and promising. He was about to write a review when he received a note from the manufacturer’s PR firm asking him to hold off until August. Repeated delays kept the review from happening until December, when the PR firm basically told Steve to “go ahead and write a review, but note that we’re not sure when the product is going to be available for sale.” Needless to say, the manufacturing delays with this product were a topic of discussion in the review.

DO Bring Up the Topic of Exclusive First Looks

Bloggers love exclusives, especially when a first look comes earlier than your general release. First looks give websites extra prestige, and provide more publicity for your product. This works best, however, for prestige apps and hardware—not for another of a million tip applications, Tetris-style games, flashlights, or battery boosters.

If you have the clout, try to build a relationship with your favorite blog rather than changing the embargo rules for each product launch. It’s understood that, sometimes, “Blog X” will always get the exclusives for a certain company—we’d like Blog X to be us, by the way—but don’t jerk that expectation around too much. Either you create a universal embargo that applies across the entire blogosphere, or you build one or a few select relationships, which get early one-ups before the rest of the world.

Whatever you do, never offer an “exclusive” to more than one blog. It’s a quick way to get yourself disliked and potentially banned. If an exclusive preview is offered to more than one blog, it’s not an exclusive.

Definition of exclusive: Excluding or not admitting other things, restricted or limited to a single group or person.

DO NOT Jump the Gun

A developer contacted us this past autumn, offering an early look at an upcoming application. We had reviewed and loved some of his previous work, so we eagerly jumped at the opportunity. When Apple approved the application earlier than expected, he decided to release immediately. Over a weekend. After promising us an exclusive first look.

With Apple approving [app name] so quickly, it seemed important to launch the game asap. It appears the “New Releases” list sorts the titles not by their first availability date, but by their approval date!

Instead of leveraging an extensive exclusive overview, they received a modest general release and an undistinguished “app of the day” write-up later that week. It was a missed opportunity for both the developer and us, and one we remain a bit sad about.

Leverage Personality

We can’t say this enough: There are real humans at the other end of that tip line. Be one yourself. Charm, warmth, and humor go far, especially for electronic communications. Let your personality sparkle as well as your product.

Just like you, this is our job. When we answer email, pick up the phone, or start IMing, we want to work with nice people. Kindness and courtesy are important social lubricants. We don’t expect you to be a robot, and we’re not either. The more you can engage with us on a human level of communications, the smoother things will run.

That’s not saying there aren’t drawbacks to creating that friendliness. Recently, we reviewed an application from an absolutely charming man, whose communication we enjoyed tremendously. Unfortunately, his utility wasn’t up to snuff and we gave him a negative review.

All his notes cut off as if we’d turned the spigot, which was sad. We liked him and would have like to continue the relationship to see what else he delivered in the future. A bad review doesn’t mean we don’t like you personally.

DO Offer Access

Provide access to your design team, company executives, and engineers. Reviewers like learning more about your app and the story behind it. Do not push these offers to the point of obnoxiousness. Sending monthly or weekly invites to talk with your CEO or be briefed by “industry experts” is simply not effective. Just include an option for contact in your pitch. “Have more questions? We’ll be happy to set up a phone call with our CEO or dev team at your request.”

DO NOT Hijack Conversations to Pitch Your App

Starting a fake conversation about a post you read “and loved” on the website, just so you can pitch your app in a roundabout manner is bad manners. Pitch through the normal and appropriate channels. When you have a long-term relationship with a blogger, do feel free to give him or her a heads-up that you’re about to do so. But, don’t use that relationship to press for a review.

We can’t tell you how many times after responding to an “Ask Aunt TUAW” question, the recipient responds with “Thanks for the info, by the way, let me pitch my app....” Don’t do this. It feels sneaky, low, and unworthy. If a staffer writes back to you to answer a question, don’t try to transform that into a stealth marketing opportunity. It doesn’t work.

Hi Erica,

Great post on TUAW about the debacle with AT&T’s $5/month data. I have always wondered why the cell phone companies are opposed to providing a data only plan for app developers.

Anyways, we developed an app that was recently accepted into the App Store called [Redacted]. We are looking for feedback from industry veterans such as yourself. I have provided the link to the app in the App Store. Would it be possible for you to provide us your feedback?

[Product info, and further pitch details]

DO Listen When the Blogger Offers Feedback

If a blogger sees your product as promising but with specific flaws, she may contact you and offer feedback. This is a courtesy and often done on her own time. If a blogger does so, please listen. You may not agree with the feedback that the blogger is taking personal time to offer you. You will not, however, manage to convince the blogger that he or she is wrong, no matter how much you argue.

