While we will keep our magazine Beauty Editor sources anonymous for this, the freelance beauty writers spoke right out about things PR reps do that burn bridges and make it hard to get the information we need. Victoria Wurdinger, who has been a full-time freelance beauty and hair writer for almost 20 years, Erin Snyder Dixon, best-selling author, magazine writer, and President of Extremities Spa Salon in West Virginia, and Karen Marie Shelton, beauty and hair blogger and writer give us the top 10 most notable PR don´ts, that make us never want to contact your salon, stylists, or pr agent… ever again.
1. Don´t email me your written responses to my interview questions. If we ask for an interview with a stylist, researcher, or salon owner regarding a specific topic and even go so far as to offer up questions, set up the requested live interview. We don´t want to hear your self-serving answers or your paraphrased stylist´s answers. We ask the questions and we get the answers.
2. Don´t supply us with information widely available on your website or press materials. We´ve already read your press release…that´s why we contacted you in the first place. We won´t use recycled information from your website or press kit nor will we print what you wrote on a press release. We want secrets from stylists and master colorists on the floor…a unique angle all our own.
3. Don´t ever refer me to a sales rep. Save the sales pitch — We´re looking for news and contacts beyond just your product. Hook us up with a chemist or researcher, or the president of the company, the salon owner, or a master stylist.
4. Don´t make it hard. If we have to explain what photo credits or hi-res images are, the wrong person is answering your press requests. If we don´t get an answer, or you send the completely wrong photos, or vague emails, or several attachments, or generic press releases, or you don´t include fact sheets, or return emails and phone messages same day, then you are not helping your media relationships. Additionally, don´t send PDF attachments: they take too long to load, can crash computers and we can´t always copy and paste correct names, salon names, product names and facts from a PDF. We are on a deadline and cannot go searching other websites for prices, sizes, ingredients, or your address, email, and phone number — everything should be on your correspondence. And don´t let your PR assistants speak to the editors: they have a lack of product, service, and industry knowledge; they are vague and incomplete and have the tendency to make every single one of these mistakes!
5. Don´t send ‘just any´ photos. Hi-res photos are the only ones suitable for print publication. Learn how to produce these or hire a photographer to take professional shots of your salon and master stylists in action for editorial use, in addition to collections. And don´t send photos that have nothing to do with the subject matter. We don´t have time to open up 50 jpeg files.
6. Don´t overlook the C-list. Freelance beauty writers write for a vast array of types of publications and editors change jobs frequently. Today´s ‘C-list´ writer could be tomorrow´s A-list Editor! And vice versa. The best way for us to write about you is for us to sample the product or the service, otherwise how can we write about it?
7. Don´t ignore the request after you have previously sent 10 press release emails about your products. If we actually request info from you, send it! Begging and then not responding is the fastest way to never get called again.
8. Don´t waste our time. Period. Constantly asking if the article is out yet, if you can see it before its printed, if you can change anything, or if your product was mentioned, or dozens of inconsequential emails with no story angle will land you in the spam bin if done more than once. If you say you have photos, experts, or products that fit a story and then you don´t immediately set it all up, the deadline will pass before we receive your materials. Also we don´t have time to open up six image and word attachments sent to us with no indication of what it is about. Receiving PR materials about products totally unrelated to our industry, publication, section, or needs will put you on the spam list indefinitely.
9. Don´t be unprofessional. We are not in high school, so don´t use texting language and do not sign your emails with initials so we have no idea who you are. Create a proper email signature that includes all of your contact information. Use complete sentences and reply to questions properly. Keep the correspondence professional, useful!
10. Don´t be so pushy. Even though your job is to get your products mentioned and placed in the media, we only care about educating readers with the best information and resources available. So don´t keep trying to push the product mentions. Usually you get more pr value out of supplying an expert that works with your product than you do with a picture or listing of your product.
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