Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Influence marketing and native advertising are gaining popularity as brands continue to shift away from “interruption marketing” and embrace a more customer-centric approach. But in trying to sell without selling, it’s possible brands have made the “soft sell” a bit too soft, disguising advertising as organic influencer posts.

Smart marketers have been extra vigilant about disclosure since the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an enforcement policy last December. Actually, the truly smart have been tightening up their own disclosure requirements since the FTC updated its online advertising disclosure guidelines in March 2013.

The threat’s been building for years.

The agency’s been beating the drums for a while. Statements, letters and guidelines have warned marketers and bloggers of the oncoming campaign against sponsored content that doesn’t look sponsored: social media posts that don’t clearly state that they’re contest entries, influencer posts that don’t disclose that the influencer received compensation from the brand, etc.....

At CreativeLive, I'm constantly seeking out new business leaders to introduce to our audience. For me, this translates into a high volume of cold emails to people who are extremely busy.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve perfected my email approach and have had the privilege of opening up doors with people like Rand Fishkin, Tim Ferriss, Brian Dean, and more.

However, it didn't happen overnight. In fact, it wasn't until I had my own active blog and community of people reaching out to ask for help that I realized how poorly some of my emails must have come across. After hundreds of emails and countless hours of real-world practice, here are my top ten tips for emailing -- and getting a reply from -- really busy people. ...