Episode 158: How to Get Into Holiday Gift Guides and Product Roundups with Shopping Expert Trae Bodge

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Want to know how gift guide and product round ups are made? Today I'm speaking with shopping expert and budget gift guide writer Trae Bodge who shares ALL the details, ins and outs of gift guide and product round ups and the who, what, when, where, of getting featured!

Here’s What We Cover and More:

  • Trae Bodge’s background and expertise 

  • How to create effective gift guides 

  • Tips for pitching products to writers 

  • Importance of product samples and packaging 

  • Affiliate links and discount strategies  

  • Building relationships with lifestyle writers

  • Optimizing PR efforts for holiday seasons

Getting into holiday gift guides isn’t about shouting louder; it’s about standing out smarter. Nail your pitch with concise, to-the-point emails that highlight what makes your product irresistible. Show up with eye-catching packaging and a story that wows, not overwhelms. Remember, it’s not about  selling to everyone, it’s about being unforgettable to the right people.


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.

 

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Transcript

00:00:00 Gloria: Hello, Small Business PR listeners. Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make PR and marketing super accessible. Now, at the time of recording, we all know what time it is. It's the busy Q4 holiday season. So a lot of us are thinking about gift guides and how do you get into those product roundups that's so coveted and could be absolutely life changing for a product owner. 

00:00:19 Gloria: So today I have Trae Bodge who is an on-air personality. She also is a smart shopping expert at truetrae.com. She also writes plenty of gift guides, so we are in for a treat. Welcome to the show.

00:00:31 Trae: Thanks so much for having me. 

00:00:32 Gloria: So I know you have such deep expertise in media. We were talking, you've done so many things. Can you just give us a little bit brief bio about all the places that you've written for, the TV shows that you've been on? 

00:00:43 Trae: Sure. So I've been doing this for a long time. I started out actually as a brand owner myself. I had my own beauty brand that I had with two partners that I ran for about 15 years. And then I started writing budget-friendly content for a number of websites, which led to a spokesperson position at RetailMeNot around 2012. I worked with them for a few years until they had a pretty significant layoff. My position was eliminated, and I thought I can do this myself. 

00:01:10 Trae: So I started TrueTrae.com. And so I write for TrueTrae.com. I also syndicate to MSN.com. I have my own feed there and I've written for lots of different publications, including Newsweek, GOBankingRates, CNN Underscored, Millie magazine, so lots of different places, Women's Day as well. So I, I've made the rounds and now I keep my writing pretty tight, just on TrueTrae.com syndicating to MSN.com. And then I've done TV as well, as you said. 

00:01:43 Gloria: Yeah, I was taking a look and the volume of what you're writing at this point is pretty incredible. Can you tell us how many gift guides you're writing? I mean, this is just like, incredible to me. 

00:01:55 Trae: Right now I'm writing a lot of gift guides. The syndication to MSN is fairly new. I've had my own feed there since July and they would like me to post once a day. And so what I’ve been doing is, you know, sort of retrofitting a lot of older content that I've written about, especially about saving money at various stores, how to get free shipping, how to get free samples, all sorts of things like that. But then when it comes to gift guides, I'm probably publishing, you know, five or six a month and I'm going to ramp way up in holiday. 

00:02:30 Trae: And so I'll probably be publishing a gift guide every other day at minimum and they'll be sort of smaller tight gift guides around one very small topic. But the general kind of through line is that I'm always looking for the best products that are affordable. My price max is definitely around 150 or under and my lane is fairly narrow as well. I don't cover gifts for kids or pets generally. I'm mostly just gifts for grownups.

00:03:00 Gloria: Oh, I love that. That's me right there. I'm going to be following that feed when it comes to shopping. Let's talk about the types of gift guides, because I know that there's, you know, the budget friendly ones, which you write about. And there's also premium gifts, gifts for her. Like, can you tell us all the categories so that we can just get familiar with like, what's being written about? 

00:03:19 Trae: For, from myself and other writers all wrapped into one or just what I'm covering? 

00:03:25 Gloria: Yeah, the whole landscape of gift guides.