Please don’t argue, harass, yell at, or belittle bloggers. It seems pretty much common sense, but be as gracious as you can and take the feedback as you will. Some of it will be valuable, some of it will not. That’s just reality. Bloggers are biased and opinionated. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be blogging. A polite response goes a long way, especially with people you may work with again in the future.

A feedback call is simply a courtesy. It offers you more in-depth opinions than you might normally receive, especially if the blogger has declined a review. If you don’t want this information, you can always say, “No, thank you.” If the blogger is particularly obnoxious, you can cut short the call (“Have to run now! Thanks!”). Speaking as developers (as well as bloggers), your most critical users can be your most valuable, and bloggers approach products with an eye for criticism and evaluation.

DO Be Friendly

Bloggers are human, and they’re usually friendly. A conversational tone goes a long way in establishing a relationship between you and the blogger. You don’t have to be overly formal, but at the same time, you don’t need to perform a comedy routine. Write using comfortable phrases, in your natural “voice,” as if you were emailing a friend.

It’s never wrong to say “Hi, Steve” or “Hey, Erica” in your email. You do not need to use titles like “Mr. Sande” or “Dr. Sadun” (or more commonly, and amusingly, “Mr. Sadun”). If we’ve met before, feel free to mention it in your correspondence, but then get on with your pitch.

Culture varies around the world. Most blogs operate with a relatively relaxed tone. Our most formal communications generally arrive from Asia. We often receive pre-pitch queries like this one. We respond by pointing to our tip line and invite a full pitch.

To briefly introduce myself, I am calling you from a mobile game publishing company called [Company] which is at Seoul, South Korea. We are greatly interested in promoting our company’s mobile game in your review site.

We have variety of experience in publishing Android based games in Korean local market. However, we do not have experience in marketing iOS games in global. Since TUAW is globally known game review site, we would like to introduce our company game and arrange positive and beneficial articles regarding our games.

Anyhow, our company’s mobile game is already launched in Korean local market and ranked first place. Our plan for [Company] is to launch at global iOS market by early December. We have already developed iOS version of [Product] and it is ready for its immediate launching.

I have included some screenshots and official trailer of our game, [Product]. If you like our game we’d love to know what the next step is for our game to be reviewed.

We look forward to a favorable response from TUAW. Thank you.

DO NOT Subscribe Us to Your Personal Email List

We’re happy when developers consider us part of their success story. We’re slightly less enthusiastic when they add us to their email blasts to family and friends about their latest successes. We love you, but please don’t pepper us with enthusiastic updates about

Dear Friends, Family and those who took the time to help us, Because of you, your support, your guidance and your love, we are making our way into the world. Check out our latest article on [blog]. We are also on [blog]. [Name] and I are over the moon with all of this. Just wanted to share:)

Or

Keep getting the word out!!! We’re gaining traction on the App Store, and you can help!

Or

Omigosh! We just got another post on [blog]!

Or

Awesome Job everyone! Looks like its starting to take off!

Instead, a simple thank-you will do, such as this

Thank you so much for your write-up. It created an avalanche of coverage for us. After your post, we were covered on [blog], [blog], and [blog] – among others!

We delight in your success and are eager to hear about it. Just remember that a little good news goes a long way.

Communicate Well

If your pitch grabs a blogger’s eye, but he or she doesn’t quite understand the specifics, help clarify those questions by email or phone. Never assume that your press release is so perfect that it instantly conveys what your apps does and how it is positioned in the market. And never assume that the blogger covering your product has a background in your area.

Take it as a good sign that the blogger responded to you, and don’t alienate that blogger by insisting on a full understanding of your market. Explain and repeat as needed. Allow bloggers to take the time needed to understand your product, and write about it semi-coherently.

There are several other ways you can best communicate about your product.

DO Leverage Success

This particularly applies in other markets (outside the U.S., for example) or on other platforms (like Android). If a blogger was not aware of your product, mentioning these related successes are great ways to strengthen your pitch.

Don’t forget to namedrop your previous “winners,” apps and products that were highly successful. If we can match a wildly popular product to you or some other positive history, it gives us much more interest in what you’re going to do next.

DO NOT Name Drop Celebrities Unless You’re Getting VC Funding

We are convinced that Apple co-founder and legendary nerd Steve Wozniak is a nice man. At the same time, we’re well aware that he donates to many promising projects. Just because your Kickstarter got a Woz buy doesn’t mean that he personally sanctions or promotes your endeavor. We get a lot of, “Have you guys seen this yet? Woz is a backer,” emails. Not only do these mentions fail to give your product a boost; they often work to your detriment.

