Speaker 1 (00:00): Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make PR and marketing accessible for the everyday small business hero. We have Amy Simeon here. She is a freelance beauty editor writing for all the really fun magazines Birdie well and Good. All the places we have so many beauty founders in our community. Editorial and stories are really changing. We have subset, we have AI. So today we’re not only going to talk about one on one do’s and don’ts of pitching which also where this industry’s headed. Welcome to the show Amy.

Speaker 2 (00:25): Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to chat.

Speaker 1 (00:28): So can you tell us a little bit about all the places that you have written for?

Speaker 2 (00:31): I have been an editorial for I think this is my 11th year. Over the course of my career I’ve had a few different roles at places like Popsugar. I started my career actually as an intern and then I moved over to Refinery 29 Birdie where I was for a few years until I returned from my mat leave after having my daughter. Then I moved to well and Good and now I am freelancing. I’ve contributed to a few different publications. I’m still writing for Birdie. I am also writing for Lore and Glamour and I’ve done a few travel stories.

Speaker 1 (01:03): So can you tell me about what are the buckets or categories? There’s a gift guides. What types of buckets of stories?

Speaker 2 (01:09): Gift guides and commerce focused articles are a big one and when I was in house they were the types of articles that we were told to prioritize. And oftentimes in house there are a lot of editors or teams that are assigned specifically to commerce content. The SEO expert driven stories that come from like deep keyword research and Google Trends. Also things just related to like evergreen topics that people are searching. Maybe seasonal topics that people are searching. So like the opinion essay thing keeps getting smaller and smaller every year. And then there are talent and subject pieces that focus on celebrities or interviews or founders that are also a little bit fewer and farther between depending on the publication.

Speaker 1 (01:51): The celebrities one is getting smaller. I would think that that actually expands.

Speaker 2 (01:55): I don’t think they bucket can be categorized as smaller, but I think just like the interviews and the profiles feel like. I notice some sites being a little bit more selective, not necessarily with celebrities, more with founders because it’s just like easier when a celebrity is like pushing a product or a new launch to connect the dots as to like why this is worth covering. It’s just a bit harder Greenlight a story about a celebrity doing the same thing over and over again versus like a commerce article or SEO topic where the payoff is kind of like more guaranteed. This is just like in house, like conversations that I’ve had when I go to pitch certain articles. I’ve had directors at the time be like, well this is not the priority.

Speaker 2 (02:33): Like let’s focus on this type of content.

Speaker 1 (02:35): There’s still a really big vast landscape for commerce stories which are just recommending products to people, right?

Speaker 2 (02:43): Affiliate is, is a big part of.

Speaker 1 (02:44): It for Birdie or Walling Good. Like if you’re writing about products, do those products have to be like big brands or can small businesses also get featured in those?

Speaker 2 (02:53): No. So in my, again, in my experience, no, you do not have to to only be on like these big affiliate platforms for coverage. Small brands, small businesses can absolutely be featured. If at a previous website we had a commerce team and their job, the commerce team is usually to drive revenue. The editor in charge of that commerce team will ideate content and strategize links and products and brands based on what will potentially drive the most revenue. But then there would be like me for example, who would be working on a non commerce related roundup. My job is not solely to drive revenue. My job is to tell the specific story that I pitch. There’s an opportunity there for big brands, small brands, all types of brands to be featured.

Speaker 2 (03:41): But that doesn’t mean that like all editors are only prioritizing these high ticket affiliate links.

Speaker 1 (03:47): But when it comes to like an unknown person who is not a celebrity to get featured, what matters? Is it the product that stands out? Is it something new? Is it the story? Like what are the ingredients of you featuring a completely unknown product?

Speaker 2 (03:57): It’s a load bit of both. A good question to ask yourself before even launching a product, like what is my story? I’ve discovered brands and products via a product that is just so incredible. And I don’t even like know the brand story and I would write about it anyway because the product speaks for itself. So like having a strong product when all else fail. To me, the number one thing like does this work? Does it do what it says it’s going to do? And then obviously the people behind the brand, the story behind the brand adds a layer of drive.

Speaker 2 (04:26): There’s been so many instances in my career where I would like push really hard to feature a product or push really hard to feature a brand because I learned the story or I connected with the person behind the brand and I’m like, no, I got to make this work because like I just feel so Strongly about this. But don’t go making up a story. There is no personal element. It’s just like, hey, like I was really inspired by X, Y, Z and I developed this product and it’s amazing. Like that’s fine to me.

