This isn’t a PR blog, though since so many fast writers receive them nowadays, the discussion has officially become relevant.  The amount of fashion PR-sent mail I receive in a week is staggering; while this is fantastic, some of the messages are incredibly humorous for all the wrong reasons.

As editor driven journalism’s world has been taken over by bloggers, the PR world has seemingly been taken over by a group of people determined to get their message out in all the wrong ways.  Like editor proofed publications, [most] reputable bloggers have grown beyond their table scraps media release days, and are looking for some quality release content with proper imaging.

Let’s examine the top PR fails!

1. No images, or ones of low quality.  You can have the most detailed text description of a brand, look or item and still not capture the attention of your recipient.  If you must be asked to provide an image, or that of a higher resolution (think grainy PDFs), the release has likely discouraged potential writers.
2. Using movies as release reasons. Citing Wall Street 2 or Eat, Pray, Love as the reason to hawk your client’s wares is cheesy and not going to gain any free press.  If topics are that slim, get creative.. there are many reasons to wear a suit other than some ex-Disney child running around a thriller sequel screen.
3. Spelling your recipient’s name or website wrong. Typos are a bad enough representation of any professional, but piecing the website or a person’s name in a very ESL-type manner is humiliating for both parties.
4. Improper content.  Forwarding a message from a trade show or the like is not only showing how little you want your product shown, but just how little you care about branding.
5. Offering Facebook as a route for data collection.  Facebook is fine for the masses, but if a firm thinks enough of a website to offer a customized release, Facebook is not a place to route them for information harvesting.  Regardless of whether the data is there or not, if you send a release, prepare to include that information within it.
6. Offering a sample, then reneging.  If you agree to send a sample, you should be sending a sample.  If you cannot send the sample at that time, you should be offering to re-schedule delivery to another time in the near future.
7. Improper verticals. If I’m into fashion, releases containing information on music (non fashion related) or wholesale leather gloves for a website that only reviews clothing shows zero consideration or research of the release recipient.
8. Not knowing your recipient’s nationality.  Most of the time it’s irrelevant that I’m Canadian and not American, though for certain location sensitive releases, it makes content completely irrelevant; this could be avoided by a quick introduction email asking where the writer is located.
9. Not responding to an inquiry.  Sending an email 2 weeks later apologizing for the intense workload isn’t cool, unless it’s Fashion Week.
10. Not providing a flyer for your giveaway/contest. It’s as important to have a properly written release, as to have an image to support it.  Not only will readers respond better to visuals, but the writer will too.