Episode 160: What a Shopping Editor Looks For in Products to Feature with Neha Tandon
Ever wondered what a shopping editor looks for in products to feature in a story? This episode is a must listen if you want to get featured in top tier media so you can get in front of more customers this holiday season and get more sales.
Here’s What We Cover and More:
Effective strategies for small businesses to pitch products to editors.
Role and responsibilities of a shopping editor in selecting products for features.
Significance of high-quality product presentation and website design.
Tips for crafting a compelling and unique pitch.
Timing considerations for pitching, especially for seasonal gift guides.
Follow-up etiquette and best practices after initial pitches.
The value of offering product samples to enhance coverage chances.
Building genuine relationships with editors and journalists for better outreach.
Remember, successful pitching is all about relevance, a unique angle, and a touch of that genuine connection. Whether you’re offering a thoughtfully crafted product or reaching out to editors who share your story, there are always ways to make an impact!
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
Visit Neha Tandon’s social media page: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohheyitsneh/
Additional Resources:
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Transcript
00:00:00 Gloria: Hey, Small Business Heroes. Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make marketing and PR super accessible for the everyday small business underdog. So today, I have Neha Tandon here. She is a shopping editor at People and InStyle and Travel and Leisure, all places you've heard of and many more. We're going to dive into the ins and outs of how a story gets made. So if you've ever thought about getting a feature or on a product guide or a shopping guide or a gift guide, this episode is a must listen. So welcome to the show, Neha.
00:00:29 Neha: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for the community you've built.
00:00:33 Gloria: Thank you so much. I feel like you have such a fun job because you get to oversee not only like interesting founders, but like the products that they make. So can you give us a little bit of an intro like PR 101? What does it mean to be a shopping editor?
00:00:47 Neha: Yeah. I mean, really... Also, thank you so much. It really is a total dream job. The really easy way of putting it is that I get to choose what products get featured in the magazine. So whether that's a gift guide on... I just wrote a gift guide on the best of holiday gifts or if that is every... Here are the cute shoes that Martha Stewart just stepped out in. Here are five similar options you can buy.
00:01:17 Gloria: Yeah, I love that. Okay. So you are basically... Is it mainly just like products that you can buy? So not services and like physical products we're talking about?
00:01:25 Neha: I am always doing physical products. I do think there's the rare service you can buy, but I don't think there's really much of that. I think even people writing about like hotel, like best hotels type roundups, that's kind of not so much a thing anymore or not as popular anymore.
00:01:46 Gloria: Yeah. So you've been, I mean, you have bylines and articles in Bridesglam or Cosmo, Forbes, you know, New York magazine. So can you break it down to us? Like, I know sometimes we see like Commerce Editor or Associate Shopping Editor, or let's say if I make a product, like a yoga mat, for example, right? There's the Wellness Editor. So can you break it down for us? Who is the right person to contact and what are the areas that they write about?
00:02:11 Neha: That is such a good question. If you are looking for a product placement and you want your product to be in one of those examples that I just listed before the Martha Stewart lookalike shoes or the Diwali gift guide. Or if you're seeking a full review on your yoga mat, like a standalone review on your yoga mat, you're gonna wanna go to a shopping center. Most magazines or commerce editor, it's the same thing. It's just, I don't know, somehow a different title, but it's the exact same thing.
00:02:49 Neha: You're gonna wanna go to them. If that magazine doesn't have that, you'll just go to the health and fitness editor. I also always recommend that people not ignore people at the writer stage. In fact, so often they're the ones that are pitching. While it might seem more glamorous or exciting to pitch to a director or even an editor in chief. And of course they have a lot of power and influence. The writers are the ones who are actually gonna be doing the product placements most of the time. They're the ones who are pitching what products need to be written about too.
00:03:22 Gloria: Okay, so instead of like something, something editor, it's like wellness writer versus wellness editor. Is that what you mean?
00:03:28 Neha: Yes, exactly.
