Episode 137: FAQs about getting into a product gift guide
From helping thousands of product businesses get featured in the hottest gift guides and magazines such as Oprah's favorite things, BuzzFeed, Elle and more, I am sharing ALL the most commonly asked questions around this topic and my answers. If you want to get featured in a BEST product list or gift guide to make more sales and position your brand as a buzzworthy household name, this episode is for you!
Here’s What We Cover and More:
Best times to pitch for digital and print gift guides to maximize chances of getting featured.
The nuances of sending samples to editors and when it’s necessary or not for securing media placements.
Adopting a broad perspective and confidently pitching products to elevate the brand's profile.
Strategies for forging strong connections with journalists leading to consistent media coverage.
Differentiating between paying for placements and earning editorial features.
How to pitch your product based on its unique aspects, story and trend relevance, not relying solely on customer testimonials.By focusing on crafting evergreen content, maximizing its repurposability and harnessing the power of media attention, entrepreneurs can build lasting relationships with their audience and convert content into sales on a budget,
In the competitive world of small business, mastering the art of PR and gift guide pitching can be a game-changer for boosting sales and brand credibility. Embracing persistence, strategic storytelling and understanding the media landscape can elevate your product from obscurity to editorial acclaim without relying on expensive ads or PR firms.
Product Businesses! Download my free HOW TO GET INTO A GIFT GUIDE/PRODUCT ROUND UP roadmap for free HERE to get more sales and traffic to your site this season.
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachoupr.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Additional Resources:
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts
Are you following my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today so you don’t miss any future episodes!
I would also appreciate it if you would leave me a review! Reviews help me make sure I am providing the content that you need! Plus, you will be entered to WIN a 1:1 pitch writing session with me where I will help you find your press-worthy angle! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”.
Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes? Welcome back to Small Business PR where we break down all of the accessible strategies for marketing and PR that you can't Google and that the industry agencies will not tell you. So, gift guides. Many of us are product makers in the audience and we're always figuring out, how can we get more sales and getting featured in a media, getting in a gift guide for free is the number one most powerful way to not only skyrocket your sales, but also your SEO, your credibility, and make yourself seen as a truly legitimate brand that people love, a noteworthy brand, a buzzworthy brand.
00:00:33 Gloria: So today we're going to talk about all of the FAQs around getting into gift guides. This is something that we cover in our PR program because we have a lot of product makers from all different niches and they all want to know, what are the etiquettes around follow-up, around pitching, around sending samples. So we're just going to go through it. Okay.
00:00:49 Gloria: So the first question I get asked all the time is Gloria, when is the best time to pitch for gift guides? And here's the thing, if you want to be in a digital publication, which most of us do, because it's searchable. So things like a Refinery29 or a Well and Good, or even a Forbes, that's a digital, they can write gift guide and product recommendations up until 24 hours before the holiday. So how many times have you seen last minute gift guides pop up online, right? Especially if you have, like a digital gift card or something that can be shipped immediately, you can even pitch one week before.
00:01:22 Gloria: Now you want to give yourself a little bit more room and not be so cramped and stressed out. So I always recommend starting to write your pitch two months before. And then one month before, after you have your pitch super nailed down, and by the way, this is something that you can learn by following my CPR pitching method. You can watch the masterclass, which is linked in the show notes. You'll learn how to write the structure of the pitch with the subject line, exactly how to start the sentences and how to conclude. That's covered.
00:01:46 Gloria: Let's say you have your pitch covered, right? You know what you're pitching. You want to start to send it out at least a month before that holiday. So it means that, you know, for the Q4 holiday rush, if it's Black Friday, you want to start pitching in late September to October. If it's Mother's Day, you want to start pitching in April, right? Or, beginning of March. If it's something around, you know, Valentine's Day, you can start pitching in the beginning of January. So you want to give yourself at least one to two months of runway. And don't feel like you're too late because we had so many people who pitched last minute and get featured.
00:02:16 Gloria: And here's the thing. I interviewed someone who does a shopping list and gift guides for New York Post shopping. And she says that they even write articles about how to spend your Christmas gift card. So there's even after Christmas gift guides on what you should get and what you should give. So there's always a blue ocean of opportunities. You just have to know that the opportunities are endless and be willing to go after those opportunities.