00:03:27 Trae: Oh, sure. I mean, so those topics can range very, very widely. I mean, obviously, the safe ones, you're going to find gifts for her, gifts for him, gifts for grandparents, gifts for kids. And then those sort of overarching topics will break down into smaller sub topics. And I basically break up my gift guides based on the interesting things that I'm seeing out there in the landscape. You know, I have my own Substack, which is, I have… I think, two thousand publicists and brands who follow my Substack.

00:03:59 Trae: I generally blast out to everybody once a month-ish to let them know what I'm writing about. And so what I'm doing is kind of gathering gifts under 150 and then I'm breaking those gift suggestions that are really standing out to me into little buckets of different categories. So, couple of things I'm kind of interested in right now. I just finished a couple of roundups around personalized gifts, which I think is really important to talk about on the early side of the holiday shopping season so people have time to order those personalized gifts and get them arriving on time to their recipients. 

00:04:32 Trae: But, so starting in the next couple of weeks, I'll start publishing maybe just skincare, just gender neutral gifts, gifts for the outdoors, gifts for travel. And then there are lots of other topics as well. I'm just kind of breaking everything up right now. Accessories like jewelry, home decor, gifts for chefs, but that really all comes from one general pitch that I put out there to my Substack list about I'm looking for gifts under 150 for grownups. And then I'm seeing what jumps out to me and like making these smaller gift guides based on what's exciting for me right now. 

00:05:10 Gloria: I love that so much. There's like so many categories that overlap, right? So let's say if I make something that could be a gift for her, but also skincare and also mom-friendly, like how do I know what is the right way to pitch that if it falls into four categories, for example? 

00:05:25 Trae: So that's a great question. I can only speak for myself as the writer. So I'm just looking for things that are really intriguing. So what I would say if you are a follower of my Substack, and I would read my Substack inquiry very carefully, that is, so important. And basically what I'm looking for is say, a gift under 150 that really stands out, that's really different. And when you send me that product, because I do like to see samples of everything. 

00:05:56 Trae: So that's for brands and brand owners out there, that's really, really important for me. Some writers don't need samples and they're just going on based on website description and photo, but I need to see that product. And so what I'm looking for is something that has beautiful ingredients in it that maybe it's sustainable. What does the packaging look like? You know, is it, does it arrive to me in a way that I would love to receive that gift? Is it a beautiful box and how is everything laid out inside and what are, what does the packaging look like? 

00:06:30 Trae: For example, if it's a skincare brand, you know, are the bottles really lovely and something that I'd like to receive as a recipient? What's the pricing like? Is it fair? Are you offering a value for that packaged item? If your products are on the pricier side, but then you're offering a great value for this gift item, that's intriguing to me. And then I wanna try those products. I'm gonna put them on my skin. How do they smell? How do they feel? What those ingredients are? Are they effective for pro-aging or skin concerns for women of color, for example? 

00:07:04 Trae: Those things are the things that I'm looking for because to be frank, I'm getting hundreds and hundreds of pitches. And so I'm really looking for those things. Like if I were wandering around a beautiful store, that thing that's gonna get really intrigued me and I'm gonna stop and look at that and say, my gosh, like those, that packaging is so amazing. And look at those ingredients that are being used. And I love the sustainability efforts. And for the recipient, is this really something that they're gonna wanna weave into their product regimen, if that makes sense. So I kind of look for things like that, that would jump out at me if I were wandering through a beautiful boutique, for example. 

00:07:45 Gloria: Yeah. I love what you said about, you know, melanin-rich skin or is it for dry skin? Like I think those are all really good. So let's say, you know, someone's listening to this episode, they said, yes, it checks the boxes. What is the best way to reach out to you in a way that doesn't turn you off? And that email is like, perfectly structured.

00:08:02 Trae: Yeah, so first of all, I would say follow my Substack and the Substacks of other lifestyle writers out there. Thankfully, Substack makes it really easy to find people through other people, right? So if you follow me, you're gonna see who else I recommend and follow. Substack has made it really, really easy. Before Substack was even a thing for writers, I had my own list that I built of brands and publicists. And so I used to blast out from a different, an email platform that was completely separate. And so whenever I would meet a new publicist or someone would pitch me blind on my email, I would add them to my list as well. 