00:03:30 Gloria: Awesome. So you write for Dotdash Meredith, which is a big publication house that has many, many different magazines like InStyle, for example, Marie Claire. So talk to me about the land of like, at the time of recording, there's a lot of kind of pay to play affiliates, it gets very murky and blurry. So can you break it down for us? Because I really just talk about the organic earned PR. But I understand that we want to create a win-win for the publication. So can you tell me where do we stand in terms of the land of like needing an affiliate link and having that?
00:04:01 Neha: Yeah. You know, when I first started doing this sort of thing, people were kind of like, it doesn't matter. There was a lot of, there's no way to have editorial integrity if we're only focusing on the brands that are working with affiliates because so few were working with affiliates. At that time it was so new, it was pretty much you had to work with Amazon or Target or nothing. Now, I think it's so easy to sign up to be on an affiliate platform. I say that very from a position of power because I've never done it myself. But I've heard that it is quite easy to sign up for most of them. So I think it's really pretty easy.
00:04:48 Neha: And I think it's actually, unfortunately, I hate to say it, it's very important. And I will say that if you are someone who is willing to give a 30% to of your sales to whoever buys items from the article that I write about in InStyle, for example, you're going to get a higher chance of us wanting to cover you. If it were all up to us writers and editors, we don't care. We don't see any of that. But it is all coming from marketing and sales at the top that's like, hey, you should prioritize these retailers.
00:05:27 Neha: At the end of the day, however, as writers and editors, editorial integrity is like number one. And I'll always feature a product that I've loved, tried and tested firsthand over a brand that's giving us like 60% of sales or whatever.
00:05:42 Gloria: Okay. So is it a Dotdash Meredith thing? Because I know it's different company to company, right?
00:05:46 Neha: Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. I've been only on the inside at Hearst, Dotdash Meredith and Forbes. The other magazines have free. I've just freelance for example, like Glamour. So I'm not so familiar with Condé Nast on the inside. But I know at Hearst and at Dotdash Meredith, it's pretty much like 99% of the time you have to be on affiliate. And I will say it seems even with small businesses, I have found that most people are pretty open to it.
00:06:19 Gloria: Okay. So let's talk about affiliate. Obviously, affiliate at its core is just, you know, you have a link where you get a commission. Is there a specific one that you've seen that works particularly well or it doesn't really matter?
00:06:30 Neha: I've heard that... This is just from my friends who are small business owners. I've heard that skim links is a lot easier to set up. And I think those links are more easy to generate on the backend for production people. I think that how and impact of herder a lot more difficult and just requires a couple more steps. So yeah, I think I recommend skim links the most.
00:06:53 Gloria: Okay. So I mean, obviously Amazon has that as well. So let's also talk about affiliates and also sending samples. Do you prefer to have both in a pitch? For example, I'm pitching you, happy to send you a sample and here's my affiliate link. Would that make it more complete?
00:07:13 Neha: You know, at least at Hearst and at Dotdash Meredith and even all the other magazines I've freelance for, I've never been the one who has to generate the affiliate link. So I don't actually know how helpful that is. Maybe there are magazines that I haven't been at that are doing that, but I'm pretty sure that that actually isn't like super, super helpful. I do think it might be helpful to have in your pitch anyway, just because you might be reaching out to affiliate partnerships managers, in addition to editors on your press lists.
00:07:42 Neha: But definitely the offer of samples is really helpful, especially when we're talking to a small business that maybe we haven't heard of and we want to actually get to have that first hand interaction with, especially again, because most small businesses are rooted and they have a lot more of a rich story. There's more of a narrative there and getting that first hand interaction with the product is really helpful.
00:08:04 Gloria: Okay. So let's talk about the actual product. How much does the product photo or website or how many followers they have on Instagram matter when it comes to persuading you to feature them?
00:08:15 Neha: I love that question because I didn't know it consciously, but that is huge. Internet followers, I don't think anybody really cares about, unless it would only matter if you happen to have millions of followers or a significant amount of followers and your product has gone viral a bunch of times. Because that could be a really great angle for us to center a review on or center a product description on.
