Episode 57: How to Pitch Your Product for Shopping Guides with Emily Cieslak

 

What's the best way to make your target customers finally purchase your product?

Do you publish it on your website? Post on your social media accounts? Perhaps, you might have already considered going into retail.

Finally, how can you really be of service to people through your products?

As business founders of products, these are the questions you try to answer daily. 

But let's face it: your small business cannot compete yet with other industry leaders if, in the first place, you and your product are not heard, seen, or valued. 

That is why you need to leverage the power of the journalists!

They have a broader and more intimate reach to your market than you could have really imagined at first.

Now, that doesn't mean you'll be begging journalists to write about your story or your products in their publications. 

In some cases, you may have already turned to other people for help.

Despite the many resources that tell you how to pitch your products before journalists, you still wonder why many founders receive more rejections and no responses than a journalist's 'yes.'

So, what does it take for journalists to recognize you finally?

The truth is—it all boils down to how you can creatively and uniquely pitch before journalists.

Your pitch before a journalist shouldn't even be about your story or your product alone; rather, it must concentrate on how your product can be relevant and how it can be valuable to the journalist's audience.

This makes the business founders' pitches have their products featured in shopping guides. Their winning pitches are credible, relevant, and unique.

Before you craft that winning pitch, you should consider other important pitching elements irresistible to journalists.

It is no coincidence that, in this episode, we are bringing Emily Cieslak, a commerce editor. This way, you can hear it straight from a journalist who'll share some of the most critical insights and tips to get your products featured in shopping guides.

"That's the biggest mistake. It's trying to just email the same pitch to as many people as possible and not really understanding. Every magazine is slightly different, has a different voice, a different tone, and covers different products. Just know who you're pitching."
-Emily Cieslak

Emily Cieslak has worked on many sides of the fashion industry, empowering her to tackle fashion topics from an insider's angle. Now, as a commerce editor at Dotdash Meredith, Emily combines her knowledge of retail and styling expertise when covering new trends and offering readers advice on how to shop for and style themselves.

If you're thinking of pitching for a product guide or something that's seasonal, this episode is for you. Access the journalist's mind on what comprises the winning pitches that help business founders get their products featured on shopping guides.

 

Topics We Cover in This Episode: 

  • Practical steps to prepare for pitching your product

  • Understanding what shopping guides are really for

  • What makes a great pitch according to a journalist

  • The biggest pitching mistakes of most business founders

  • How you should connect to a journalist before and after your pitch

 

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.gloriachou.com/masterclass.

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn: Gloria Chou

Join Gloria Chou's PR Community: Small Biz Pros: By Gloria Chou

Follow Emily Cieslack on Instagram: @emilycieslack

Connect with Emily Cieslack: emilycieslak.webstarts.com


Additional Resources:

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Here’s a glance at this episode…

[6:57] I think the biggest mistake is not knowing the publication they write for and what they write about. It just makes you feel you obviously did not research me.

[7:56] Just because you pitched me doesn't mean I will write about it. You have to or give me an opportunity to test it out or something like that.

[9:12] I think as consumers, we're overwhelmed. I think consumers are just more picky about what they buy now.

[13:21] People have different values, and again, it was the same as beauty is. Some people value cruelty-free over vegan. Those are actually two different things. It's thinking about what I guess, 'Who are you targeting with your product? What type of consumer?'

[15:02] I feel having a very long subject that's not very direct can be misleading and I might not open that page. So, I think it's better to be more simple and direct in your subject. What are you writing about specifically?

Guest User