00:08:39 Trae: So I would follow my Substack one, but then if you were to email me directly, I often look for a very well-crafted email. And what I mean by that is something that, first of all, shows me that you know who I am, that you know what I write about. And I know as a former business owner that it's hard to write individual emails to all the people that you're writing to. And we talked about this a little bit before, Gloria, is that sometimes you want to automate your pitches, right? 

00:09:12 Trae: If you're going to automate a pitch and you're building a media list and you're just going to send a general sort of, hello, I hope you're having a great day. Wanted to share with you some of my holiday gift offerings from my brand X and here's why they're special. So what I'm looking for in a blind pitch like that is something that is, it gets to the point and yet it sounds trite. Is it the who, what, when, where, why? That's what I wanna know. 

00:09:38 Trae: I wanna see it kind of on one page on my email. I want you to get to the point. I want you to describe what the product is, what's in it, ingredients, pricing, maybe a very low resolution photo so I can see what it looks like and a URL, so then I can quickly, if I want to discover more click right to that item and get a sense of of what that item is. So if you're pitching me blind, that's the kind of email that's going to intrigue me.

00:10:04 Trae: I don't want to read a very long drawn-out description about, everything about you and your history and like, yes, I want to know like if you are a female founder and you're woman of color and how you started your business, that should be like two sentences. So I'm like, Oh yeah, I want to know, learn more about her. I'm going to go to her website. And then another two to three sentences of that product and description URL price.

00:10:26 Trae; And then you've given me the whole story in one bite because I'm getting hundreds of emails a week. And do I have time to read every single word and every single one of those emails? No. So if you're really quick and to the point and concise and give me the information that I need, then I'm not much more likely to click through to that product and learn more and learn more about you as a founder as well. 

00:10:47 Gloria: I love it. Easy peasy. I always say it's better to be concise. And that's why I teach a kind of a bullet point thing where it's like open with the relevance, put three bullet points and then conclude. So how much does it matter if they have, you know, let's say a fancy website or a big following on Instagram. Do you care about that? 

00:11:04 Trae: So a big following on Instagram? No, I don't care at all because I think I have a soft spot for entrepreneurs. I was one myself. And so I don't think like, it's not to me a popularity contest. What I want to see is that you've given a great deal of thought to your product and how it's presented. And I also want, you know, that language to be really clear. I don't want typos. I don't want anything that looks messy or feels hectic or kind of rushed. I don't wanna see anything like that. 

00:11:39 Trae: As someone who's being pitched constantly, I wanna see that you're buttoned up on your end. And if you're not ready to put something out that's really put together, then you need to take more time and maybe you need to sit this holiday season out, for example, and work on that piece of things. Like you said, how you're coaching your clients or your small brands, like you're teaching them how to do this properly, and that takes time. So don't go out before you're ready just to hit, and timing. And did you ask about affiliate as well? Refresh me. 

00:12:16 Gloria: Yeah, I know that it's getting more and more towards that model, but it depends on the outlets. Can you tell me about the landscape of affiliate marketing and the do's and don'ts around that? 

00:12:24 Trae: Yeah, so it is becoming almost ubiquitous, the need for affiliate. I still don't really care. However, if your products are sold on Amazon, that is better for me. I am an Amazon affiliate person. So that's helpful for me because I can maybe earn a little money on the side with my Amazon affiliate link. But I write so many gift guides that I literally don't have time to join your, you know, whatever it is, affiliate network. Like I'm just not going to do that. That's not my priority. So if you don't have, affiliate for me, it's okay. But I would say that most writers do care. 