00:08:42 Neha: But it does not matter. You don't even have to have an Instagram. So at least for us to want to cover it. I think that really good photography and a well-designed website is so important. That has to be one of the biggest deterrents for me because for me, when it comes to small businesses actually is people kind of think like anyone can just design a website. And I've seen some people design their own websites, it's beautiful.
00:09:14 Neha: But then we have to be able to vouch for... It's not me, Neha Tanden, vouching for a product. It's InStyle, vouching for the product. So I might like a product. And I love... We're going to go with the yoga mat example. I love the yoga mat myself. And I think it's a high quality product. But if the user experience of shopping for this product is going to seem a little unelevated or not very seamless and it's going to seem like not as professional looking as any other retailer. It's going to reflect poorly upon the brand that I'm writing for.
00:09:56 Gloria: Okay. So Instagram followers, you don't care. And you're like the fourth or fifth journalist who I've asked this question to and they all say that it's not a popularity contest. I don't care. But I do agree, especially with products especially in wellness and beauty, like packaging really matters. And same thing with the website. You don't need a crazy website full of animation and video, but it has to look clean and chic and nice. So that's definitely what I've been getting from other journalists too. So thank you for validating that.
00:10:20 Gloria: Now in terms of the actual stories, you have your gift guides or product guides where you have multiple, multiple in one list. And then you have your features. So what's the best way to position? Let's say if I make a candle and I have a very unique story. So how do I know what's the right way to pitch so that I maximize my chances of getting onto to either of them or both of them?
00:10:43 Neha: When you say a feature, are you talking about like one standalone feature?
00:10:47 Gloria: Yeah, like the founders feature, like that goes into more of my story.
00:10:51 Neha: Yeah, I think the two pitches are totally different actually. So I think for a gift guide, the pitch would be, I think, figure out what makes the candle unique. Is it the scent? Is it the name of the fragrance? Sometimes like, Campbell's have some really funky names. So I think figure out what your angle is. Look at what is actually being written about. And I always say write samples available in the subject line too. Sometimes that just, it's a little bit like, hey, we're going to offer you something. And we're going to offer you the first-hand experience with this candle, you'll probably get a lot of people who will interact with that and love it.
00:11:38 Neha: So I think it's as simple as that. Figure out what the peg is. I wouldn't try to... I think a lot of times founders are so... Especially small business founders are so, so, so passionate. And they feel like every single little detail is really important. But I invite them to ask someone who's a little bit more distant from the product or the brand or the business. What do you think is the coolest part of this candle and use that as the angle?
00:12:06 Gloria: Yeah, for sure. And obviously in my program, we help them figure out their angle. It's all about the angle. It's not about the sexiness of their product because every product can get featured. It's really about pitching the right one for that angle. So obviously...
00:12:19 Neha: I'm so lucky to have you.
00:12:21 Gloria: Yeah. I love doing this work. And I think it's so cool because I don't make a physical product. But just from helping them tease out their story, I'm learning so much about physical product makers. So let's say I want to get into a gift guide. I have samples, I have an affiliate link through skim links. Let's get into the actual pitching etiquette. So what's the right way to pitch and when is it too late to pitch? I always think there's opportunity year-round to get featured.
00:12:49 Gloria: And since I don't have a psychic ball of knowing exactly what you're gonna feature, I always tell my founders, pitch early and pitch often. But what is the right way to maximize our chances? For all the stories that you're writing, you know, for us to get featured in a holiday gift guide or even a Mother's Day or a Valentine's Day, what's the right timeline for that?
00:13:07 Neha: I think I always say to start right after Labor Day. Wait, Labor Day is the one that's end of--
00:13:14 Gloria: September, right?
00:13:14 Neha: Yeah, right.
00:13:16 Gloria: It's the end of September, yeah.
00:13:17 Neha: I say start right around then because that's pretty much right when we start planning for gift guides. And I think that's been across the board everywhere, ever worked, whether it was freelancing or I was there full time. Yeah, that's pretty much across the board. So I would say that's the best time to pitch and I think send a pitch with a totally different angle every three weeks.