Speaker 1 (04:52): So give me a day in the life of what your inbox looks like and how do we actually get through to that inbox. Not being too robotic with here’s the product spec and how much heart should we leave with? Is it one sentence, the two sentence or background story? Do we hyperlink to a story?

Speaker 2 (05:04): If it’s a product that you want to introduce to someone or to me, it helps to have it send me the product because I will try it. Grabbing me in the subject line, calling out like what this email, what this pitch is about and the subject line is number one for me. And I also search keywords. So keeping your subject line easy to search so I can like always reference back to it. I might see something and read it and be like, oh, this is cool and then forget about it. And then in a few days be like, wait, what was that thing? And start searching like keywords so I wouldn’t like make my subject line impossible to find later down the line.

Speaker 2 (05:37): As far as like the pitch or the story, if there is like a personal story to tell, I would avoid being long winded in the email originally saying, okay, like I’m X, Y, Z, I’m working on this brand. Like here’s a little bit about my story. Like one or two sentences. The email is long winded. I’ll kind of just like store it in the back of my head and be like, oh, I’ll come back to this later. And then who knows if I’ll actually come back to it. Giving like a brief snapshot and then like leaving the window open if there’s room for more discussion.

Speaker 1 (06:04): So you talked about subject line. You said have it be searchable. So like if I’m pitching socks, it should have the word socks in it, right? What else should I put in the subject line?

Speaker 2 (06:11): If you’re pitching socks, have the word socks. If you are inviting someone to try a product, put the word mailer, use the word opt in. Amy, want to try this product? Those are like things that jump out to me that I can go back to later. If you are pitching an expert maybe should be in the subject line. If it’s a dermatologist, I would get specific be put use dermatologists available for interviews, trichologists, when we are in the newsroom and we’re Brainstorming content here. Topic comes up, we’re going to need experts. And that’s when we’ll probably dust the cobwebs off of the email. But we’re searching those words to scan our inbox for experts and opportunities.

Speaker 1 (06:48): So then how should this the beginning. Start the email? How should we grab your attention right away?

Speaker 2 (06:52): I don’t mind a pleasantry, especially if we have, like, a personal relationship or if we’ve met, remind me of where we talked.

Speaker 1 (06:57): What if they never met you before?

Speaker 2 (06:59): But if they’ve never met me before, I still think it’s interesting or cool when people are like, oh, I know you’ve covered this type of content because you’ve read my stories and you’re not just like, emailing me to ask me to consider something that I typically wouldn’t write about just shows me, well, this person took the time out to, like, read my work. Sometimes it can feel like you’re screaming into the void when you’re writing these articles. Do a little bit of, like, research or stalking. Yeah, just giving me, like, the who, what, where, why and how I’m doing this. I’m working on this. I think it’s really cool I have this expert available, that expert available. Or you have this opportunity to test or I’m having this event and just give me the most important facts.

Speaker 1 (07:40): Do we like that? Do we like breaking up the text with bullet points and maybe one or two photos?

Speaker 2 (07:44): The more scannable the better. If someone was just like on the train and had two minutes to look at this, are they getting the message?

Speaker 1 (07:52): What is the message? What are the things that are going to make you go, okay, this, this pitch has everything it needs.

Speaker 2 (07:57): There’s like a unique founder story or origin story. Sure. Again, if there isn’t, I wouldn’t just like, force one. But if there is an ingredient story, there’s any research, anything in development that was unique, kind of like impacted the developmental process. That’s interesting to call out. If there are any studies or research done. That’s also something worth mentioning. Like, keep it to like, three to four. Like, need to knows. If there’s like, before and after. Like, an editor has been testing this for 10 weeks.

Speaker 1 (08:27): What are some other ways to make their product stand out? But what is actually really interesting to editors and writers right now internally, like,.

Speaker 2 (08:33): In house, like, you’re obviously paying attention to Google trends. In my personal life, I don’t pay attention to Google trends. I’m paying attention to what I’m seeing online on my phone. I’m looking at what my peers are posting, at what founders are sharing and brands. Seasonality plays a huge part in like what is grabbing the interests of people. The spring is coming and the weather is getting better, so I’m going to be spending more time outdoors. I’m going to be gravitating to body sunscreens or when people are traveling, I think like their interests kind of change. Phase of life. The things that I care about and the products that I’m gravitated to now a great deal from like before I became a mom.

Speaker 2 (09:09): So like seasonality, phase of life, culture, what’s going on in the world also plays a role.

Speaker 1 (09:15): Are there any don’ts kind of common throughout editors that just like delete, delete, delete the pitch.

