Targeting mothers in marketing campaigns is not a new concept. Mothers hold great influence over their families’ lifestyles and purchasing decisions, and once trust and dependability are established, they will go a long way for your brand. The "soccer mom" so heavily targeted a few years ago is now blogging, which has allowed her to connect more easily and vocally with other moms, and start communities online that mirror those she has offline, but with further reach.

AdAge conducted a survey and found more than 30 million moms read up to five blogs on a daily basis. More than half of those readers post comments to their favorite blogs. What’s more, BlogHer found 62 percent of blog readers make purchases based on the recommendations of the bloggers they read, and 56 percent recommend products to friends online (read A Mommy Story’s recent post).

So, it’s no surprise that marketers and public relations professionals have waged giant campaigns aimed at mommy bloggers (for lack of a better term). A favorable product review on a widely-read mommy blog can generate incredible results. But, before you go to your client or boss with a full-out, mommy-targeted PR campaign, please be mindful of your communication tactics. You should not pitch a mommy blogger as though you were pitching a parenting magazine five years ago. I’ve seen what can happen when a PR rep’s communication is haphazard in the mommy blogosphere—and it’s not pretty.

Marketers, PR reps, business executives, journalists and bloggers are all trying to figure out their roles within the social media realm. Things are evolving, moving, exploding so quickly that it’s hard to know what’s truly right or wrong anymore. While, I wouldn’t dare say I’ve got it all figured out, I’d love to share what I do know when involving mommy bloggers in your PR campaign.

1.      Don’t use “spin” on a mommy blogger (or any blogger for that matter). Think of how you would speak to your mom or your aunt over Thanksgiving dinner. You wouldn’t try to con them into reviewing your product or speaking with your client, would you? (I sure hope not) Be open. Be honest. Speak to them, not at them. They’re moms for crying out loud!

2.      Don’t underestimate their intelligence. These mommy bloggers are some of the smartest, most business savvy people in the world—and they know more about social media (blogging, Twitter, etc.) than any CEO I’ve ever met. Don’t treat them as simple stay-at-home moms who don’t know the nuances of the “real world.” Read the stats above. They know their stuff and their influence is boundless.  

3.      Read their blogs. These women put it all out there. They tell readers when their children make first steps, when they are fighting with their husbands and don’t know what to do, when they are so tired from raising six kids they could just collapse, and when they found a new solution to ease the pain of their teething infants. If they are being so personal, so should you. A stock pitch launched like a cannonball to 100 bloggers is insulting. Address them by name, prove you are reading their blogs, know which blogs they link to, and what their interests are.

4.      If you mess up, own it. It all ties back to the openness and honesty lesson. No one can get it right 100% of the time. If there’s a misstep, personally apologize for it—“personally” being the operative word here. Do not write a standard email, with no name in the salutation, and no heart behind the apology. If possible, there really should be no email at all. Pick up the phone! In a nutshell, be human.

I also received some amazing PR tips and tricks from blogger Jane Porricelli, co-founder of Pinks & Blues. Jane receives about a billion pitches a day and really knows her s*&@#. According to Jane:   

First of all, pay attention to details! Make sure you've got the right name of the person to whom you're writing. I can't tell you how many times companies have addressed email pitches to me (Jane), but have called me "Jen." Or have addressed my sister as "Andrea" instead of Audrey. Or have addressed my mom as "Shannon" instead of Sharon.

Another detail you want to get absolutely correct - the name of a person's company/business/site. My company is Pinks & Blues. So don't call it "Pink & Blue!" Also, it may seem minor to some people, but the "&" sign is what we use in our company name, so when people address us as "Pinks and Blues" I immediately think that they don't really pay attention to details; they're more interested in getting as many PR pitches out as possible.

Make sure that the pitch you're making is relevant to the person you're pitching. We run contests/giveaways on our site, but they are giveaways that WE are running. I can't tell you how many emails I get from people asking us to announce their contests/giveaways on our blog. Just as we don't ask/expect other sites to publicize our contests/giveaways, it's not something we do on our site, either. If you'd just take a quick look around our site first, you'd see that. My point here is that you really should just take the time to get familiar with a company/business/site before you pitch. It goes a long way.

Press releases are fine, but don't just send a random press release without an introduction. If someone doesn't even take the time to say, "Hey, Jane. I've just recently come across your site/have been following your site for a while/am signed up for your daily email and love it (note: a little flattery goes a long way ;) ) and I thought that I'd contact you about XYZ..." then, again, it kind of comes across as, "I don't really care about establishing a working relationship with you. I'm just trying to fill a pitch quota."

If a pitch is coming in from someone at a PR firm that represents different brands, I really appreciate a polite query before being inundated with product pitches. First of all, tell me how you came across my name/company so I have a point of reference other than "I Googled 'product review sites' and your name cam up." Tell me up front about the brands/companies you represent and make sure that they are relevant to the types of reviews I do. And ask me if I would mind getting pitched. Just sending me an email saying, "Hi, take a look at these brands/products/sites that I represent and tell me what you think."  In other words, don't ask me to do your job!

(Ain’t she a smarty!)

P.S. I’ll be at the BlogHer Conference in San Francisco this July. Hope to meet some of you there!