00:13:41 Gloria: Oh, every three weeks. So instead of following up with just, you know, refreshing... Well, I mean, you can refresh the angle but do you prefer for it to be a new email or in the same thread?
00:13:51 Neha: Okay. So it's funny because I can say what I prefer, but I've also, it breaks my heart sometimes when I see other editors say, like, stop doing this or stop pitching me this way on their stories. And I'm like, I don't mind that personally. So I just want to add that little disclaimer here that I do not mind a follow-up because I'm like, you're doing your job. I think one follow-up is enough. And I always say to do a follow-up one week later, maybe five days later. After that, I think just try a totally different angle.
00:14:23 Gloria: Okay, awesome. What about following up with you in the DMs and so just making that top of mind?
00:14:32 Neha: Oh my gosh, I really, I don't like a DM. That's just me. And I do think a lot of other editors feel that way. The thing is, when I'm on Instagram, I'm typically not at work. I'm like out with my friends or with my family or something like that's when I get a DM. I'm kind of like, I'm not gonna remember this when I'm back at my laptop and when I'm writing the story. I think it's okay for initial outreach to just say, the times I haven't minded it have been, hey, I'd love to send you a sample of my product, what's your email address? You know, I think something quick like that. And so you're forming that initial connection, maybe it's a more personal connection.
00:15:15 Neha: I think Instagram is great for, like everybody's post, like follow all the editors, like their posts, comment on them, give them some love, give them an ego boost. And then I think after that, follow up with them on email and you can make the subject line that can be follow up from Instagram.
00:15:36 Gloria: Okay, great. You know, you can establish you have that connection. What about photos? Obviously, for what you write is very visual medium, right? So it's like skincare, beauty. They have a lot of photos. So what is the right etiquette to put just enough but not have such a high megapixel, megabyte that is going to go to spam.
00:15:53 Neha: Oh yeah. I think one picture is fine. One to two, just enough. But only if they're really good pictures. If you don't have really good pictures, just don't use them.
00:16:05 Gloria: What if it's been featured before? Should they put that in the subject line or the beginning paragraph?
00:16:11 Neha: Featured before in the magazine that they're pitching to or just featured?
00:16:15 Gloria: Featured in general.
00:16:16 Neha: Oh, I think that's a great idea. I feel like it establishes a sense of, oh, okay, this is legit. So I totally think that's something to be mentioned.
00:16:26 Gloria: Okay, great. Yeah. As long as they're not like pay to play features. I mean, I always get this other question, speaking of samples is there's a lot of fake journalists who are like influencers who want a lot of free samples, but then they don't actually... They get ghosted. So how can we make sure as small business owners with not a lot of margin that we're only sending samples to legit writers like yourself and not someone who's parading as a writer that's really not.
00:16:50 Neha: Yeah. Oh gosh, there's so many fake contributors out there. I mean, I think the easiest way is to look them up. It's a simple Google and see if they've written anything recently. I actually had somebody do this with me inadvertently once. I think they got confused or something. They said like, oh, I noticed you haven't written anything in the past year. And I was like, here's my violin actually. So but I appreciate that. I admire it and I respect it.
00:17:20 Neha: So yeah, I think a simple search, because I do think that I have so much admiration for freelancers. I think that some people can some freelancers get that kind of bad rep of just looking for free stuff, which when you're a small business, I know that can be painful.
00:17:39 Gloria: Yeah. So in my program, I teach a CPR pitching method, credibility, point of view, and relevance. And we always start the pitch with relevance. But starting with relevance, like what season, what's the topic. But another great way to pitch, which is... I've heard from other journalists is like a compliment saying, Hey, I loved your roundup of the best fitness products last year. Are you doing it again this year? Would that be a great way to start an email pitch?
00:18:02 Neha: Oh my gosh. I have actually given that tip before. So your people are very lucky to have you, like I said, because that is such a great piece of advice. I think we all have egos that we want to be stroked. I'm not above saying that. I love a compliment. So yeah, I mean, the other day someone emailed me and was like, oh my gosh, I know this was years ago, but I read your review on the Honey Pot, which I'm sure you're familiar with that brand. And she was like, and I bought those products immediately.
