At the end of the day, PR agencies are as result-driven as any other business entity, and if they can’t figure out how to work with bloggers, they’re not going to bother unless they’re forced to do it. And this is a real shame, because bloggers have been telling PR agencies (for several years) how to pitch to them.

Which brings us to this point in time, one day before the World Cup kicks off. It’s 6:30 AM (UK time) and I’ve already received 5 pitches for various World Cup related services / products. The last week has seen hundreds of emails come through at Soccerlens and most of them have been ignored.

Football PR people, listen up. I know that the World Cup happens once every four years and everyone has to make the best of it, but that doesn’t give you license to spam bloggers.

In fact, nothing is going to guarantee an instant deletion of your emails more than shilling your product a couple of days from kickoff, when anyone who’s writing about football / would be writing about the World Cup is crazy busy.

Having said that, we don’t blindly delete emails (not really). It’s just that after having read several dozen pitches PER DAY in the last seven days, I can tell just by the email subject and first line (easy to see without opening the email if you’re using GMail / Google Apps / any decent webmail client) if it’s going to be worth my time. And unless I recognise your brand’s name, you’re just shortchanging yourself by approaching bloggers at a very busy time in their schedule.

So what can PR agencies do? Read on, and take notes.

10 Things Football PR Agencies Should Learn (Again)

Note: You’ll notice that a lot of the tips here ask you to spend time studying sites and being active followers / members, which isn’t always possible (lack of time / rapid change of projects, various other reasons). Although that’s understandable, that’s not always acceptable.

Luckily there’s a way around it. Like any good marketing agency, you must be keeping records, right? Keep adding site profiles to them so that the next person can benefit too.

1. Know who you’re talking to

Personalise, Personalise, Personalise.

At the very least, you should know who you’re emailing. Granted, not every blog has easily identifiable contact persons / information, but it’s very easy to find out on most blogs a) who owns it, b) who to contact for advertising / promotions, c) who’s the main writer / editor (and your best bet for getting a reply).

Even if you have to write to a generic email address / connect through the contact form, at least find out who’s behind the site / who’s the regular writer / blogger and then address them in your initial pitch. If it’s a nickname? Use it (and ask for the real name for future reference). If there’s no name? Ask for one.

The downside of getting this wrong? Even a brand like the BBC won’t get a reply if they can’t figure out who they’re emailing.

2. Profile the site audience

Your pitch will be 100% more effective if you can customise it to suit the needs of the site’s audience. Understand the type of fans / readers who visit the site and model your pitch in a way that would appeal to them.

Pitching WindMill International to a football blog isn’t going to work, even if the said blog is open to showing a little T&A.

Does the site cater to a UK-centric audience or is it more global? Are these fans who go to matches or watch them on the telly? What are the discussions like on the blog – do they discuss club products or is it more news focused?

The absence of specific interests doesn’t mean that pitching those angles won’t work, but it does mean that you have to be more gentle in terms of pushing the idea initially and give more help to the blogger when it comes to providing the initial content on the site.

3. Study style & nature of articles

What type of content do they do? Building on from the previous point, learn what the blog/blogger talks about and cater your pitch to that. Regular readers want more of the same – or at least more in the same tone / topic. It’s not too difficult to understand whether a site is open to more whimsical / funny viral content or more serious breaking news content.

It also pays to study if they’re open to guest bloggers or not, because that will instantly tell you that they’d be open to adding content written by external writers on the site (another way in for your brand, as long as you make the discussion about the fans and not yourself).

4. Find your best ROI opportunity and focus

What’s the best return they can deliver for your brand? Is it in terms of product sales, brand reinforcement to existing consumers, getting access to other bloggers, getting the word out to the maximum # of people, getting people to participate in surveys / polls, getting valuable link equity – each blog will be really good at one or two of these things and it’s up to you to figure out what their strong point is and focus your pitch on that.