00:02:40 Gloria: Don't ever keep yourself small. Keep yourself stuck, convince yourself to not put your name in the hat because everything you want in your business is on the other side of pressing that send button. So it's my job as your PR coach and unofficial hype woman to tell you to keep pressing that send button because there are so many opportunities to get featured year round. You just have to believe it. So that's the thing.
00:03:00 Gloria: Now, if you don't want something that's digital, if you want to be in a print publication, we had someone get into Oprah's favorite things, for example, that's probably going to be a couple months before. So that's a longer runway time because they have to print it, they have to finalize it. So that's going to be a much longer timeframe. So you're going to want to pitch probably three months beforehand or four months beforehand. If you do that three to four months for a digital publication, it might be too long of a timeframe and they might say, why don't you circle back a little bit sooner? So, rule of thumb is one to two months for digital and for print three to four months, if not more.
00:03:33 Gloria: Okay. Another question I get asked all the time is, Gloria, do I have to send samples? Now here's the thing, actual editors, I'm not talking about the influencer of the week who's trying to get free merchandise, like credible journalists, credible writers who write for these magazines. A lot of times they won't even need samples because they have so many samples. They are filled with samples. They actually don't even have room for it. I interviewed the beauty editor at Allure and she's like, I don't even need samples. I want to know your mission. I want to know why you're different and I don't technically need it.
00:04:03 Gloria: Now for some people, they do want a sample. If it's, for example, like a home shopping network or a TV show or a Good Morning America, who's one of the TV presenters I had on the show, I asked her about this. If they are debuting, if they are showing that product live on TV, then yes, they will want samples. They will want to have the finished product there. But for a lot of times to get featured in, like, a gift guide or a product roundup, we had someone in our PR program who makes clean beauty and she got featured in Elle without knowing the journalist just using the steps in our program. She didn't have to send a sample for that. And she was actually featured in one of the top 10, you know, skincare oils of the year.
00:04:41 Gloria: So it's definitely not a requirement. And anyone that's asking you for too many samples, I would be weary. Then it gives me red flags, alarm bells, sound that I'm thinking, is this person really a legitimate writer or are they just trying to get free stuff? Here's another thing. If it is low cost for you to send a sample, then do it. But if you make something that's very expensive, then maybe just give them a taste of what it's like. Maybe give them a behind the scenes video, or if you make really expensive speakers, I'm not gonna have you ship a speaker, but maybe have them listen to an audio track or something.
00:05:13 Gloria: Or if you have an ingredient that's very expensive, give them a video, or give them a little taste of it. If you make very expensive sheets or silk kimonos, maybe it's just a little tile, a little four by four inch of material so they can feel it. So they can still get the idea of what you're doing without you having to go out of pocket and really, you know, wreck your budget to send a sample. But I always say you don't need to send samples as a prerequisite to get featured. And all of the people who have gotten featured in our PR program have not had to send lots of samples. And that's just the way it is.
00:05:49 Gloria: Another question I get asked all the time about gift guides is, Gloria, I make multiple products. Which one should I pitch? This is such a good question because I get it. We love our products. All of them are our babies. And you might be thinking, well, I can't pick a favorite child. Well, here's the thing. You need to because if you want to send a journalist a pitch they're going to love, you need to stay away from sending them the entire marketing brochure or order form. That is a quickest way to come off as salesy and to come off as someone who is just trying to get out of buying an ad and everything that I teach here is about turning your marketing and sales pitch into one that a journalist will like.
00:06:25 Gloria: So you want to steer away from anything that looks like an order form, a product brochure, a pitch deck with all the list of your products, it just means that you have not done the job to understand what is the best fit for their audience for that season. The best pitches that get featured have one or two maximum products. And so when you're deciding what products should pitch, that you should pitch, think about what is the season, what is the occasion. If you're in skincare, for example, if you're pitching something around the holidays, it might be winter, soothing, nourishing, luxurious, something that's moisturizing. If you're doing something that's summertime, if you want to pitch for summertime, it might be something that's TSA approved, that's travel friendly, minis, multipurpose, things like that.