00:13:04 Trae: However, there are a couple of, sort of easier workarounds. You know, Etsy has its own affiliate network. So if you could sell on Etsy, then you're kind of ticking off that box for a lot of writers. Same goes for Amazon. And of course, I cannot speak from a brand founder what the sort of entry point of Amazon is and how easy or hard it is to get on Amazon. However, if you are selling on Amazon, that ticks the box for a commerce writer who needs that affiliate. So that kind of checks that off for a lot of people. You don't have to, as your small brand, belong to skim links or what have you. So that's kind of a way to work around that affiliate piece. But for me, the affiliate piece is not a huge priority. 

00:13:49 Gloria: Okay. I love what you said about not needing big Instagram followers, that it's not a popularity contest. You said you don't necessarily need affiliates, although it's going there. What are some of the things, I think there's so many mindset blocks for small businesses who are just not taught this, right? They're not taught that they can advocate for themselves. So they just never pitch because they're like, well, I don't have a famous influencer. I don't have tons of reviews or I'm not making seven figures. So what do you have to say about, kind of the need, right, for you to discover diverse voices and feature people who are even at the earlier stages of their business?

00:14:20 Trae: Yeah, and of course I can only speak for myself. However, I'm really interested in discovering small brands. Again, I have a sweet spot for small brands. And so what I want to see is that you've thought your pitch through. And so if I receive an email and I get a sense right out of the gate that you're a woman of color, that you've started this business with your own two hands, and you're really passionate about X, Y, and Z ingredients or you know, specific 

skin needs or a space in decor that's not being touched yet or you make your own chocolates or anything like that. I want to hear all about that. 

00:14:58 Trae: And so I love that. And I think that really is the same for other lifestyle or commerce writers. They want to discover something new. And so again, it doesn't matter how established you are. But what I don't want, and this is something that I do encounter sometimes with small brands and I'm, sometimes I can't help myself and I have to say something. I don't want to know that you're struggling. So I don't want to feel badly that you're having a tough time and you're making products in your garage. I want to hear that you're making products in your garage, but I don't want to feel like you're having a hard time.

00:15:39 Trae: And the reason why is because I may not want to write about your product, because it doesn't fit for me and what I'm writing for, but I don't want to feel badly about that. And so what, the face that you want to present to a lifestyle writer is that you are ready to go. Your business is happening. Like we don't need to know that you haven't had a sale in a month. Like if your product looks amazing and it's really high quality and it's thoughtful and beautiful, like I don't need to know that.

00:16:11 Trae: And so I think, like I would take that emotion out of it. And that's again, I'm just speaking for myself, but I don't wanna feel bad. Like if I can't cover your brand. And so I will kindly say like, this isn't a fit for me. And sometimes a small brand owner has responded to me and said, oh, but this would mean so much and I'm struggling with this. Like literally I can't with that. Like I'm getting hundreds of emails a week, like I can't feel badly about saying no to you. And a lot of writers won't say no at all. They'll just ignore your email.

00:16:47 Trae: So if I'm taking the time or another writer takes the time to say, I'm so sorry, this isn't a fit for me. The appropriate response is either no response or thanks so much for letting me know, period. Like that's it. The emotion needs to stay at home. Does that make sense? 

00:17:05 Gloria: Yeah. And I think it's important to know that like, you want to cover things because you're generally interested based on your level of curation and your expertise, not because it's a charity, right? And you're feeling bad for businesses because that's, and me as a reader, I was–

00:17:18 Trae: I feel like, I just don't want that to sound unfeeling. It's just that, like we are all running a thousand miles an hour. And so, like I can't be feeling bad along the way. Like I want to be really excited about your product and I'm so excited to write about it. And sometimes when I write about something like, a couple days ago, I had the opportunity to interview with ABC News, one, which is a syndicator. So it airs on local stations around the country hundreds of times. And I had the opportunity to share some of my favorite personalized gifts that I had researched for a blog post that I had written for my site and for MSN. 

00:17:57 Trae: So what I was able to do actually is pick a few of my favorite products and some of them were from very small brands and I was able to give them national attention on TV. And so I drive, great joy from doing that. I know how valuable that is from being a small business owner myself, but I don't wanna think in the back of my mind, like, ooh, I should write about that one because she's really going through a hard time. Like I just want to write about it because it's an amazing product. And if I can talk about it on TV, even better. 