00:18:33 Neha: Like I can't wait to see how they turn out. And then she pitched me her brand afterwards. I was like, that's great. Thank you. Thank you for making like also I respect the time that you took into making this a personal email. Not everyone has the luxury of that time. I totally get it. So I really appreciate that. And of course I responded.
00:18:54 Gloria: Yeah, but for someone that's, you know, like for yourself who is at these huge magazines, I think it would be worth it, you know, cause it's a simple search, looking at your byline. Now, Muck Rack, for example, and seeing that you wrote top 10 whatever and just saying that. So because you write such a large variety of things, how do we know if our product or our brand is something we should pitch you when you don't necessarily fall into a fitness or a food and wine or a beauty category?
00:19:23 Neha: Yeah, I think simply just going back and looking at honestly, most of the author bios will say that. I'm pretty sure my author bio says that I cover like beauty, fashion, health, wellness, travel. But if not, you can just kind of scroll below my bio and see all the articles I've written before. And you could even say that like in a pitch maybe, you know, I saw that you wrote this article, are you going to continue writing content like that?
00:19:50 Gloria: Okay, good. Any other technicalities when it comes to, you know, gift guides? I always say put in like where it's found. Is it in Marshalls? Is it on Amazon? Is it on your website? Put the pricing and then put where it's available to ship. Is there anything else other than, you know, one good photo that kind of makes the pitch really complete and looking good for you to respond?
00:20:10 Neha: No, I think I'm so glad you mentioned, make sure you have that. I think sometimes a lot, a lot of times I'll miss the basics where I don't even have a link to the homepage or links to each item at each of the respective retailers that's available. And keep it short.
00:20:31 Gloria: Yeah. So how short is short? Because here's the thing, right? This act of putting everything in one pitch can be very daunting. And that's what I teach them, obviously. I have a program. But when they first start pitching, they wanna put a lot about themselves. And of course you do care about their founder story. So how do they know what's the right one or two sentences to put out of their whole unpublished autobiography that they wanna put?
00:20:53 Neha: I would, I know this sounds so bad. Oh, this is gonna sound mean, but like we most of the time, unless you have some really groundbreaking story, we don't care about who you are. And that's only because, okay, I care about you on a human level, but the readers don't care. You know, when you're at Marshall's and you're shopping in real life, you're not, I'm assuming, really going to care much about who the founder like there's a reason that you don't see that on labels and stuff like that. People don't really care. They just want a product that's good and that's going to make their life better, easier in some way. So I would, if you're going to include anything about yourself, keep it to like a sentence maybe.
00:21:47 Gloria: Okay. What about in terms of timeline? I know you said that around Labor Day, but there's a lot of last minute gift guides, right? For digital. So what is a cutoff date? I mean, even I talked to someone who was shopping editor a New York Post and she says there's even like how to spend your gift card after Christmas. So is it true that it's like never technically too late to pitch for a gift guide?
00:22:04 Neha: It is never too late. I remember working on gift guides when I was at Women's Health. I think I remember working on them on like December 23rd. Like it really is never too late. So I fully co-signed that.
00:22:18 Gloria: Well, that's amazing. Okay. So you've given us so much to think about here. Is there anything else that you're seeing like that is a great way to get on your radar? Is it using a contrarian angle? Is it, you know, riding on the coattails of a TikTok trend? Is it using pop culture? Like all of these things I do teach in my program is like, we have to be relevant, but are there any other interesting ways to kind of make that pitch really stand out?
00:22:42 Neha: You know, there was one pitch I got, I feel it was like a year or maybe even more than that ago, and I have never forgotten it. I think it was, people were doing it a lot maybe during the pandemic, where they were like, can I send you and your mom a gift? Or can I send your mom a gift on your behalf? Or can I send your best friend a gift on your behalf? And they were like, let me know what you want the note to say, give me their address, and the gift will come from you. And I loved that. I will never forget those brands.