00:07:06 Gloria: So always think about what is the relevance. If you are in food and wine, what are the seasonal ingredients? You're probably not going to do something that's hot chocolate in the summertime. You might do something that's more relatable to like something that's a little bit more refreshing. You know what I mean? So think about leading with the seasonal relevance and what product fits that. That is your job as a founder when doing pitches to figure out what is the best relevance and then what product fits that relevance. So this is something we talk about all the time in our PR program. And we're actually helping you brain, like brainstorm this and workshop. What is the best one to pitch?
00:07:38 Gloria: So, yes, to answer your question, do not pitch all of your entire product suite, pick one or two bestsellers. And here's another thing. If you have a limited time collab, we have someone who makes incense, who actually has a West Elm collab, pitch that, right. Because that is saying like, okay, we have, not only are you able to get this incense at my store, but you can also get it at West Elm. So if you have something that's limited time, like a promo or a bundle, or if you're doing a collab, definitely do pitch that because that is not going to be around forever. So that's also a great way to get in front of a journalist is by pitching a collab.
00:08:12 Gloria: So another thing is I get asked all the time, we do have people who make boxes. So they curate boxes for different occasions, but they don't actually make their own products. And actually some of the most successful people in our program don't make their own products. So a lot of times I get asked, well, I don't make any products of my own, do I still get PR? Here's the thing, Macy's, Nordstrom, they don't really make their own products. They're selling other people's products and you do not see them shying away from PR.
00:08:39 Gloria: So yes, absolutely, absolutely. If you just curate, you can definitely get featured. We've had someone get featured, like over and over and over again, who makes a, Read It And Eat. And this is a book and non-perishable food item and she combines them. So it's like a hot sauce and like a sizzling romance read. And the great thing about that is, she's able to curate four different seasons and she was able to get featured in now, I think 19 and counting, gift guides, podcasts, local TV by leading with the relevance. So she's curating different boxes for different audiences. Absolutely, she can pitch it as well.
00:09:15 Gloria: We also have someone who is a founder of My Trove Box, which is an interior design decor box. She does not make any products. She just curates and puts it in a box. And she has gotten so many press features. Her media page is like exploding with all these different features. She got on so many like Apartment Therapy, Forbes, Brit and Co. And she uses different angles to get featured all year round. So maybe for Valentine's Day, right? She's pitching a box around coziness and love. And then she can also pitch the same box for home decor for like, let's say, you know, thoughtful gifts for a new mom. And the same box can be repurposed for Valentine's Day gifts.
00:09:52 Gloria: And another angle that she got featured with the same box is 25 unique subscription boxes for moms. So just because you have one box or one thing that you're curating or even a product, it doesn't mean that you have to be pigeonholed into that one thing. Your product, your subscription box can work for so many different angles. Now, Karin, who's the founder of My Trove Box also got featured with the same box with an article titled, Best Boxes and Gifts to Give to your Newly Divorced Friend. So you see how that's interesting. It's like that Divorced Friend article is the same box that she repurposed for the Mother's Day angle, which is the same for Valentine's Day angle because there's something in the box for everybody.
00:10:31 Gloria: So boom, there you have it. If you are worried that you don't make products of your own, you absolutely can get featured. We had so many people have most amazing success stories. Okay, let's keep going. Another question I get asked all the time is, well, my website isn't great or my website's not optimized. And here's the thing, your website doesn't need to be perfect. Your website is always a work in progress. My website is pretty crappy, but you know what? I'm not making sales through my website per se, right? All they need is a way for them to share with their audience a link to purchase. So maybe it's just one page where they can purchase that one item. Your website doesn't need to be this crazy thing, but it does need to have a way for people to find out about you and make that order. So that's really the minimum.
00:11:15 Gloria: And no, you don't need to have, crazy amount of followers, you don't need to have a lot of customer testimonials. It's really about what makes your product unique and interesting and relevant to that season. Remember, journalists are always looking for fresh new perspectives. They're always looking to hunt for Indie brands and interesting makers. So it's your job to make yourself known to them.