00:18:27 Gloria: Yeah, that's so amazing. Yeah. I think that's something that we don't touch upon. And I always say like, the energy of that pitch should not be one of desperation. It should just be simply that you are solving a problem in a valuable way for an audience. 

00:18:39 Trae: I agree with that 100%. Like your products need to back up your pitch. They are the strength that your pitch stands on, not anything else. 

00:18:49 Gloria: Yeah. And so that's why it's so important to pitch and to do this well. Are there any other things? Because, you know, a lot of times a lot of founders say, well, my product is special or it's clean beauty. I feel like that gets thrown around and it's like, everyone has a sustainability angle. So in that, you know, when it's not even unique anymore, how do you still cut through the noise when everyone's sustainable and everyone's, you know, donating to charity and everyone's, you know, doing all the things? 

00:19:12 Trae: I love that question. So I think that, you know, obviously you want to go that route if it's something that you're passionate about. And it's something that we should all be passionate about when it comes to our environment. So I look for that. And I love writing about products that are sustainable. So yeah, to cut through that clutter, it's like, what does the packaging look like? And again, coming from a former brand founder, I know how expensive packaging is. I know how hard it is to make the decision between something that's pre-made or custom-made just for your brand. 

00:19:44 Trae: And so I would say to brand founders out there when you're making those decisions about which packaging to choose, if you are going for packaging that is pre-made and it's stock packaging, find a way to make that packaging look unique. Maybe it's the printing on the compact, for example. Or if it looks like other brands, maybe it's the box that you put it in. Find those ways to really stand out because if your packaging looks exactly like everybody else's packaging and you're taking a sustainability angle and it looks the same as everybody else, and then you're up against bigger brands that have lots of money to throw at this picture, you're kind of lost. 

00:20:27 Trae: And so find those crafty ways to make your product look different in whatever way you can. And then, you know, find that brand story and what makes it unique. And maybe there's this, this new oil that you're using from pumpkins that no one else is using. It's like, what is unique about your product? Because frankly, if you're coming out of the gate with a brand new line, and you can't find what that unique piece is, why are you creating a product anyway? Like, that's really my question. So I'm going to be hardcore about this.

00:21:01 Trae: Like if you don't have an interesting brand story and something that really stands out, maybe you don't need to be making a product at all because this is a very crowded space. So that motivation, that story should really be special and you need to find a way to communicate what's special about that in your pitch and how your products look. And you asked, also about fancy websites. Like I don't need a website to be fancy. I just need it to look clean and simple. And the photos should be high quality and we can do this on our phones right now. 

00:21:33 Trae: Like there are lots of inexpensive ways and there's Squarespace and there's Wix. Like you can create a beautiful clean website. I don't need to know that you built it yourself, you know, but it shouldn't look like you built it yourself. And thankfully, thanks for technology, there's so many ways that you can create your own website that looks really clean and special. And even if it's simple, that's okay. So that's for me how you stand out from the crowd without having a ton of money to throw at advertising, for example. 

00:22:06 Gloria: Yeah, what about discount codes or bundles? So people always ask me, let's say I have 60 products in my skincare line, right? I always say, pick the one that's best for the season. But what if they have four that are perfect for winter? How do you then narrow it down? Because I know you don't want an order form. I know you don't want a ton of products on the pitch. So how do we go about that? 

00:22:25 Trae: So you know, I think you could send, if it's a seasonal pitch that you're sending out, I think it's okay to include four products in that seasonal pitch. But as we're approaching the holidays, like think gifts, right? Like would you give a single cream as a gift? Probably not. But would you give a, you know, an eye cream and a face cream bundled in a beautiful gift box? Sure. And like I, as a gift writer, like, I'm looking for that. 

00:22:54 Trae: And if you're gonna bundle those two things together and each one is say $35 each, like there should be a value price to that. Like if it's, so $70 retail, can you come down to say 60 or 65, to motivate the shopper too and the writer that there's a great discount story there. Like if you're bundling, you should absolutely be discounting a little bit. 