The only time you should drop names is when a personality feels so invested with your company that they’re providing significant venture capital funding, and are willing to issue statements on your behalf. Other than that, we tend to discount celebrity associations.

DO NOT Snitch on Competitors

They may have “snuck something through app review,” but it doesn’t reflect well on you when you play hall monitor to large tech blogs. Above all, take the high road and maintain your dignity.

DO Know Who You’re Writing To

Never forget which blog you’re pitching to and what material they actually cover. Little amuses bloggers more than receiving material that’s misdirected or shows a basic lack of research and understanding about the site and its specialties.

• “Dear TUAW, you are a leader in Android screen cleaners....”

• “Dear MacObserver, I love you guys, you’re way better than TUAW....”

• “We make the best Blackberry case EVER!”

Some of TUAW’s most amusing app pitches begin “Dear Engadget,” “Dear Ars Technica,” and “Dear Leander.” Addressing your pitch to the wrong website does not endear your product to bloggers.

Sites won’t throw out the pitch, and they won’t deliberately discount your application, but it starts you off on the wrong foot. If you can’t be bothered to figure out which site you’ve pitched to, does your app’s quality show the same lack of attention?

One of our favorites started, “We would really love to be reviewed on VentureBeat.” It mentioned the developer had been personally reading and visiting that website for over two years. As a courtesy, we did forward the pitch to VentureBeat.

Be very, very careful with robopitches. “Dear $website_name_primary” (sic) and “I want to thank you for providing very interesting resource on $opportunity_name_alt!” (also, sic) aren’t great ways to introduce yourself and the product you’ve invested so much time in.

Do your research. If you’re pitching a website like TUAW, you probably don’t want to send a pitch for “[Technology] Code Pal—Android [Technology] scanner, now available to download for FREE!” It’s a waste of the blogger’s time and of good electrons. Just because a site is on your full PR distribution list doesn’t mean that every pitch from you is appropriate to send. Use good sense and avoid being added to smart email filters.

Of course, missent emails aren’t just limited to pitches. We get a lot of these, too:

Subject: Battery (Mac Book Pro)

What is your address and phone number in HCMC. I need a battery for my Mac Book Pro. Do you have (will be in on Thursday May 17th)? What is the cost?

Please no ads sent to my email--thanks.

Thanks, dick k.

DO Avoid the “Ugly Sister” Scenario

Rolling along with a successful launch is a great idea, but never make a site feel like your second choice to the big school dance. Did you get a great review from iMore or from iLounge? That’s great stuff, but it’s not what you want to include in your pitch.

Telling a site that your app is promoted as New and Noteworthy with 5-star reviews in iTunes is great. Telling them that it was already hailed by big review sites like fill-in-the-names-here is pretty much counterproductive. Ditch the other site namedropping. No one wants to be a second thought.

What you mean to write is: “We got a great reception, we think you’ll like our product, too.” What we hear is: “You’re not important enough for us to have included you in our initial marketing roll-out.”

It’s sad, but true. A little judicial editing can give your pitch the celebratory spin you need without sounding like your target blog is a second thought.

DO Use Native Review

If you plan to deploy to the U.S. App Store, make sure you find native English speakers to review your pitch, application write-up, and details. If you don’t have the right language skills, hire someone who does. Pass your application name and tag line through the approval of English speakers just in case what it sounds like isn’t what you intended (“In space, no one can hear you snatch”).

When in doubt, be forthright about your language limitations. We’ll be more likely to correct a few typos on your behalf when you give us a heads up, like this developer did.

Next wednesday I will launch a new iOS-game named [Product Name].

[Pitch details omitted here]

In case you need more information (or custom information/graphics), you could send me an email. Please note I’m not a native English speaker/writer, so there might be some grammar errors in the press announcement.

Greetings from The Netherlands,

[Developer name]

The same lessons go for English-speaking developers who plan to deploy globally. Always use native speakers to review and approve application elements. Major websites may not catch your non-English localization errors but your end-users will. As a rule, it’s better to deploy English-only than to deploy bad localizations that may embarrass, offend, or anger native speakers.

Service bureaus like Traducto (traductoapp.com) offer press release, marketing material, and app translations, usually starting at about $0.10 a word.

You will see several examples of non-native reviews in Chapter 5.

Checking In

Reviews involve a delicate dance in communications. You want to promote your product and make sure you’re not forgotten, but you don’t want to harass the blogger in question. As a rule of thumb, it is always okay to check in with a blogger (once!) after they’ve requested a review unit or promo code, to ensure that they’ve gotten the material. This helps your product remain in the blogger’s attention frame, and provides a good opportunity for you to offer support, team access, and so forth.

