Worst Pitch of the Week: Do AI Invitations Work?

AI-Made Invites 🤖 | Worst Pitch of the Week 💀 | Best Pitch(es) of the Week 🏆

I received my first AI-made invite.

How do I know it was made by AI? Let’s just say it’s too obvious to include it here. I won’t do that, since I didn’t ask the sender for permission.

Very that vibe ^

It does beg the question: Do AI graphic invites make someone more or less likely to consider?

In this case, it was a non-starter because it was an invitation to an event unrelated to my beat. I also didn’t think much of it other than the novelty of the graphic, so it made me pause—which is a good thing in this case. But as those graphics become more common, novelty will wear off.

I wonder whether there will be a rise in those graphics, which in turn would herald a more hands-on approach? Tbd. But if the graphic is AI-made and the email is from a bought list, my best guess is that it removes the responsibility of responding to another human inviting you to an event. For now, I’m still a big fan of a bulleted list of What, When, Where.

📩 Curious if you’ve tried an AI-graphic invitation or have gotten one? Let me know.

I should preface this with: I don’t mind follow-ups. Sometimes I do miss something, and a second email is crucial.

But with follow-up emails, I think the rule of 3 applies:

1. First email

2. First follow-up (a couple of days later)

3. Second follow-up (a couple of days after 2.)

Five emails with no response? I think it’s safe to say that was a pass on the pitch. I do acknowledge that sometimes the client is requesting this — which is why I replied — but as the great publicist Kathleen Schmidt highlighted in her Substack “Publishing Confidential”:

If we could snap our fingers and receive responses, we would. It is more frustrating to us that many of our pitches go unanswered, but that doesn’t mean we are doing a bad job.

I wish I could respond to all the emails, but I truly wouldn’t have the time, so unfortunately, I sometimes have to look and keep it moving. It’s not fair at all, and I don’t like it when I’m on the other end of it, but alas, often I am. I get the frustration, my friends.

☝️ This does not apply to time-sensitive pitches.

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The best pitch of this week is one I haven’t responded to yet. I did pass it along to one of my reporters, and hopefully we can collaborate on a story. Shoutout to Kathie G. for the great pitch on a new survey finding about a quirky travel trend I wasn’t aware of.

Without giving it away too much, the pitch utilized the subject line incredibly well:

Subject: PITCH: New [REDACTED] Data - [XX]% of Americans Skip Destinations They [REDACTED]

The body of the email immediately jumped in with 2 highlights from the survey. Great. That’s all I need.

The full press release was below, but Kathie didn’t waste valuable email “real estate.”

💡 Think about what the first thing someone opening the email sees. Is it a blocked graphic? A logo? A templated title?

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