The holiday season presents an invaluable opportunity for brands, especially those in the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle markets, to gain significant exposure through earned media coverage in holiday gift guides. These guides, curated by top publishers and influencers, can dramatically boost your brand’s visibility and drive sales. However, securing a spot in these coveted stories requires meticulous planning and timing. But working with an agency like Push the Envelope PR, ensures your brand will stand out.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to preparing your brand for holiday gift guide coverage this season.
1. Understanding Holiday Timing
For long lead publications like print magazines, the editorial calendar works months in advance. Most of these outlets begin planning their holiday gift guides as early as June and July. It’s crucial to work with an agency that will start pitching your brand to editors during this time. By doing so, you ensure that your brand is top of mind when they start finalizing their selections.
Digital outlets, including online magazines, operate on a shorter timeline compared to print. The pitching window for these publications generally opens in October. This is when editors and freelancers start curating and publishing their holiday gift stories, often continuing until mid-December. Having your agency prepare your pitches and media materials well in advance ensures you can hit the ground running as soon as the window opens.
2. Preparing Your Brand for Gift Guide Coverage
To enable your PR agency to effectively pitch your brand and priority holiday SKUs, you will need to provide them with a high-resolution images of your products, detailed descriptions, pricing information, and sales/promotions you are running during the holidays. This information will help them develop unique selling points and compelling pitches.
Ensure your PR agency has enough product samples to send to journalists. Beautifully packaged samples accompanied by a personalized notes can leave a lasting impression. Your agency will prioritize contacts based on their industry relationships and insights into current trends.
Work with your PR agency to align your pitches with the latest industry trends. Agencies like Push the Envelope PR, have their finger on the pulse of what’s trending and can tailor pitches to resonate with current market demands, increasing the chances of your product being featured.
Your PR agency’s established relationships with media contacts are invaluable. Agencies can leverage these connections to secure coverage for your brand. Their insights into the preferences and needs of editors and freelancers ensure that your product pitches are well-targeted and engaging.
3. The Results and Impact on Your Brand
Being featured in holiday gift guides can drastically increase your brand’s visibility. These stories are highly trusted by consumers, leading to greater awareness and credibility for your brand. Media coverage in top tier publications also adds an extra layer of trust, as third-party validation can be more persuasive than traditional advertising.
Holiday gift guides can significantly boost sales. Consumers rely on these guides for gift ideas, and being included can drive both direct sales and increased traffic to your website and social media channels.
The long-term benefits extend beyond the holiday season. The enhanced visibility and credibility can have a lasting impact, helping to build brand loyalty and attract new customers well into the future. These earned media placements also positively affect search engine rankings making it easier for customers to find and trust your brand.
In conclusion, preparing your brand for media coverage during the holiday season is essential for success in the competitive fashion, beauty and lifestyle markets. By understanding the right timing for long lead and digital outlets, brands can collaborate with their agencies to boost brand awareness, credibility and authority, ultimately improving search engine rankings and driving sales. To discover how Push the Envelope PR can help you plan a successful holiday gift guide campaign, click here to schedule a discovery call.