Excessive check-ins, on the other hand, are generally not a good thing. While it’s okay to skip the back-and-forth reply order once, it’s not something you want to make a habit of.

“Please, please, please don’t send us three emails every hour asking if we’ve redeemed the promo code.”

—Anonymous iOS Blogger

DO NOT Harass the Blogger

Here’s a real-world letter (one, I’m afraid, of many):

Unfortunately I have not seen the review on your site, nor have I had any correspondence back from you regarding the game. Obviously I understand you are probably busy dealing with a backlog of emails/work. However if you could get back to me regarding the review status of the game, and whether or not you’d be interested in reviewing it - then I’d be very grateful.

If a blogger promises a specific (or close-to-specific like “next week”) publication date, go ahead and ping them with something like: “Are we on target for next week? Anything else you need for your write-up?”

We know this product is your baby and you want to take good care of it, but we encourage you to balance your interests with patience and normal back-and-forth communications.

DO NOT Spam Bloggers

Avoid “floating your pitch to the top of the inbox.” Here’s an example from real life:

“Never heard back from you on this. I don’t want us to lose an opportunity here.”

And this, which “follow(ed) up” a non-existent conversation:

“Just wanted to follow up with you regarding some great apps for Father’s Day.”

And another:

“Just wanted to float the release of (Company)’s (App name) Free version to the top of your inbox. It’s a fun, stealthy puzzle that game you can check out risk free.”

This latter example was the fifth (!) ping about the app, none of which were responded to. If the blogger doesn’t write back, he or she just isn’t interested. Figure 4-4 shows the first three of those five unresponded pings.

Figure 4-4. Don’t keep responding to yourself. It’s not nice.

Figure 4-5 shows a typical response this kind of behavior may receive. Bloggers don’t care if your client is paying you outrageous sums of money to promote an app. You become less and less effective over time if you employ these techniques—and it’s a quick trick to the smart-filtering spam folder if you keep at this.

Figure 4-5. Bloggers may respond to overly enthusiastic emails with snark.

“Warning: [PRFlack Name] is RELENTLESS... if you get a review code, expect to be emailed regularly for the rest of your life. I tried [Product Name] and found the UI horrible, and decided not to review it, and I still get emails. Weekly.”

—Unnamed Blogger

DO NOT Presume that a Promo Code Request Leads to a Review

A promo code request gives bloggers a chance to look over an intangible good like a book or application. This allows them a closer look before making a call about whether the product makes a good fit to a review. After looking at the product, bloggers may decide to proceed with a write-up, or may (for a variety of reasons) move on to other products.

Passing on a review after requesting a promo code may occur for several reasons. Many bloggers avoid negative reviews except for big-name games where a buy/don’t-buy scenario is valuable to their readers. In other circumstances, the product might be too similar to material already covered in recent columns or it may not “pop” in the reviewer’s eye.

It is courteous for a blogger to tell you that the request involves “no promises.” It’s also kind to reply back when they’ve decided not to review the item after all.

DO Presume That a Tangible Product Request Leads to Coverage

The request-without-guarantees rule does not apply to hardware reviews. When you’ve sent a tangible product at a blogger’s request, it’s exceedingly rare that it does not receive coverage of some kind. Always follow up and check in, especially if the product is valuable and needs to be returned on a tight deadline.

Make sure that you provide return instructions and, where possible, return shipping labels. If the product can be turned over for a giveaway or donated to a local school, make that clear in your communications.

DO NOT Expect a Reply

It’s harsh, but blogs generally do not respond to pitches unless the news is good and they have an interest in following up with you. Some developers submit their pitches to every major and minor possible review site they can find and never hear back from any of them.

If you do not receive any responses, it does not mean that your application is horrible but rather that no one bit on the hook. Your pitch may not receive a response for one of the following reasons:

• Your pitch may not have communicated effectively.

• The right person who reviews your sort of product may not have been around that day. Bloggers go to the doctor and take vacations.

• The product might have been redundant. (“But, we just covered that topic last week.”)

• There are so many products, and so little time. Sad, but true.

DO Jump on Replies

If the blogger does reply to your pitch, jump on it! Our lives run on deadline, and if you take too long to get back to us, we may forget you. As TUAW blogger Kelly Guimont points out, “If you take three days to get back to me about the thing I want to...SQUIRREL!”

It’s sad how many times we see a great pitch, reply back, and either never hear from that person again or receive an email weeks or months down the road. As a rule, don’t send a pitch if you’re not there to back up its marketing.

DO NOT Resubmit Your App Pitches

The human brain is finely tuned to detect redundancy. Resubmitting your pitch will get a blogger’s attention, but not in a good way. A second, third, or fourth version of your pitch hurts your original without helping you at all.

