TBEX Business: Intel from the Other Side: A Former Travel Writer Tell All

1. Intel From the Other Side
A Former Travel Writer Tells All
Speaker: Leif Pettersen

2. • What to start doing (or stop doing) when sending pitches
• Tips for adjusting your blogger outreach
• Tips for working with a difficult blogger
• Tips for not being a difficult PR person 
• FAM trip dos and don’ts
Takeaways:

3. • Freelance travel writer for over 11 years
• Visited 54 countries and lived in Spain, Romania and Italy
• Tourism Communications Manager for
Mall of America
• Not vomited since 1993
• Killing Batteries will have its 10th birthday in February 2016!
Why me?

4. Why me?

5. Tips for pitching
Stop the shotgun pitching, please 

6. Tips for pitching
Concentrate your efforts on targeted pitching

7. Make your pitch special
Tips for pitching

9. Make your pitch special
Tips for pitching

10. Mike’s Wretchedly Awful Pitch fail game!
Tips for pitchingLeif
Lief
Gary

11. Mike’s Wretchedly Awful Pitch fail game!
Tips for pitching

12. Tips for pitching
Engage with writers on social media

13. Tips for pitching
What not to do on social media
LOL!
LOL PR
@leifpettersen @lonelyplanet @spudhilton @johnnyjet Hey guys! Join us in our
travel chat about the best places to break your femur!
LOL!
LOL PR
Hey mate! Thanks for following us! You should also follow us on Facebook,
Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, and download our app
WhatsInstaKittySideBoob!

14. Make it easy for media to
request information
Dear Lief,
Thank you for contacting Visit Haplessville CVB!
Please complete this 14 page media form and fax it to 555-5555.
We require two weeks notice for photos, six weeks notice for
interviews and 17 months notice for press trips.
We very much look forward to working with you! Warm regards!
Visit Haplessville        

15. Make it easy for writers to
reach you
Provide prominent contact information for media

16. Make images
easily accessible
Image gallery is great
Images available for immediate download are better
Don’t give the writer an excuse to use an outdated
image from Flickr!

17. Tips for working with a
difficult writer
“Give me all the things!”
Don’t hesitate to push back on unreasonable requests
Document everything – aka CYA
Never simply say “all expenses paid”

18. Tips for not being a difficult
PR person 
Answer emails promptly
Limit meet-and-greets
Maintain one point of contact for the blogger
Things will go wrong. Be cool, man.

19. FAM trip dos and don’ts -
a list sourced from real,
live bloggers!

20. FAM trip don’ts
Only getting about one waking hour to enjoy the
very swanky hotel rooms that have been provided.
(Ten minutes of which are spent photographing
said hotel room.)

21. FAM trip don’ts
Eating the equivalent of Thanksgiving dinner twice
a day for 3-5 days straight or, alternatively, starving
on long days.

22. FAM trip don’ts
NOT ENOUGH READILY AVAILABLE CAFFEINE!
(eg Provide caffeine after that huge lunch at the very
least if you want your bloggers to remember anything
that happens in the afternoon.)

23. FAM trip don’ts
Being loaded down with one metric ton of books,
brochures, media and other stuff that can’t possibly
be brought home without an extra checked bag.

24. FAM trip don’ts
Pushing social media engagement, then confining us
to a bus without wi-fi for 10 hours.

25. FAM trip don’ts
No bathrooms.

26. FAM trip don’ts
Getting itineraries the day before departure,
or worse, having itineraries change mid-trip.
This makes it impossible to pitch stories before
the trip or plan interviews.

27. FAM trip don’ts
No time for interviews and independent exploration.

28. FAM trip don’ts
Required coverage is a major turnoff – and
sometimes impossible, depending on the outlet.

29. FAM trip don’ts
Trying to pack too many activities into too short
a span of time, aka death march schedules. Put
some air in there for me to sit, take notes, and
enjoy where I am.

30. FAM trip don’ts
Not having enough free time or time at night to
upload photos, videos, organize notes and
stories from the day.