Speaker 2 (09:21): Sometimes it’s easy to see like something trending and then trying to like make a cool pitch around something funny happening on social media. I think things that make me kind of go like ah, skip. Like this is kind of cringe are like those like pitches that are too forced, trying too hard to like peel to like this meme or this thing, like demure is like a really good example that comes to mind. Like it’s not even funny anymore. The joke is not funny. That’s where you kind of lose me. Like when it’s just being done excessively or like in a way that is not authentic. Jumping on bandwagon trends and jokes. It gets old fast.

Speaker 1 (09:57): Anything else that’s like a don’t, like, like I teach, like don’t have like an order form or a ton of attachments or don’t confuse you by having you go through like 60 different SKUs. Like pick one or three different standout items. Right.

Speaker 2 (10:08): What are the top three products that I need to know? Is there one product that I need to know from this thing? Definitely. No overloading with products or attachments. Attachments, I probably won’t open them. PDFs and things like that. Like I’m not necessarily going to like click through, like probably think there’s spammy and not want to click them anyway.

Speaker 1 (10:26): But what is the right way to follow up? Where like brings it to the top of your inbox without it irking you. And how do you feel about like Instagram reaching out?

Speaker 2 (10:32): I don’t mind email follow up at all. I appreciate the follow up because I forgot about something. Like I think like maybe like after two or three attempts, like if someone didn’t get back to you, like give it, give it some time. Like real life time, not like two seconds. Instagram the general consensus is do not pitch via Instagram because then I’m always going to ask that we even bring it back to email. Anyway, when in doubt, email.

Speaker 1 (10:59): So and then what’s the right cadence for us to follow up so that it’s frequent enough but not like too much?

Speaker 2 (11:04): After the first email, I give it a few days. I mean, if it’s timely, then a day or two. But if it’s not timely, I like the reminders. After two days you can follow up. But don’t send me like five emails in a week. Space them out.

Speaker 1 (11:18): What kind of stories do you like? What are some of the things your own taste?

Speaker 2 (11:21): I guess it depends. Like if this were for like my personal platform, like my substack there I’m more are open to all the things. So personal elements, personal stories, like who’s the person behind this story? I’m very passionate about moms, so I’m always just like, well, if you’re a mom and you got something cool going on, always email me. There has to be like a hook, strong angle, anything personal. If there is like a genuine, true emotional appeal, I want to know. Because I am an emotional person. I’m a product girl. I’m a product junkie. So if you think that something is cool about a product, like, I want to know and I want to try it. Can I send this to you?

Speaker 2 (12:04): And the answer will most likely be, yes, you can send it to me. Topics like inclusion sustainability are important to me, but I also feel like these topics have been just exhausted. So if there is not something that is truly specific or unique to like your experience, sometimes it can feel pandery. Is the product actually really good? Why would this person actually like take this out of a box and put it on their face or body?

Speaker 1 (12:29): Talk to me a little bit about subsect. How do you feel about sub stack? Why is subject important? How can people find you on substack?

Speaker 2 (12:34): I am new to sub sack so I started my substack. It’s called Fresh Set. The name and the concept is just that I feel like I’ve been given a fresh set of eyes on all the things that I love since becoming a mom. So that is where I hope to share some of the stories and the tips and the things that like, can’t make it into a website’s editorial calendar and everyone has a sub stack. At first I felt imposter syndrome related with that. I’m just like, oh my gosh, like you’re jumping on a bandwagon. Everything’s a bandwagon. Creators who have built successful audiences on TikTok or on Instagram had that mindset, they wouldn’t have built successful audiences. So I’m like, well, you got to start somewhere.

Speaker 2 (13:14): Substack is really cool because it currently hasn’t been taken over by the weird algorithm. It’s very intentional and I feel like the people who want to read someone’s content, you have to physically input that email to receive that content. It’s really interesting. Cool platform. Especially now, as editors and experts, how.

Speaker 1 (13:35): Can people find you and get into your world and kind of learn more about your story and your point of view?

Speaker 2 (13:40): Yeah. So I’m sorry, definitely still open. You can subscribe to my sub stack. Follow me on Instagram. There’s a story angle or a launch. Send me an email. My email is in my Instagram bios.

Speaker 1 (13:51): Yeah, we’re gonna have to get you back or maybe even coming in to coach our members of our community, our PR accelerator. Thank you so much, Amy. This was great. Thank you so much for being here and sharing with us your. Your wisdom and your perspective.

Speaker 2 (14:02): Thank you so much for having me. This was great.

Speaker 1 (14:04): And for all the people listening, if you know of a small business owners, make sure to send them this link. Till next time, thank you.