The only exception to this rule is a highly personalized re-pitch that explains a motivating circumstance. For example, “I’m resubmitting this review request because I discovered that Mel was on vacation when I first sent it in and I know he’s the go-to-guy for navigation app coverage,” or “I originally sent my pitch in on the day Apple launched the new iPad. Please forgive me for sending it again. My original timing was awful, and I wanted to give my product a chance at a good start.”

If your communication is human and personal, our response usually is as well. We are, by the way, completely over the “My dog ate my pitch” re-pitch joke.

Watching Your Timing

Nothing says “likely to be overlooked” than sending an email about your product on a big news day. We have received run-of-the-mill pitches on the day that a new version of OS X or iTunes was released, when updated iOS firmware debuted, when new iPhones hit the stores, and the day after Steve Jobs died.

If you check a website and see that all the coverage is about some big event, stop. Add a reminder note to yourself to try again in a few days or a week. But, don’t pitch your app on a big red-letter news day. We will, like as not, miss your product in the excitement.

DO Accommodate Current Events

Consider postponing your launch should something unexpected and newsy happen to conflict with your initial push. In the Apple world, iTunes Connect allows you to reset your date of sale. Pull back and strategize as needed. It’s better to give up a few days of sales than to be lost in the critical period when your product is just ready to go live.

Keep on top of the latest news and be sensitive to what’s happening.

DO Build Opportunities

Although these events often work against you, they also provide opportunity to work for you. If you can figure out how to position your app within the current narrative, your app may have a huge boost, especially for existing products.

Does your app help solve some problem like keeping in touch during an earthquake or hurricane? Does it provide a photo gallery of someone recently lost? Does it connect to a popular movement that’s gaining traction? Use current events to relate your apps to a potential audience.

Websites love being able to tie apps to the news. If you can figure out how your application does that, write it up and send it in. A topical connection can move your app straight to the top of the coverage list.

Gaming the System

Always represent yourself honestly when pitching to websites. Don’t try to be cute and manipulate people. Here are some examples of ways some developers and publicists play things wrong.

DO NOT Astroturf

Your friends and acquaintances shouldn’t be lobbying for reviews. It’s not a grass roots movement; it’s fake. It’s quickly obvious when people try to astroturf sites, and it gains a lot of negative attention for you very quickly. Although Kickstarter projects tend to be the worst offenders, we’ve seen these kinds of hijinks for everything from software to accessories. Don’t do it.

Subject: Found this new invention

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/[redacted]

Found this little gem on kickstarter today and figured id pass it along to my favorite site! (love what you guys are doing). Anyways I did some research and couldn’t believe that this tech isn’t on the market already... I’m shocked actually. its worth a look I think.

Bloggers are also pretty good at smelling the ‘turf at ecommerce sites. Is your product one that you “use all day at work!” or does it offer “much less hassle! Thanks!”? Is it a “smart idea!” or has a user been “using it all week and it hasn’t failed me yet!” on the first day of release? Most of the time, astroturfed reviews are blindingly obvious in that they aren’t written the way that people usually communicate and they’re full of marketing aphorisms instead of honest feedback.

We notice and so will your customers.

DO NOT Offer to Pay for a Review or Prioritize Your Product

Reputable sites don’t do that. Simply offering payment casts you as slimy in most bloggers’ eyes.

Hi,

we are starting an iPhone/iPad application development business, and part of that we would like to get reviews of our apps on [website]. And all the possibilities on how can we be represented on your site. We need pricing on that.

Thank you for your time!

Best,

[Personal name]

And

Before going to the full process, we think that we should know about various features of “[Website]” for developers to promote their apps & the pricing strategy of [Website]’s different services.

And

We would like to ask if TUAW offer paid reviews. If yes, please let us know the rate.

Even worse is the developer who offers to “trade” favors, even if he does so in a friendly and amusing way:

I wanted to write you to see ask you to try our new game available in the App Store called, [Name!] Like every other app in that comes out, we would love a chance to be featured on your site. We are but a company of 1 designer, 1 developer and 1 PR person (who was not in charge of this letter). We don’t have a whole lot to offer - we do have many things to trade. For example, I can:

A. Send you amazing pictures of unicorns everyday for 3 weeks.

B. Give you Oprah winfrey’s personal email address.

C. We can tweet regularly about the awesomeness of [Name]

D. I can send you and your staff a couple cans of slim jims - I think they are worth a lot now that the macho man is no longer with us.

These are just a sampling of the things I can offer. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to email me back at this email address and lets make this beautiful thing happen. Trust me, we would all love it. For real, we would love for you to help us get the word out in any way that you can!