00:11:35 Gloria: So another question I get asked all the time is, I am currently out of stock, so I don't know what to do. Well, guess what? You can also put a waitlist page on your website to take waitlist orders. And so that's a great problem to have that you are so popular that you are out of stock. And guess what? People who want to know about you, they can still go online and sign up for the next release. Definitely don't let this be a barrier for you to keep on pitching because you need to connect with a journalist as early as possible so that even if this time around is not a great fit, you know what they're covering, you've established that rapport, you've established that connection and you have that dialogue with them.
00:12:14 Gloria: So don't let these limiting beliefs stop you from connecting with the journalist because it takes time, right, to build that relationship like you would with somebody on Instagram, like a potential customer. You don't want to just hit them on the head with, boom, we're launched, feature us. You want to be able to have a little bit of a back and forth. So that's why I always say start early, start often, start reaching out to the contacts who are in the media, who are in the position to cover your story.
00:12:37 Gloria: Okay. Another question I get asked all the time is do I need to pay to get into a gift guide? And honestly, I don't blame you because there are so many times where I get, like spammed with all of these DMS, like, Oh, like pay for, you know, $5,000 to be featured in those random, you know, disruptive entrepreneur thing, that fake pay to play feature, right? We've all gotten it, raise your hand. And that is not what I'm talking about when I'm talking about organic earned PR. That is a sponsored post. That is an ad. So yes, you can pay for it, but just know that you're paying for an ad.
00:13:13 Gloria: So it's not going to have that credibility of, let's say, like, you know, maybe Elle saying that you are one of the top 10 skincare oils, right? So just know that there's a distinction. When you are paying, when you pay to play, it's ad. When you are getting featured, it's editorial. And editorial will always, always, always have more staying power, more credibility than any ad, because anyone can get an ad, let's be honest.
00:13:35 Gloria: Okay, another question I get asked is, can I get featured without tons of customer testimonials? And the answer is absolutely. The journalist is not a Yelp for you. The journalist doesn't necessarily care about your customer testimonials. They want to care about your formulation, what your story is, why did you put this together? They want to hear from fresh perspectives. They're not out there to do the, you know, auditing of what your customers are saying or how many testimonials.
00:14:03 Gloria: Now, obviously you should have a product that is making people happy, right? Because you're fulfilling a need in the marketplace, but having a lot of testimonials is not something that the journalist is going to ask as a prerequisite to get featured. That's never been a thing for anyone in our PR program, so don't worry about it.
00:14:19 Gloria: Now, if you have raving customer reviews, that's great, but that's not your pitch. Your pitch is why is this product perfect for this season? What is unique about it? Why is your take a little bit different? Why it's really effective? Now, one of the great ways to get featured that's not sharing testimonials is like, what are some of the main and trending ingredients? What's happening this year?
00:14:40 Gloria: There's a lot of seasonal trends. There's a lot of ingredient trends. There's a lot of celebrity trends. Piggyback on that as opposed to your testimonials because your testimonials is not your pitch and your journalists probably don't even care that you have great testimonials to be honest because testimonials can also be fake.
00:14:55 Gloria: Okay, I went through that really quickly. You're probably gonna have to go back and rewind and I'm probably gonna have to record part two, part three because I get so many questions about this all the time. But I'm just so proud of all of you for listening to this because I think being able to advocate for ourselves, being able to say, yes, I'm not going to just put all my eggs in the social media or ads basket and really get into a gift guide, get PR for my business. That is the most powerful mindset shift that you can make.
00:15:22 Gloria: So you are listening to this, you are on this journey. So I applaud you. If you wanna take the next step, join our PR program. It's the most inclusive, supportive program that we have on the planet, I think, for small businesses and product. And we are always trying to get you connected to journalists who write gift guides. We are giving you real-time one-on-one coaching on how you can find the best product, the best angle, and write that pitch.
00:15:44 Gloria: And then we give you media contacts, and it's really end-to-end full support so that your product doesn't just live in your circles, that it really gets buzzed from everywhere else and that it really gets more eyeballs, more traction, and seen as a brand that people love.
00:15:58 Gloria: If you have any questions, you can always DM me at Gloria Chou PR, and I cannot wait to see what angles and what are some of the stories that you will pitch your product to to get into a gift guide.
00:16:11 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:16:39 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at GloriaChouPR.com/Masterclass. That's Gloria Chou, C-H-O-U-P-R.com/Masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.