Vegetarianism is Underrated

By Jeremy Cohen, Managing Editor, Sales & Marketing Management

The next time you happen to be poking around  www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com, check out a great article by Ford Kanzler entitled "Is Press Release Addiction Killing Your Marketing Efforts?" Kanzler touches on a bad habit many marketers seem to have—namely, spamming media types (yours truly included) with press releases, the majority of which never seem to have much interest or relevance to the recipient.

Marketing professionals may assume this practice constitutes good public relations, but in reality, all they’re accomplishing is ticking off a whole bunch of reporters and editors. And if they think any of the aforementioned media folks are going to be bending over backwards to give them press after having their inboxes darkened for the millionth time, they’re sadly mistaken.

But I think this lesson needs to be extended to marketers who don’t restrict themselves to the digital realm—the folks who cram my physical mailbox full of press kits, books and other items of (un)interest on a daily basis. As with e-mailed releases, you do occasionally stumble upon something useful and applicable … but far more often, you find yourself wondering if the sender spent a few hours beforehand Googling “magazines” or something equally generic.

The impetus for this post?

I’m currently looking at a DVD someone sent us—addressed to the Editor-In-Chief of Sales & Marketing Management magazine—for potential review.

A DVD of a horror movie. About cannibals in Texas.

Comments

[Mike McCue]

This is excellent advice for all marketers! In a previous job, I was pummeled by bland press releases from an unnamed PR specialist. It got to the point where I wouldn't open anything this person sent to me -- as soon as I saw who it was from, I deleted the email.

If marketers are more careful about how (and how frequently!) they contact editors, they will get better results! Less really is more, sometimes...

[Mike McCue]

This is excellent advice for all marketers! In a previous job, I was pummeled by bland press releases from an unnamed PR specialist. It got to the point where I wouldn't open anything this person sent to me -- as soon as I saw who it was from, I deleted the email.

If marketers are more careful about how (and how frequently!) they contact editors, they will get better results! Less really is more, sometimes...