It may be cute and funny on the surface, but the underlying message is off-putting.

DO NOT Try to Make Us Pity You

Pitch your strengths, not that you’re “miserable” and “need to get noticed.” Reviewers want to like you and care about your product, but you have to sell your pitch, not just evoke sympathy. We rarely care about the human-interest story motivating your product (“I wrote this for my daughter’s birth” or “I wrote this in just 5 hours” or “I’m a high-schooler”). If you have a human-interest story, pitch that separately, not as a review request. Use a professional tone and talk about what makes your product stand out on its own.

When the App Store was new and fresh, and iOS developers were just beginning to tell us about their products, finding out that an app developed by a 14 year-old had been accepted by Apple was big news. These days, we generally receive at least one or two pitches a week from some kid who has written an app and thinks this is newsworthy. Sadly, it no longer is. We want to judge an app on its merits, not the age of the developer.

DO NOT Pretend to “Just Be a Customer” and Talk About a Product You Just “Discovered”

If you really are a customer, that’s a cool way to let sites know about overlooked products. It’s the poseurs (and most of them are pretty obvious) that bother bloggers. Here’s a real pitch that wasn’t edited as carefully as the sender might have imagined. The emphasis is ours:

I am regular reader, and I very much enjoy when you mention great apps. I wanted to tip you about an app that Apple just featured on their AppStore. I was long time [Product] user but I was looking for alternatives due to the bad Mac support that [Product] offers. I found the app called [Product] after Apple featured us, and I’ve been moving data to it and using it actively for the last several days, and it’s a masterpiece that one can rarely see in the AppStore. I think it will be good to write a review so other fellow-readers can learn about it as well.

DO NOT Quote Reviews Out of Context

Once you’ve gotten a review, don’t play selective-quoting games, especially if you got an overwhelming negative review. Never quote the one positive comment and pretend that the rest of the review didn’t happen.

As a serious developer, you don’t want to hurt relations with websites when future products are at risk. Take the feedback seriously, and respond to it by improving your app. Bloggers aren’t omniscient, and they aren’t always right, but they do offer honest feedback that can help you identify where your app has strayed from where it could be better.

DO NOT Specify “Terms” for Your Review

The following is from a real pitch letter, which was sent along with a press release:

“Of course you may edit, add, or subtract from the provided information however I do require that you send me a final copy for approval before posting to your website.”

You can imagine how well-received this letter was. Websites don’t work this way. You cannot set the ground rules walking in.

DO NOT Lie and Mislead

During Summer 2012, we received a pitch for an adorable app. We loved it. However, it appeared to be based on a well-known cartoon. We contacted the developer and the rights holder about possible infringement. The developer wrote us back, saying he had clearance from the rights holder. He passed us the following quote, attributed to the brand manager:

“At this stage, I can see ‘inspiration’ but I can’t see any infringement.”

We went ahead and cleared the write-up and published it. Four days later, the rights holder got in contact with us, saying this was an out-of-context extract from a much longer email that requested a greater investigation into the matter and possible legal action.

Trying to deceive us is a great way to get a developer banned from our site. We will never cover this particular developer or his products again.

On a similar note, while we do care that you do have proper rights for materials you use in your application, you generally can skip legal disclaimers about the correctness or authenticity of baby names.

All the baby names are procured from various data sources and [COMPANY NAME] does not guarantee their correctness or authenticity and cannot be held responsible or liable for any issues or damages caused using this data.

We are still at a loss, wondering how inappropriate baby naming could cause damages.

Avoiding Offense

Every now and then, we deal with products that we believe to be offensive. We don’t publish reviews for materials we find racist, sexist, or just plain repulsive. If your work lives along the boundaries of good taste, you may want to be careful when promoting it.

DO NOT Be Racist, Sexist, Etc.

We recently tested an app that had terrific gameplay. Its art and audio snippets, however, caused us to raise an alarm to management. The game, based on a German board game, included ethnic caricatures that pushed our comfort levels to the limit. After due consideration, a review was spiked, but we offered the developer another chance should he revisit the design in the future.

The developer explained that the brand was licensed, and he was not allowed to modify it. He failed to convince the rights holders to allow him to replace the national characters with professions or licensed SciFi characters. The game was not intended to create any political statement, but its potential firestorm kept us from covering it.

We passed on “My Booty Book” and the “Aroused Comrade Urban Camo aluminum case for iPhone.” And, although the app was well intentioned, we also passed on “iBeg”, which “simulates the life of a homeless person on the streets of Vancouver, BC.” Some things just push our comfort levels beyond where we’re willing to write.

Speaking of which, it’s probably best not to put “big breasts” in your subject line when trying to get our attention.