00:23:17 Neha: There was, I'll truly never forget, there was this skincare brand that was small at the time, but they're pretty big now. They're like at Sephora and everything. But they asked if they could send a gift to my older sister because they were following me on Instagram. They saw she just had a baby. And I was like, that is so sweet and thoughtful. That was more curated specific to me.
00:23:38 Neha: But I've had those pitches that definitely went out. It was like a mass email. But they sent something to my mom or my best friend. It's just I love we feel so spoiled by our jobs. It's really fun when we get to share that with our loved ones.
00:23:54 Gloria: Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, I love that. Is there another fun or interesting way that people can find and connect with journalists other than just social media and email? Is there any way that they can, for example, find them? Obviously, you can do a search on Google, but I'm wondering if there's a better way for them to just get to know more journalists.
00:24:13 Neha: Oh, gosh. I wish... I wish I had a more fun or clever way. If you're in New York City, of course, if you can find a way to come to certain events and stuff, that's always great. But I feel like it's kind of Instagram. I think what I will say about the use of Instagram is to... The best interactions I have had with founders there, and the brands that I love the most now are the ones in which I've formed a relationship with the founders.
00:24:43 Neha: They actually never really formally pitched me to be honest. It was just, hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm a huge fan of your work. Especially I'm Indian, so I get a lot of South Asian founders reaching out to me. And so they'll kind of say, I really admire you as a South Asian journalist. And I'd love to send you some of my products. And it's actually a very friendly equation. And I just because they've become a friend, I naturally incorporate that into a lot of gift guides and I love their products of course too, but yeah, I think not always thinking about it as business and like actually just wanting to form a genuine connection with the journalist can be helpful.
00:25:22 Gloria: I love it. We have many API and Indian founders making beauty and hair care in our program. So I'll definitely connect you with them.
00:25:29 Neha: Please.
00:25:30 Gloria: Yeah, they're doing like really, really interesting stuff for like, you know, inclusive beauty and stuff. So I'm really proud of them. Yeah. Another question I have is like a lot of people when they're like, hey, well, what do I pitch? How much does, like if they do like a SEO, like Google trends, right? Is that a great way for them to know what's on your radar by just figuring out what people are searching for?
00:25:53 Neha: Oh yeah. I think that's a great idea. What I will say with gift guides though, honestly, we are typically taking the same URLs as in like the same article that has existed since 2014 and we're just updating it every year. So a lot of times you can just go to whoever the commerce that or I guess in this case, because people are always changing jobs, I would kind of just go to, let's say it's travel and leisure. I would go to travel and leisure. They have a shopping section. I think they might have a specific gift guide section on the site.
00:26:35 Neha: Most websites do. You probably just search also, gift guide at the search bar. Look at the different gift guides, see the kind of ones that you would want to be in, and then email the commerce editor and be like, I love these gift guides. I feel like our product's perfect for it. Are you planning on updating it this year? If so, I would love to be included. I've gotten those kinds of pitches and I think it's really smart, actually.
00:26:57 Gloria: How do you, as a journalist, look for small businesses? It's mainly through them pitching you. Or do you just have a roster of brands that you feature?
00:27:07 Neha: Oh, I love that question. I am usually not seeking them out. They're usually pitching me and they're usually brands have kind of just fallen in love with myself. I think actually one really big way that I end up finding out about these small businesses is when I'm in the office and someone gets a package from a small business and sometimes they will send a package of stuff that they want you to share with the whole office.
00:27:36 Neha: There was... Oh my gosh, I feel so bad. I can't remember the name of this coffee brand. It was a Vietnamese coffee brand. Anyway, they sent this massive package and they were like, we'd love for you to share it with the whole office. And so I did and everyone got to know it. And there were like three of the editors on staff who totally fell in love with it. And now they are always featuring it. So that's actually one random little way that I ended up finding out about products.
00:28:00 Gloria: But how do we know your mailing address? Because a lot of people are working remotely, no?
00:28:05 Neha: That's true. I think most people, at least at the three big publishing houses, Condé Nast, Hearst and Dotdash Meredith, you're required to be in the office three days a week. Okay. So I think for the most part, people are in the office. I know Forbes is like, they don't even have an office. Obviously, Freelancers is different, but even like Bustle Digital Group, they're in the office eventually. And you can usually just kind of simple Google search those addresses, I think. But I would always ask before sending anything.