00:23:18 Trae: And, you know, but it doesn't have to be 50% off. It just needs to be something. And then of course, thinking about commerce writers in particular who are looking for Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals, for example, and this is very important. If you wanna be included in sort of discount roundups, which I thankfully don't write anymore because they are, big hassle, and I'd rather just write about the products from a gifting perspective, but, there are lots of writers out there that are offering opportunities to be included in a Black Friday, Cyber Monday gift deal roundup.

00:23:50 Trae: For example, a 5% discount is not going to cut it. A 10% discount probably won't cut it either. And so if you don't have the wiggle room in your margins to give like a 30% discount, so that's like a wow kind of discount or 40% discount. And again, because I'm a former entrepreneur, like I know what those margins look like. And I know sometimes it's really hard to compete in that space. 

00:24:15 Trae: So if you don't have the wiggle room in your margin to give a discount like that, maybe you don't spend your efforts trying to get into Black Friday, Cyber Monday deal roundups, but you focus more on gift guides instead. Does that make sense? Cause I just think you don't want to waste your time with a 5% discount. And I've received many, many pitches with a 5% or 7% discount. I'm like, I literally can't include that in a roundup that's most of the discounts are in the 30 or 40% range. 

00:24:45 Gloria: So there's so many different types of roundups, you know, so do we put in the subject line what we think it would be or do we have you decide like what is a perfect gift, what is the perfect subject line if it's a gift for her, if it's under 50, if it's a stocking stuffer, if it's also travel? 

00:25:00 Trae: So first of all, I think in a lot of ways, you can let the writer decide because they're working on their own gift guides. They have their whole stable of guides that they're looking to fill. So we don't necessarily need you to tell us what to write about, right? So what you're gonna do is you're gonna look at your product mix. You're gonna decide what you think would be maybe a couple of great gifts for holiday. And I emphasize a couple because you don't wanna go, come out of the gate with your pitch with just one gift, because maybe I'm already covering something that's kind of similar. 

00:25:39 Trae: So if you give me some choice, like I'll say, well, I don't have space for this body care. I know we're talking a lot about skincare and I just, hopefully your listeners will understand like this pertains to everything, right? Or maybe it's like, you know, beautiful baskets that plants go in, right? So maybe you make beautiful baskets, but you also make beautiful coasters. Maybe you're going to tell me about both of those things. And because that way, if I don't have room for the baskets, I may have room for the coasters. And so you're giving me a little bit of choice. So I would say that. 

00:26:13 Trae: And then maybe as part of your pitch, you also include, you know, by the way, I'm also going to have a Black Friday Cyber Monday deal of 35% off if that's of interest to you, something like that. So you make it like, really quick at the bottom. Or if your priority is really to get into these Black Friday Cyber Monday deal roundups, like that's your focus. You're like, Hey, this is a little bit about me. These are a little bit about my products and I'm going to have these deals for Black Friday Cyber Monday. And like, that's your pitch. That's your focus. 

00:26:41 Trae: But you don't need to tell writers what to write about because I already know what I'm writing about. Right. So you're, what you're trying to do is like, open my eyes to your story and your product and what you're offering for holiday. And then I'll decide where to put it.

00:26:57 Gloria: I love what you said that four is not too many because I thought that that's quite a bit because then how do you have enough space in a one page email to go into, like why each one is perfect? 

00:27:06 Trae: Well, so if you're pitching me four different products because they're great for winter skincare, if I'm going to go back to skincare again, one sentence per product. And if there's an overarching ingredient story, for example, tell me about the ingredient, not special pumpkin oil and that you have this face cream, this toner, this serum and this mask and one sentence for each. And then you also are offering that as a gift all bundled together and here's a little picture of it and why it looks so awesome. 

00:27:35 Trae: And then I'm like, I have so many options. If I'm a beauty writer and I'm writing a serum roundup, you've given me something to choose from. But if I'm a gift guide writer, wow, I love that gift and that looks amazing. If I'm working for Black Friday, Cyber Monday deals, you also threw that in as well. Like, and that can all fit on one page. It's really just a matter of, like being really concise with your language. And to be honest, like you can use AI for that to guide you, not to give the finished product, but you can search like, you know, I have five beauty products and I'm sending a pitch out. Can you write that for me?