DO NOT Burn Bridges

When you establish yourself at a website as a prolific (not to mention trollish), commenter, you may not want to submit your pitches under the same name and email address, lest the discussion you stir up is less about your product and more about your personal character.

Submitting Through Channels

Avoid submitting pitches to bloggers’ personal websites and email addresses. Some developers do this as an end-run around normal app submission. It’s not cool and it’s inconsiderate.

Consider the following example, which combines two blogger pet peeves into one pitch. First, there’s the once-reviewed person who hounds the blogger for another review. Second, it’s a direct pitch, outside of blog channels. TUAW Blogger TJ Luoma explains, “Review hounding and direct pitching earns you my Gmail filter, which keeps your email from hitting my inbox, thus reducing the chance I’ll ever see another email from you.” Here’s a request that arrived in his inbox from his personal website:

From: [Redacted]

Date: Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 8:06 AM

Subject: Form Submission - Contact

To: [Redacted]

Message: Hi there,

I know this is probably not the preferred way to contact you about new apps. But I’ve been contacting tuaw through the official channel without any response. Since you liked my app [Redacted], I figure I might give it a shot.

[rest of the email snipped]

Just to add spice to the proceedings, TJ’s website, the one that this pitch was submitted on, provides the following instructions in Very Large Letters. Regard:

Want to write to me about TUAW? Computers? Apple?

If you have a comment about something I wrote on TUAW please leave a comment there.

If you have an app that you would like to have reviewed on TUAW, submit it there instead.

If you are a PR person and would like to have your client interviewed for TUAW, contact pr at TUAW.com.

If you have a press release that you really want someone at TUAW to read, contact pr at TUAW.com

If your reason for contacting me falls under one of those categories and you’ve tried that already but didn’t get a response and really really really think that you should contact me another way instead, please believe me, it’s not going to make me happy to get a PR “pitch” through this form.

Luoma explains, “Contacting me through my web form, which specifically instructs you not to do that? Wow. I don’t even know what the punishment for that is yet, but it’s never ever going to end with me saying, ‘Yes, you did everything I said not to do and now I’m going to reward that behavior.’ Never. Gonna. Happen.”

If wondering what the trifecta looks like, it’s this. It’s the unsolicited direct pitch that comes with a “Hey, just following up to see if you got my unsolicited email the other day.” This Luoma promises will “earn you a custom Gmail filter, which skips the inbox, marks the email as read, deletes the email, and marks it as spam.”

End Run Exceptions

So, when is it okay to make an end run around normal procedures and contact bloggers directly? Limit yourself to things that aren’t pitches.

That is, if you’re requesting a review, if you’re sending a press release, if you’re advertising, etc., go through channels. We probably don’t want to hear that you’re scheduling interviews with a company’s CFO or receive invitations for a special briefing in our personal inbox, either.

We do, however, like to hear about really cool stuff. Are you doing something amazing and want to invite us into your beta? If you know us personally and already have a reasonably good guess that this is something that ticks our boxes, go ahead and send over a friendly human email about it.

If you don’t already have that relationship established, send the same invitation through the blog feedback or comments form. We’ll still receive it; and we are actual human beings at the other end of that contact form. You’ll step on fewer toes by opening your lines of communication in that way. Typically, you can expect a personal response if someone has an interest and your conversation can continue from there.

We’ve met many extraordinary people building outstanding projects this way. We value those relationships and tend to keep the doors of communication open. Simply put, we want to see what else they’ll build over time. Opening that initial door may seem a bit impersonal, but it helps prevent our personal lives from being overwhelmed by our professional email.

When to Pitch

Unless you are a huge company with a product that’s been building buzz for weeks, months, or years (for example, Square Enix, Rovio, or Halfbrick on the app side of the house), most app developers will want to wait to submit pitches until they get Apple’s green light. Once an app is approved, we encourage you to push that out in the iTunes Connect system so you have full control over your roll out strategy. Hardware developers should usually wait until the product is shipping and can be purchased from real world vendors.

Knowing when your product is going live lets you slow down the marketing process and take control over how and when you wish to promote it. It gives you time to offer reviewers early access to a live product, especially in the case of App Store. You can issue promo codes once the app has been fully processed and green lit even if you have not yet manually released it.

Offering one to several days’ worth of advance warning is particularly valuable for any blog that schedules out software reviews. If you’re looking to fill an “app of the day” slot on a site, offering scheduling flexibility so that the review appears with your app launch.

The 500-pound gorilla in this story is Apple. There are times we have written reviews for products that we simply cannot publish because Apple’s review team never finished approving the app. One of our recent Mac Daily Apps (DragonDrop) took months before we could write about it.