00:28:39 Gloria: Love it. You've given us so much to think about from the really tactical and I love on this show, we don't just show, we actually tell so much about affiliates and samples. Is there anything that you want to impart with for our small business owners who are pitching a physical product?
00:28:56 Neha: Oh, who aren't pitching--
00:28:58 Gloria: Who are pitching a physical product.
00:29:02 Neha: Oh, I'm trying to think if there's anything else I haven't mentioned yet. You know, I think that taking somebody out for if you're able to virtually take them out for a coffee and you know, just I always tell people just put something in the subject line of your email. $5 Starbucks gift card or whatever, send them a $5 or $10 Starbucks gift card, UberEats gift card or whatever and do a 15 minute virtual coffee. I always say to offer that up, even if you have a physical product, I think that just forming that human connection kind of like a friendship with somebody goes such a long way.
00:29:45 Gloria: Is that all it takes? That's all it takes? I feel like there would be more involved.
00:29:49 Neha: Yeah, we're pretty cheap. $10 gift card. I think even putting that in the subject line, 15-minute virtual coffee, I'll send you a gift card. Something that simple because we want to get to know the small businesses too.
00:30:07 Gloria: Yeah. I love that so much. Okay. I love that you both, you and I are both in New York and I can hear the sirens. It's very Brooklyn. Fun fact, Neha actually lives like 10 minutes away from me. So we're going to meet in real life. We're going to have to have you come into our PR program and actually coach our founders and meet them. That's one of the things that I offer is like, how do we make it accessible and actually bring members of the media into our group? So I would love to have you.
00:30:30 Gloria: Thank you so much for all that you've shared with us. Is there anything specific you're looking to cover like this season or any kind of trends that are new and interesting that maybe, someone listening could be like, oh, that's a great idea.
00:30:42 Neha: Ooh, I love that. So the mag is, it's interesting because the magazines that I work at now, people in style, travel and leisure, a little bit of real simple and food and wine as well. They are actually not very into the trends. The most trend stuff we'll do will be like a burgundy shoe, right? Like burgundy accessories are very in right now. Like that will kind of be something, but our audience is very middle America, just the average person. So they're not really into the trends. I always think of what my mom would like whenever I'm writing for those audiences. So as far as trends go, there's not so much much to say there. But I think honestly, and maybe this is kind of a trend, people are so into investing in timeless classics right now.
00:31:40 Neha: You know, I think everybody wants, well, I think so many people are like, I would rather pay for the $120 cashmere sweater that's going to last me forever and is going to look really chic and put together than like the really trendy sweater that might have like a bunch of loud prints on it and stuff like that. But I'm going to wear it for one season and then throw it away. I feel like people are, it's kind of a trend, but not really, if that makes sense, like the anti-trend.
00:32:07 Gloria: Yeah, I really see there's a big nostalgia trend right now, like back to the basics. I really do agree that there's not really a middle ground. It's either budget-budget or something a little bit more high-end. And so I think fast fashion and just wearing something once is out, especially as we get more sustainable. You've given us so much to think about. Whoever's listening, come back to this episode. There's so much gold in here that you can't Google. And that's why I loved having you on. Thank you so much for supporting our small business members.
00:32:35 Gloria: Thank you for being a journalist of color elevating other brands. Is there any way that we can connect with you or engage with your content? How can people find you?
00:32:43 Neha: Yeah. I mean, you can always email me neha.tandon@.-mdp.com. You can DM me, but just ask for my email address. I'm not very good at responding to DMs. I'm trying to think that's about it. Yeah. I try to respond to emails. Not the best at it all the time, but I will do my best.
00:33:05 Gloria: Thank you so much.
00:33:07 Neha: If you mention Gloria, I'll really do my best.
00:33:09 Gloria: Yay. Thank you so much, Neha. I appreciate you.
00:33:11 Neha: Thank you. We'll get together soon.