If it’s just about getting the word out and meeting a random ‘numbers’ target in terms of how many football fans have potentially seen your ad or how many writeups you’ve acquired, you’re doing it wrong.

5. Offer something valuable first

What should be offered upfront? That’s the question you should know the answer to before you contact the blogger. Apart from the lack of personalisation, the biggest mistake PR companies make (something myself and Chris have spoken out against often) is to assume that they can get ‘publicity’ on blogs for free (because apparently blogs are free and mainstream media isn’t.

It’s a damaging perception for bloggers and it couldn’t be more wrong. Bloggers are regular people too, and in many cases are running their blog as a second business. This is serious stuff for them, and the most effective way to succeed is to find out what they would value most and offer it to them.

Exclusives? Do it, but not just in name, real exclusives. Interviews / player access? Give it up (you’re already paying football players to shill your product, arranging for one-to-one access for bloggers shouldn’t be a big stretch). Free products – that’s standard fare; it’s the bare minimum, not the most you should be doing.

What else can you do? A crate of Carlsberg (to give away to readers, hah!) is not going to get me to shill your brand. Funny enough, if you put the time in to meet the blogger personally for a drink or two, that would give you a much better shot of getting promotion on their site.

One crate vs two pints – you can do the math yourself.

And this neatly ties in with my next point…

6. Build long-term relationships

Your first question shouldn’t be: “what can this blog do for me?” but “how do I engage this blog in a long-term, win-win relationship?”

Doing exclusive events for bloggers where you make initial contact and maybe explain your brand philosophy (along with one or two key news / product promotions) can be a good starting point. Meeting personally with top bloggers for drinks should be standard procedure (as is meeting for drinks with just about any other valuable point of contact).

Know who they are. Know what they want. Get them on your side. It’s sometimes as simple as valuing their efforts and sharing ideas and angles through which your brand and their blog can have synergy. Each blog is going to have multiple brands vying for their attention, but you can get a head start by getting in early, building trust and offering value.

The value of making contact early in your campaigns cannot be overstated. The earlier the bloggers are onboard, the more they’ll talk about your brand, the easier it is to convert them to fans and the more exposure you’ll get (a lot of it for free).

7. Get Referrals

Bloggers talk to other bloggers, and contacting a blogger through a referral (or mutual introduction) makes you more acceptable than a standard cold call / email.

Referrals are usually possible later on in the relationship once you’ve built up trust, but it’s a valuable tactic to use especially with well-established bloggers.

A related point is to target blogs that are popular amongst bloggers themselves – and give them special attention. That way you will be almost ‘recruiting’ bloggers to pitch your product not just to the general public but also to other bloggers. You can use events like the Soccerlens Awards to pick out the top blogs / podcasts / forums, or you can just study the industry and spend time getting to know who goes where and who likes what.

Hint: It all points to meeting with bloggers – whether in groups or individually.

8. Educate bloggers

Some bloggers might not know the best way to review a product / service on their site. Some bloggers might not know how to use viral videos (like the Nandos World Cup Ad (NSFW)) to their own benefit. Others may not know what works best in your specific niche (tickets, betting, tv subscriptions, gifts, etc).

It’s your job to help them / teach them the best practices that will get maximum results for you and for the blogger as well.

At Soccerlens (and through the Football Media ad network), we found that most betting partners either relied on sheer force of numbers or by continually working with sites / site owners who news what they were doing. They had little in the way of knowledge-sharing and quite often it worked the other way around when we would keep asking them for specific features / information to help drive more conversions.

In contrast, some of our smaller commercial partners have shown remarkable initiative in sharing what they’ve seen work best in their industry, which results in positive results (or a win-win) for all parties concerned.

More crucially, if the blog does well, it looks good for the PR guy, it’s good for the brand, AND there’s another reason to work with the blog in the future, which will only open up the blogger more to you.

9. Become social media kings

If you want social media exposure or better search rankings or viral promotion, you need to learn, in-house, how everything works. This applies more to the agency than individuals, but it’s strongly relevant.