00:28:11 Trae: AI will write it for you. And then you personalize it and customize it for your brand. But AI can help you structure that. If you say like in a hundred words or less, I'm going to pitch these five products, like AI could probably write that pitch for you. And then you just customize it for yourself. AI will help you think more strategically and in a little bit of a very clean approach and help you get under that word count too. So that writer who's buried in a million pitches will be like, oh yeah, like they're telling me everything I need to know right here. That's amazing. 

00:28:42 Gloria: Yeah. Okay, great. So I love how you said that. So now I'm visually seeing it as well. You know, you've covered so much. We talked about affiliates. We talked about samples. We talked about websites. I mean, really the ins and outs of everything. What about a subject line? Like you said, what if I have four products? What should I put in the subject line if it fits for multiple things? 

00:29:03 Trae: Yeah, so I would say, you know, going back to the skincare example again, forgive me. You know, maybe it's like, you know, winter skin woes, you know, unique ingredient tackles or something like that or like unique ingredient tackles your winter skin woes. You know, and then maybe it's like something adding on like the fact that there's a gift in there too, you know, like, beautiful option for a gift guide or something like that. Like that's the subject line that for me, I'm like, oh yeah, this, this is going to give me a lot to work with. I want to do that. 

00:29:39 Trae: But you know, so this is for the blind pitch that you're just sending to this person that you've discovered on Instagram and whatever. You know, but if you're responding to my Substack, you'll, the subject line should be specific to what I've asked for because I'm basically telling you what I'm looking for. So if you're writing in a response to a Substack, you want to respond specifically to that Substack and kind of along those lines, if you are pitching again, like I'm not such a fan of like the blind pitch to everyone. And I know that that's efficient.

00:30:13 Trae: But if you looked at your, if you measured your success rate for placement between sending out blind pitches to 200 writers to sending curated pitches to 50 writers, my guess is that the curated pitches are much more successful than the blind pitches because I love it. And I know other writers. I've sat on plenty of panels and talked to lots of writers. We love it when you write to us. Hey, Trae, I loved your gift guide that you wrote on MSN about personalized gifts and it got me thinking. I have this great, I assume you're writing about holiday gift guides, like I've got this great gift for you. 

00:30:53 Trae: You know, that kind of thing or like, hey, Trae, I saw on your Instagram that you're, you know, that you love beauty products. You know, I thought that my gift set would be perfect for you or I know you like to write about sustainability and here's a great gift of these beautiful, sustainable home decor items that I've bundled together and a great gift because I know you're tackling gift guides right now. The more you know me, the better. 

00:31:17 Trae: And again, I know that it's time consuming, but my guess is the success rate is a thousand times more if you're writing to each person and you should be following every lifestyle writer you can find on social and you should be engaging with those people. I cannot tell you how much that helps when I see you popping up in my comments here and there, not obsessively, but periodically, oh, I love that TV segment you did, or I just read your gift guide and that was so awesome, or I love this product that you're sharing with us right now. 

00:31:52 Trae: And then I receive your pitch. I remember your name or your brand name, and I see it in the pitch and I open that pitch. And maybe I don't have time to open all my emails every day. I mean, sometimes I try to, but like, if I see your name and it seems familiar, I'm going to open your pitch, even if I'm like, running to a meeting. Right. So like the more familiarity you can create with a writer, you're just giving yourself a bigger chance for a slam dunk, for the attention that you deserve, that your pitch deserves. 

00:32:26 Gloria: It's so good. It's really about making a relationship and also the beauty of it is that let's say someone creates a relationship with you, you can feature them more than once, right? It's not like one and done. And so I think there's so much upside to seeing that as a relationship and not just hitting everyone with that. One last question is about follow-ups. 

00:32:44 Trae: Can I interrupt you for one second? Because I want to tackle that just for one second about the… being covered more than once. So I don't, I can't speak for any other writers, but because I receive so many pitches, I don't often cover the same brand twice, like within a number of months, especially if you're coming out of the gate with one collection of beautiful handmade plates, for example, and I cover your plates, and you don't have a new collection of anything different than plates, I probably won't be able to cover you again for at least a year, or maybe ever.

