BITW 142: How to Pitch Brands, Destinations & PR with Jon Bailey of 2 Dads With Baggage

My guest today is Jon Bailey; a travel and lifestyle blogger, vacation dreamer and planner as well as the owner of i.d.e.a., an integrated marketing agency focused on helping brands find their courage. He is Father to two teen girls and husband to one outstanding man and has combined his talents and passions for travel and writing to build 2DadsWithBaggage.com.

2 Dads With Baggage focuses on family travel, LGBT, lifestyle, and parenting, and features travel stories and tips from around the world, as well as the everyday adventures of two gay dads raising two teen tempests.

In the intro to the podcast, I also share a recent trip to Huatulco, Mexico. This is a relatively unknown Mexican beach town (unless you are from Canada). I share the best ways to find great airfare, our hotels, tours and favorite things about Huatulco.

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Show Intro: Visiting Huatulco, Mexico with Volaris Airlines

For Spring Break, my son Roland and I headed to Huatulco, Mexico. We flew on Volaris Airlines from Tijuana using the CBX border crossing. We stayed at three hotels; a budget hotel: Marina Hotel, a boutique hotel: Villa Blanco and an all-inclusive: Las Brisas. I worked with Paraiso Tours for a city tour, boat & snorkel tour and an ATV tour. Head to the podcast to hear about all of our adventures in Huatulco and the amazing airfare available on Volaris!

How to Pitch Brands, Destinations & PR with Jon Bailey of 2 Dads With Baggage

Listen to today’s episode to hear how Jon built the brand of 2DadsWithBaggage in such a short time. We also chat about how to approach building your blog in a very business minded way as well as tips for monetizing, ambassadorships, and building revenue streams. This is “How to Pitch Brands, Destinations & PR with Jon Bailey”.

Full episode >> listen to today’s episode

Listener Questions: How to Pitch Brands, Destinations & PR

Jon Bailey is also the owner of i.d.e.a, a marketing agency based in San Diego that helps brands grow and increase their visibility.  This combined with being a successful travel writer and blogger, offers him a really unique point of view.

He sees pitches coming into i.d.e.a from bloggers and journalists who want to work with the brands he represents and he has also been on the other side, pitching brands.

So, before my interview with Jon, I reached out to the Aspiring Travel Writer community to see what questions they had about pitching PR. Thank you to everyone who shared their questions! Make sure to listen to today’s episode for his answers! 

Questions from Amy from a A Traveling Broad 

1. How much info does a PR person want a blogger pitching them to provide?
2. What is reasonable for a blogger to ask for in terms of compensation when they are new to working with PR reps/brands?
3. What kind of research should a blogger do about a company/brand before crafting their pitch?

Question from Nina from https://ninaoutandabout.ca

1. She’d like to know How long do you spend reading a pitch? I’m assuming she means you as a PR person.
2. Where should the hook go and what is the part of a pitch that really hooks you?
3. Do you prefer formulaic or abstract pitches?

Questions from travel writer’s academy member Rina LA Family Travel.com

1. What do PR companies value the most in return for a hosted opportunity and how should we present the value we would give them if they worked with us in our first email?
2. Also, do they research the writer that approaches them and how?
3. Also, what’s the best way to connect with PR to get on their FAM trips list or get on their radar?

Question from Crystal from www.andbluesky.com

1. What are your best tips for pitching when you don’t have a huge audience, but are passionate about the brand/destination and know you could do a great job of promoting it? 

Question from Lian Dolan from Satellite Sisters

1. I’m wondering about average response times to media requests. I pitched a PR person representing a destination spa two weeks ago and have not heard back. I have both a podcast segment and a print piece in lifestyle magazine locked in.
2. For the magazine piece, I really need to know so I can move on if the PR team isn’t interested. Should I resend pitch? Move on? Go directly to the media relations department at the destination?

Question from Jen from www.longhaultrekkers.com 

1. Why do so many brands/PR ghost influencers after expressing interest in working with them, even discussing the scope of work? I’ve had this happen so many times and my follow-ups just go ignored. 
2. I have a F/U to Jen’s question, which is I have had the experience of working with PR and many times, they don’t respond after you deliver. Before, during and after a trip or project, I’ll get email after email, and then once I deliver, a percentage will never respond or give feedback. Have they just moved on to the next project?

Question from Robin Dohrn -Simpson of Www.robindohrnsimpson.com

1. How does your blogging enhance your PR work and vice versa?

Tweetable:

• Loved this episode about Pitching Brands, Destinations & PR with Jon Bailey of @2DadswithBaggage  on the @writetotravel podcast! http://bit.ly/2SSjlmv [CLICK TO TWEET]

Hope you enjoyed this episode and are inspired to think about how you can set goals for your blog in 2019! Interested in hearing the full podcast? Click here to listen now!

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