You want your video to become viral on YouTube? Setup a YouTube video channel and start using to upload brand-specific videos. You want bloggers to talk about you on Twitter? Where’s your twitter account? What about Facebook fans? What about your own blog?

I’m not advising that you blindly put up a blog / twitter account / facebook page for every brand / product you work on, but that you USE these mediums yourself EXTENSIVELY for your projects and learn how they work best.

After all, you’re the PR experts, which is why you know what to say / ask for / do when you approach the print and online media for PR exposure. And if you wanted more social media exposure, wouldn’t it pay to become experts in that field as well, so you’d know what worked, what to ask for and how to drive and measure results?

10: Read the article below. No, print it out and learn it by heart

How To Pitch To Bloggers – 21 Tips.

It seems to me that Football PR is a few years behind PR agencies in other industries when it comes to bloggers – or it might just be a case of the UK community in general being a couple of years behind their US counterparts. Whatever the case, it’s high time they tailored their pitches to suit their targets better.

At the very least it’ll drive better results, and on average, you’ll be surprised at how much more valuable and in-depth bloggers can be compared to their mainstream media counterparts.

Football Nomad, an independent web-documentary combining film and social media to share the color and excitement of the 2010 World Cup, is set for launch on June 4.

Brisbane-based brothers Andrew, 24, and Patrick Weber, 18, will travel the world armed with a laptop, Handycam and with the support of enthusiastic locals, aim to provide an intimate and engaging experience.

Andrew says:

“Football Nomad will be an amazing project – a true fans’ experience of the tournament that captivates the planet.”

“Patrick and I want to show what the World Cup is like for people who live and breathe the game. What’s more, we want to use online social media to share our experience as it unfolds.”

The journey begins in London on June 11 and ends a month later with the World Cup final. Along the way the Weber brothers will film, photograph and blog their way around Europe and South Africa to share World Cup culture.

The Webers will visit six of the biggest footballing nations in Europe – England, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands before heading to South Africa to watch three live games in Johannesburg and Durban.

Andrew added:

“We are both young and adventurous people by nature, so we’re really looking forward to meeting as many locals as possible.”

“We really know our stuff when it comes to football culture and history, so people can expect intelligent and insightful commentary. The fact that we’re brothers should make it good fun, too.”

“We believe the most captivating thing about the World Cup is the bubbling mix of cultures on display. We want to capture footage of the bars and pubs on days when the national teams of the countries we are in are playing; to get interviews with locals about what the passion of the World Cup means to them and their country and to share the vibe in and around the stadiums in South Africa where the tournament is being held.”

The 2010 World Cup will be the most connected in the tournament’s history and the brothers intend to take full advantage of recent advances in online technology.

“It will give us the opportunity to share the documentary footage online as we travel.”

“We will update the blog daily with edited videos, photos and written posts of the best bits. Followers will be able to interact with us as we travel and we hope to include as many people as possible during the tournament.”

Andrew’s previous experience as a football blogger has created a community eager to support the project. He is the editor and head writer of Arsenal FC Blog, as well as a member of the world’s prominent football website network, Football Media.

Andrew says the Football Nomad website reveals a thriving community of followers eagerly awaiting the launch.

“Arsenal FC Blog has over 1,800 subscribers and gets around 90,000 unique readers each month, many of them extremely loyal and active participants. Most of the locals we will stay with during the trip are people I have met through the blog, which shows you just how enthusiastic people are about the project.”

There are many differences in what Google AdSense and Football Media each provide for web publishers, and I strongly maintain that football blogs (or other sites for that matter) shouldn’t use AdSense as their primary monetization strategy. But that’s not the point.

The most interesting part about the revelations (which conspicuously omitted any mention of ‘Premium AdSense Publishers’ who get higher revenue share and several other perks) is how well Google have done to keep their costs down and margins high enough to offer publishers 68% in revenue share. This is purely down to automation – allowing millions of advertisers and publishers to seamlessly create adverting campaigns and monetize websites without the need to go through a real live person.