31. FAM trip don’ts
Being escorted around a swanky hotel, where
you are not staying, with an assumption that by
walking inside the room and seeing the view you
will write about it.

32. FAM trip don’ts
Don’t take us to places and activities that are
not accessible to normal travelers. I can’t write
about that.

33. FAM trip don’ts
If I stumble onto a story or hook during the trip
that is not on the itinerary, that I am confident I
can sell, please consider allowing me to pursue
it.

34. FAM trip dos
Customized itineraries or at least options for
activities and tours, so everyone isn't forced to
go to the dog racing track or the world's largest
Kmart or whatever.

35. FAM trip dos
Trips designed as if the writers are your best
friends who have come to visit. Everyone, hosts
and writers included, will have a great time.

36. FAM trip dos
Provide exhaustive info on public transport,
even if the FAM trip is all buses, cars and limos.
Writers need to be able to pass along transport
information to independent travelers who will
need it.

37. FAM trip dos
Offer to ship PR material, alcohol, souvenirs
and whatnot to the writers’ homes. Otherwise,
these items will likely be thrown out or given to
hotel clerks and taxi drivers due to lack of
luggage space or carry-on only travelers who
can’t travel with liquids.

38. FAM trip dos
Provide a list of everyone going on the trip in
advance. “Gives me the chance to gracefully bow
out if my nemesis is going, too.”

39. FAM trip dos
Provide a price list for hotel rooms, food,
activities and anything else. The writers will
almost definitely need to include this
information in their articles.

40. FAM trip dos
Send quality pre-trip reading. Not PR stuff, but
history, short stories, and/or stuff relevant to
the destination.

41. FAM trip “other”
Vet your writers carefully. From a prominent
blogger: “I look at past people who have been on
trips with that company. PR people really fall
for anything, sometimes, and pick some really
awful folks to go on trips. It makes me think
twice about what the expectations are when I
see 'yes men' go on fams.”

42. Swag: the good, bad and
the garbage

43. Good Swag
USB mobile phone chargers
Classy shampoo, conditioner or lotion
Cool sunglasses
Good notebooks, eg Moleskin
“High end socks”
Apps with free subscription service
In-flight wi-fi vouchers

44. Good Swag
Chocolate of all kinds
Alcohol of all kinds
Camera lens cloths
Screen cleaner
Flash drive with EVERYTHING from the conference
Collapsible pouches
iTunes gift cards

45. Good Swag
“Ideally nothing that I have to add to my bag”
Speakers’ books or locals’ books
Airplane snacks
High quality, sport backpacks
“Gadgets that work”
Practical first aid kits
Local Music

46. Bad Swag
Paper of any kind
Notebooks
Flash drives
Liquids of any kind
Dull tech brand t-shirts
Mugs/glasses

47. Garbage Swag
Paper marketing material of any kind
Cheap bags
Breakables
“Generic conference crap”

48. Thank you!
Questions?

49. Story time
That one time I lost my cool with a spamming
marketing firm

50. Story time
Subject: Story idea!    
From: Spamming Agency
To: Leif Pettersen
Dear Lief,
We hope you’ll cover our press release listicle about
holidays with demon spawn kids and stuff.
Love, Spammers

51. Story time
Subject: REMOVE
From: Leif Pettersen
To: Spamming Agency
Please remove me from this distribution list. Thank you.

52. Story time
Click Unsubscribe if you no longer want to receive
our dumb emails.

53. Story time
Subject: RE: Story idea!    
From: Spamming Agency
To: Leif Pettersen
Dear Lief,
Just checking in to see if you got our previous email
and whether or not you’d like to give us free
advertising on your site. Lol!
Love, Spammers

54. Story time

55. Story time
Dear Idiots,

56. Story time

57. Story time
Subject: Another story idea! :P
From: Spamming Agency
To: Leif Pettersen
Dear Lief,
We hope you’ll cover our press release listicle about
what to do when the wi-fi is slowish.
Love, Spammers

58. Story time
Moral of the story: don’t do anything these
people did, ever.