00:33:23 Trae: Like if you're only making plates and they have beautiful drawings on them, and you do a new collection every season, for example, I may not be able to cover those plates again. But if you then launch a new collection of cups and saucers and they're beautiful and they look different than the plates in six months or a year, I can probably cover you again. Again, I can't speak for other writers, but for me, I've received so many pitches that it's just like, I never wanna favor a brand. And I also want to give other people a shot. 

00:33:57 Trae: And so that's, I wanted to address this because it's often a common misconception when someone has done all the work and created a relationship with me and I've covered it. They now think that we're besties. And I would love that. And, but I can't cover you again, quickly. And I know you've done all the work. So it's like you should be doing the work with lots of different writers all at the same time and like, you know, grooming those relationships. So when you do have a new collection, you can come back to that person who remembers you and who covered you before and can now cover you again. So sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I thought that was really important to point out. 




00:34:35 Gloria: Yeah. No, thank you. I mean, this is insight directly from someone who writes gift guides. So yeah, not right away, but at least once you make a relationship, once your brand evolves, then you would be more than happy to feature them because you're a part of their success now, their journey. 

00:34:49 Trae: Yeah. 

00:34:49 Gloria: Awesome. Well, you've given us so much to think about. For anyone that's listening, gift guide season is all year round. It's not just Q4. There are so many opportunities for you to get featured. And hopefully today we have given you some actionable tools and the confidence to really just get out there. You don't need a big following. You don't need a fancy website. So there you have it. How can we find out more about you, your reading, your writing, your Substack, all of it?

00:35:14 Trae: Sure, so you can, my website's at truetrae.com or you can search True Trae on MSN. I would love it if you would give me a follow on MSN because I'm just building my following there. And the more followers I have, the more MSN will feature my pieces. And then the more your brands will get seen on MSN. So highly, highly recommend that. True Trae on Instagram. Instagram is my favorite social channel. So that's where I would say find me there. I'm also on TikTok. I'm also on Facebook, my Facebook's been hacked right now. So don't bother with that because I can't regain my administrative power on Facebook right now. But I'm also on YouTube. 

00:35:53 Trae: And so those platforms are preferable. I'm also on Threads, Pinterest, you know, so wherever. But Instagram is the one that I'm updating the most. And then I would follow my Substack and I would, if you're not following Substack, you should use Substack because so many lifestyle writers are posting exactly what they need on their Substack. And then the last thing that I would say is if you're looking for opportunities for your brand to be featured, another place to look is Quoted, which is Q-U-O-T-E-D. 

00:36:25 Trae: I don't know if you've talked about this in the past, but Quoted is a free platform. There are paid options as well. But as a brand, you could follow Quoted and you get an email digest, you know, up to you how many times a day, I get mine every day. So I'm a subject matter expert as well. I talk about shopping. So I look at Quoted every day and I see what reporters are looking for shopping advice or gift guides. So I also share some of the gifts that I have written about on articles that have come through Quoted. 

00:36:59 Trae: So I just had a GOBankingRates piece come out which syndicates to Yahoo, MSN and AOL. And I listed several gifts that I have personally tried and love to the reporter at GOBankingRates. And so these products ended up on GOBankingRates and they syndicated all over the place. And so there are writers who are looking for amazing products and gifts. And so use those platforms to your advantage to look for opportunities to get your brand featured. 

00:37:32 Gloria: So good. So many tips. So please spell for us your name so we can follow you on all the things. 

00:37:37 Trae: Sure. It's Trae Bodge. It's T-R-A-E-B-O-D-G-E and True Trae is T-R-U-E-T-R-A-E. 

00:37:45 Gloria: Thank you so much. I love your energy and we'll be following your stories as the season, and I'm looking forward to, you know, selecting some gifts for my family from your recommendations. So thank you for writing those stories. 

00:37:56 Trae: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

gloria chou