I read the article this morning and it got me thinking about the different ways we could learn from Google’s management of their AdSense products. It’s important to look at three aspects – reducing costs, increasing gross revenues and improving our brand (so as to attract more prominent advertisers and publishers) – and evaluating which methods and guiding principles work for us or not.

For example, one of the driving forces behind setting up Football Media was to provide ‘more’ services to our partners (publishers and advertisers) than traditional media agencies. The personalised approach has it’s downsides – it’s costly once you start scaling upwards and it can become irrelevant very quickly if the profit margins offered by another agency are higher than yours. Then again, the services model is also something that sets us apart, and if we want to continue with it then we would have to work on improving efficiency and focusing on premium publishers and advertisers almost exclusively, which brings with it another set of questions.

Football Media is still evolving, and we’ll keep working on improving the results and the quality of service that we offer to our publishers and advertisers. You’ll read about these changes over the summer right here on this blog, so make sure to follow us on twitter for all the latest updates.

On the pitch, the Spanish champions have won their second consecutive league title, and have an incredible six pieces of silverware from the last two seasons alone. To say that they are the best side in Europe today would be an understatement.

And off the pitch, they are committed to, and quite successful in, making reality of Barça’s strapline, ‘més que un club’ (more than a club).

MeetTheBoss.TV has secured an interview with Lander Unzueta, Chief Marketing Officer, F.C. Barcelona, where the man charged with making reality of Barcelona’s ideology off the field speaks at length about how ‘the Barça way’ is changing the world for the better.

Lander believes the sports industry has evolved “too much” over the last ten years, and that it is indigestion, not starvation, that poses the biggest threat. Too many opportunities, too many sponsors, and players’ wages going through the roof. For F.C. Barcelona, it’s has been a case of adapting to the changes while maintaining their identity with a strong and clear direction.

“Stadium development has been key. A stadium is no longer a place where teams play, or athletes run, they are venues to hold big concerts and social, cultural activities,” says Lander. “This has been a big revenue growth for us. F.C. Barcelona is more than just a football club. It’s a theme park, we have an arena, several pitches and a stadium; we even have an ice hockey rink.”

“We are at the top, without using our jersey sponsor and without putting a sponsor’s name in writing on our stadium,” says Lander. Which means there’s plenty more money to come…

To see this interview in full, visit www.meettheboss.tv. Registration is fast and free.

The beauty of this is that they deliver exactly what it says on the tin: Some of the best football writing, period. Here’s a sampling of the sites on The Simplest Game network:

Pitch Invasion
The Run of Play
A More Splendid Life
From A Left Wing
Two Hundred Percent

I hope they get getting enough exposure through TSG to these websites so that their writing gets the recognition it deserves.

Dan and Jason are passionate and articulate, and in transfer-speak, they are smart acquisitions with great future potential. More than the blogs and communities that they’re bringing on board, we’ll have two more smart brains working with us in the background to make Football Media better.

And while we’re on the subject, here’s how you can join Football Media.

1. Democratisation of access

People will access content in a myriad of ways. Mobile, RSS, Website, YouTube, Audio are just the surface. You’ll see a lot of syndication, aggregation, widget-based content use, mashups, data-driven content, casual games, interactive apps, etc etc.

Search engines. Other bloggers. Twitter. Facebook. Retail stores. Product lines. Competitions.

There are 101 different ways to access your brand, and knowing how to tap all of them will determine how many people you can reach (and if you’re looking at the bottom line, how much money you can make).

2. Aggregation of content

It’s not so much that the big keep getting bigger but that the small sites are more likely to stay stuck at the same level than the big sites, and the good writers keep migrating to bigger platforms (more exposure, more money) therefore reinforcing the strength that big brands have.