When Apple finally got around to rejecting it, we wrote it up as an independently distributed app and helped create a grass-roots movement to convince Apple to reconsider. They did, and the app is now available for sale in the Mac App Store. We reviewed early because we felt passionately about its utility, but our review remained in stasis as we waited on its approval.

If possible, avoid submitting your product until you know that it’s sellable. Yes, we’re always interested in early access for products that are amazing, but few products meet that threshold.

Dealing With Apple Review Headaches

Despite the delays, frustrations, and other headaches involved with Apple’s store review process, there are good (monetary) reasons to aim your product at its store. When you’re an app developer, lots of possible venues compete for your attention, including App Store, Amazon, and the Android Market. Which one is worth your time and energy? We turned to Avatron Founder and CEO Dave Howell for the answer. Here’s what he had to say, in a topic we first discussed on TUAW.

Avatron makes Air Display (see Figure 4-6), a popular app that allows you to use a mobile device like an iPad or phone as an extra display for your computer. When you’re on the road, it’s nice to be able to offload a Twitter stream, for example, onto a secondary screen so your laptop can be dedicated more to your work.

Figure 4-6. Air Display offers a handy way to connect a mobile device to your computer for use as an extra screen.

Air Display is now available across a number of platforms, including the following stores: Apple iOS App Store (iOS), Apple Mac App Store (Mac), Google Android Market (Android), Amazon Appstore (Android), Samsung Apps (Bada), and Intel AppUp (Windows netbooks).

Given the time investment, the overhead, and general work involved in developing cross platform, where has Avatron seen its strongest sales? You won’t be surprised by the answer: in the iOS App Store. Like many other developers, Avatron found that the App Store delivers customers and product interest in ways that other platforms have been unable to match. Howell lays out Avatron’s AirDisplay sales as follows:

• iOS App Store: Strong sales

• Mac App Store: 1/10 of the sales of the iOS App Store

• Android Market: 1/2 of the Mac App Store sales

• Samsung Apps: 1/5 of Android Market

• Amazon App Store: 1/10 of Android Market

• Intel AppUp: “4 copies in over an entire year,” and Howell bought one of those copies.

In other words, for every 1,000 sales for iOS, Avatron roughly sees 100 in the Mac App Store, 50 in the Android Market, 10 on Samsung, and 5 on Amazon. The numbers speak for themselves.

Each store has its strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, but Howell is clear about one thing: No matter how App Store developers complain, “iOS is the most painless of the bunch. And this is coming from a developer whose latest iOS app was pulled by Apple without any credible justification.”

Avatron retired Air Dictate, the app pulled from the App Store by Apple, in January 2012. “Our most recent submission of Air Dictate did not break any rules, or use any private APIs,” Howell said, discussing the background of that situation. “Apple pulled it because it bizarrely claimed that apps that ‘relate to Siri’ are infringing Apple’s Siri trademark or copyright. I sent them the email addresses to three Apple IP lawyers so the app review team could get a tutorial on what exactly trademarks and copyrights are, but my helpful suggestion have proved fruitless so far.”

Compared to other stores, however, Apple’s App Store offers the simplest road to market and the best logistics. “The latest move by Google requires Android Market sales to go through Google Wallet. No more PayPal, Zong, or Boku. And now, Android Market is called Google Play,” Howell explained. “I can’t keep up with the thrashing. And Google still offers no way to give out promo codes, or even to purchase a copy of an app for somebody else. Apple’s way, way ahead in this kind of logistics.”

Howell pointed out that Amazon remains U.S.-only. “Amazon does let us buy gift cards for people, which is nice. As long as they’re in the U.S. and they don’t mind getting their apps through Amazon Appstore. Amazon’s review process is no faster than Apple’s, and strangely, it’s much slower to get an app approved for Amazon’s own Kindle Fire than for other devices. So, their own customers get our apps later than everybody else.”

Wrapping Up

Fortunately for developers and manufacturers hoping to get the attention of bloggers, there are some relatively easy rules to follow that make it easy to write a pitch that works. Some of the key points in this chapter include

• Take the time to get to know your target websites. Become familiar with the focus of the blog, the people who write for the blog, and any special feature series that might be useful in introducing your product to the world.

• Be friendly in all of your dealings with bloggers, as a little courtesy can go a long way toward establishing a long-lasting relationship. Remember, bloggers are people, too!

• Once you’ve sent in your pitch, follow up, but don’t be obnoxious about it. Most bloggers are extremely busy and can’t always immediately respond to all of your emails.

• Don’t game the system. Nothing infuriates a blogger more than someone who uses underhanded methods to try obtain coverage of a product.