If yours is a product business, you know that bound times of the year are completely crucial to your sales.
For many product companies, sales opportunities increase during the Christmas holiday season, furthermore alternative gift-giving times -- Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduation, Back to Faculty, Halloween, Thanksgiving and others, relying on your product.
That's why many businesses rely on a strategic Public Relations effort to boost sales during these peak seasons. And one of the most effective ways to kick up your sales is to urge your product listed in a very magazine, newspaper, or TV Holiday Gift Guide. Why is this so important? Because these holidays are when readers or viewers are READY TO BUY and eager to work out what a media outlet recommends.
Another sensible reason to get your product featured in Holiday Gift Guides is as a result of media retailers virtually ALWAYS list the ways that for readers to order the merchandise (sometimes a Net site, telephone number and/or retail store location), whereas in several normal publicity articles, contact data is not included.
As you might imagine, obtaining into a Holiday Gift Guide is not all that easy. There is lots of competition from lots, typically thousands, of different companies that are pitching their products. Here are a dozen tips to help you get your merchandise lined in Holiday Gift Guides:
1. Send your pitches at the correct time. Timing is critical. Apprehend the deadline for each Vacation Gift Guide. Magazines, for instance, have long lead times, and newspaper and TV have shorter lead times (additional specific data concerning deadlines is covered later during this Special Report). And remember, whereas sending product samples out too late is clearly a wasted effort, sending them out too early is also not a sensible idea, as a result of the merchandise will get misplaced.
2. Determine the category of gifts that every media outlet covers. For example, Southwest Airlines' in-flight magazine covered solely technology gifts in their Christmas Vacation Gift Guide this year, whereas Alaska Airlines' in-flight magazine covered upscale items.
3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I've been told several times by media folks that merchandise often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media folks often will not even take into account those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have got those products. Most business magazines, men's magazines, and in-flight publications cowl gadgets (technology) in their Vacation Gift Guides, as do many client magazines. Family Circle, as an example, lined Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Vacation Gift Guide. Family Circle can conjointly cowl tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication trying for tech gifts for Mother's Day and Father's Day.
5. Provide inexpensive products. Several media outlets cowl gifts under $50, $twenty five or maybe lower cost stocking stuffers. Smart Housekeeping's 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for instance, was titled "Nice buys below $50." Redbook's 2005 Christmas Vacation Gift Guide was titled "40 gifts under $40."
6. Send in your most colourful products. Most media retailers are visual, and color appearance better within the pages of a magazine or on TV than drab colors do. If you flip through magazines with Vacation Gift Guides, you may notice that the majority of the items are bright colors. So, make sure that either your product or your packaging has eye-catching color to capture their attention.
7. Donate a little of your product's sales or profits to charity. Some media shops ONLY cover product that donate to charity. Not only is it the correct thing to try and do, however it also will increase your probabilities of getting publicity. Be positive to mention this in all of your pitches.
8. Supply something that's whole new to the marketplace. Remember, Gift Guide Editors are just like alternative media individuals -- they need something new. If you produce a new product, you'll get the media's attention.
9. Do not forget product for pets. While Prevention Magazine's December, 2005 issue did not have a Gift Guide for folks -- it did have a "Pet Gift Guide". Many different Gift Guides, especially in girls's magazines, include gifts for pets. Remember, there are voluminous pet lovers out there who take into account pets their "family" and wish to shop for holiday presents for them. If you have a unique gift for a pet, you will terribly well get coverage.
10. Mention any celebrity tie-ins. Some entertainment media shops will solely cover your products if celebrities use them. Alternative media retailers like to grasp that celebrities use the merchandise, as a result of readers and viewers are fascinated with celebrities, and want to use the same products. So, if your brother-in-law's cousin is aware of somebody famous who's willing to tout your product, choose it.
11. Manufacture the merchandise yourself. It's much easier to get coverage if you make the product (unless, in fact, you're an exclusive seller of a product). For instance, Real Easy Magazine's Beauty and Grooming Department will do a three-page Gift Guide for Dads in June. They are looking for men's beauty and grooming products. If you make something in this class (shaving creams, hair and skin care merchandise, etc.), this could be a nice chance for you (Real Straightforward Vacation Gift Guide product usually get hundreds, even thousands of sales).
12. If you'll get a significant retailer to sell your products, embody that information in your pitch. Gift Guide Editors feel more comfortable recommending merchandise sold by major retailers.
Remember . . . throughout the year the media is working on Gift Guides. Use these tips to assist acquire nice public relations coverage resulting in sales for your product.
Author Resource:-
Adam has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in twelve Tips to Get Your Product Included in Gift Guides All Year Long
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