In football we’ve seen this happen with Goal.com hiring many good bloggers, OleOle tapping up several good blogs and The Offside building their model around attracting bloggers to setup their own blogs on their site.

This will keep happening in the next few years. The trick is to know how to benefit from this.

The approach is different from generic sites (non-team football news) and specific sites (team-specific or very topical sites like Footy Boots and Kickette).

For a site like Soccerlens, it pays to go the Goal.com way – create new sections, bring in dedicated writers for each section and then promoting, promoting, promoting. The breakthrough for sites like SL & EPL Talk will come when they get a financial breakthrough (to accelerate growth) or just do an outstanding job in growing organically by differentiating themselves on a particular product (i.e. what EPL Talk is doing with their podcast).

I wouldn’t dream of starting a brand new football news site now though – it’s way easier to buy one and build from there.

For team sites / niche sites, it’s a different story. I’ve got an idea (it’s evolutionary, not revolutionary) and hopefully you’ll see it in action in the coming months on the Football Media network. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll share it here.

But regardless of whether you’re a team-specific site or a generic football news site, you need to take care of two things right now:

• Giving your target audience more ways to access your content
• Figure out to access a much larger platform of readers than right now – either through partnerships, through rapid growth or through mergers. You might not like it, but you need to build fast or partner with someone who is growing fast. Everyone else will get left standing still.

He is best known as the host of the podcasts of EPL Talk and Major League Soccer Talk, although he’s done quite a bit more in the world of football – he was host of the American Soccer Show on Champions Sports Radio Network (2007-2008) and has been a prolific football blogger on EPL Talk, MLS Talk, Soccerlens and lately on The Kartik Report and the Manchester City Blog.

Based on the terms of his ‘signing’, Kartik will stop writing for Major League Soccer Talk and The Kartik Report on January 31st, 2010. He will also quit EPL Talk after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer. This is mainly due to the overlap in his role as the PR director for a football league and his position as a commentator on the same league / footballing region.

He should be able to continue writing on the Manchester City blog (fingers crossed).

This is a fantastic opportunity for Kartik and I’m really happy for him – he’s worked his socks off and while there are aspects of his work that polarize opinions, there’s no doubting his knowledge and professionalism and he should be able to put those qualities to good use in his new role.

Good luck mate.

Here’s a full list:

NewsNow

The unchallenged, all-powerful director of traffic in football blogging – NewsNow is to football what Google is to general websites.

It’s not without faults – and an over-dependency on NewsNow can be bad for your blog health, and with so many websites already in the index the criteria for listing is continuously being raised higher for new sites – but it’s the #1 source of aggregator traffic as far as football blogs are concerned.

Get Listed in NewsNow.

Footy 24/7

A no-frills, easy to use English Premier League news service that covers the most interesting blogs for EPL teams. With a few tweaks this could be the #1 rival to NewsNow in the coming years.

Get listed in Footy 24/7.

Football Filter

Footballfilter.com is a dashboard for the best football sources and content on the internet – articles, news, images, videos, podcasts (which can be played via the site itself), blogs and forums all centralised onto one page via rss feeds.

Like Footy 24/7, Football Filter is the closest potential rival to NewsNow but they’ll need to step up their game to get similar traffic and mindshare.

Get listed in Football Filter.

Other Football News Aggregators

There are several other smaller (in terms of the traffic they send) football headline aggregators. These include:

• OleOle (Submit)
• Very Quiet (Submit)
• 3nil (Submit)
• Soccer Blogs (Submit via Email link in menu on site)
• Clever Football (Submit via Email link on site)

If you know of any football news aggregators that aren’t on this list, send in the link and we’ll add them.

A big thanks to Michael Heald of Fully Illustrated (who’s also designed the new version of Soccerlens) and props to Nicolas Pin of Snowy Day Design who did all the behind-the-scenes implementation.

Let us know what you think in the comments below – praise or constructive criticism are both equally welcome.