Do you want to get your products in magazines' holiday gift guides? I know it may seem a little early to think about your products as a holiday gift, but June-August are the months when most national print magazines plan their holiday gift guides and September – November is when most online media and regional publications work on their gift gides.
You'll want your products to be a part of these holiday gift guides because it can mean a lot of sales over the holiday for your business. It can also increase your credibility among other journalists and media, as well as increase awareness of your brand among your target customers.
Here are some simple-yet-effective steps for getting holiday press for your products:
Determine what type of gift your product is
Here are some examples:
- gifts for the animal lover
- green gifts
- gifts that give back
- splurge-worthy holiday gifts
- gifts for geeks
- gifts for the person who has everything
- last-minute gifts (if you offer gift certificates on your website, your products fall into this category)
- gifts for foodies
- gifts for baby's first Christmas/Hanukkah
- gifts for health and wellness gurus
- gifts for the outdoor enthusiast
- gifts for the pragmatist
- gifts for the fashionista
- etc…
Find the most appropriate magazines for your products
Browse the magazine racks at your favorite bookstore or searching online. And don't forget to think outside the box. If you are selling all natural bath and beauty products, for example, the most obvious magazines would be Women's Interests, Lifestyle, Health/Beauty and Fitness. But you can also contact magazines that cover eco-friendly topics, travel magazines, airline magazines and hotels/spas magazines.
You can join Media Leads to find out which magazines are looking for holiday gift guide products.
Find the most appropriate section editor or writer at those magazines
To find the right editor, check out the masthead of the magazine (usually found within the first few pages of a magazine) and see who is the editor of the magazine section you'd like to be in. Some mastheads list their email address format (for example, firstname@magazinename.com), but if it's not listed there, you can either call the main phone number of the magazine and ask what their email address format is. Or you can also google “person name” + “email” and see if you can find the email address that way.
You can also purchase a media list and save yourself a lot of time. When purchasing a media list, make sure that the list is up to date and has the latest contact information.
Contact the section editor or Holiday Gift Guide Editor at each magazine
Pitch your holiday gift idea. Keep your email short (2-3 sentences for each paragraph and no more than 4 paragraphs total. In your email, include the type of gift your product is best suited for, along with a few bullet points mentioning the benefits of your products. Also list where your products can be purchased, how much they retail for and a link to your website.
Make sure the subject line of your email has some elements of curiosity. Think about emails that you receive and which ones you are interested in opening right away. Which of the following subject lines makes you more likely to open an email message?
“Holiday gifts from Super Natural Bath and Body Shop” or “A gift that not even the pickiest gift recipient will return”
If you are more likely to open an email with the second subject line, so will most journalists. Make your subject line interesting and relevant with a bit of curiosity.
Follow up
If you don't hear back within a week, send a follow-up email. Keep it short and say that you are following up to see if they are still looking for holiday gift ideas. And if you still don't hear back after two more weeks, give it one more try and follow up again or suggest a different gift idea angle.
If you follow these strategies, you're on your way to getting holiday gift guide coverage for your products.
In the comments below, I'd love to hear about your success in getting your products in holiday gift guides.
Thank you so much Andreea. Such a timely article as my husband and I were just working on getting my product into an online store.
Always great information. Thank you so much.
I was lucky enough to learn from Andreea last year how to best pitch editors for Holiday Gift Guides and I have to say I am really happy with how it went and can’t wait to do it again this year! I design and sew handmade baby bibs and after sending out my e-mails, I got into 3 regional parenting magazines, and later had a feature in a national magazine (Pregnancy & Newborn) because of my pitch. They were all free to me except the cost of a sample and shipping – a STEAL compared to what it would have cost for an ad! Give it a try – it’s worth it!
Hey! That’s awesome. I’m trying to get into Pregnancy & Newborn magazine as we speak. Any tips you can share?
Hi! Thanks for the info. I’ve used your info before and have had my products end up in several gift guides. Sometime magazines only do online gift guides and don’t start those until later in the year.
A timely reminder about holiday gift guides, and they are now on the agenda – Thanks
Andreea’s publicity success course was really helpful as other courses. If you did not take this course yet, I would strongly recommend it. I’m also taking an advantage of her Get Media Happy service. My Soulful Ceramic’s website hasn’t been launched yet. But two of my products will be featured in two magazines. It was done through Get Media Happy. Thanks for always providing with helpful resources 🙂
That is so great to hear! Thanks so much for this nice testimonial 🙂
Do you ever recommend just sending the product? Even if you don’t hear back via email or phone? And if so, how do you find the shipping addresses for holiday gift guides at the major pubs (Oprah, etc.)? Thanks!
Thank you SO MUCH for these useful guidelines. I hope it’s not too late but I just sent out my first two pitches last week (early Sept.). Keeping my fingers crossed!
Thanks so much Andreea! Great post with useful tips and insight. Will definitely be contacting magazines using your tips.
Thank you so much Andreea! I am learning so much from you.
I cannot wait to finish and launch my website so I can register at Get Media Happy and get the ball rolling!
Great advice! Thank you for the useful info. Your suggestions on how to write the emails are very helpful and will definitely be trying it for holiday gift guides this year.
Thank you for the great advice! When is the best time of the year to send emails to editors for the holiday gift guides?
Usually mid May through Mid August.