How to get your products featured in the Christmas gift guides
How do you get featured in the Christmas gift guides? Christmas press is crucial for eCommerce businesses and in this blog post, we’ll run you through the steps to pitching your products to the Christmas gift guides and gaining coverage.
The UK press produces some of the most comprehensive gift guides in the world and each year millions of people turn to the Christmas gift guides to look for present inspiration. Having your product featured in the gift guides in the lead up to Christmas means that you’ll be able to capture customers at a key time of the year
When do journalists compile the Christmas gift guides?
Knowing which publications compile their Christmas gift guides at which time will ensure that you don’t miss out on any great opportunities for your brand.
Generally speaking, long-lead publications (think print publications such as ELLE Decoration, Red, and Ideal Home) compile their gift guides from July until September. Short-lead publications (think weekly print publications such as The Guardian and Sunday Times Style) start working on theirs from September and online and daily newspapers compile and publish theirs from October until December.
This means that you’ve got hundreds of amazing opportunities, however, if you don’t hit the deadline you’ll miss the boat. That’s why you want to start your Christmas PR preparations as early as possible so that you can put your best foot forward and maximise your chances of gaining Christmas gift guide coverage.
What are the different type of Christmas gift guides?
Flicking through previous gift guides will give you a good idea of the type of gift guides the different publications tend to feature, but also the volume of gift guides. Most print gift guides are published online as well so there are a high number of gift guides available to browse digitally and refer back to.
When doing your research, look at the following: What price point do they cover? What categories do they tend to run? What is their readership? Familiarise yourself with the publications, but also different types of gift guides - from shopping features to editorial gift guides.
What Christmas gift guide themes and categories will the journalists be working on?
Looking through previous gift guides will also give you tons of inspiration for what categories you can pitch your product into. Most publications cover a range of different categories and your product will likely fit into multiple ones.
With publications running gift guides across different themes (i.e kid’s products in Red and women’s products in GQ) means that you’ll have the opportunity to be featured in publications that wouldn’t normally include your product category.
Don’t worry if you’ve got a very limited product range - think outside the box and think about which gifting categories your products can fit into.
For example, if you’ve got a stationery brand, your products don't necessarily just fit into the ‘Stationery lovers’ themes. It can fit into categories such as ‘For her’, ‘For him’, ‘The organiser in your life’, ‘Gifts for the goal setter’ and so on. Using your creativity when you pitch to the press goes a long way.
This is your chance to really ‘upsell’ your products and give them that Christmas gifting ‘twist’.
How do I know which products to pitch to the Christmas gift guides?
You might be wondering what products the Christmas gift guides will be looking for and whether your products are suitable for the gift guides. By establishing what products to suggest to the relevant gift guides, your pitching will be super organised and you’ll also increase your chances of getting featured. You want to showcase your most Christmas gift guide-relevant products to the journalists and essentially, do the groundwork for them.
If you’ve got a bigger product range you’ll benefit from narrowing down your most ‘Christmas worthy’ products and focusing on these. Typically, Christmas gift guides tend to be on the lookout for the following products:
‘Quirky’ gifts
Festive-themed gifts
Ready-to-give gifts in beautiful packaging
Personalised items
Food & drink
Stocking fillers
Hampers
Have you got a small product range? Don’t panic - that doesn’t necessarily equal fewer opportunities. You could have 1-2 products that are ideal gifting items and you can secure press coverage in multiple publications with the same product.
Red Magazine 2022 Christmas gift guide
If one of your products gets all the ‘Christmas press attention’, remember that customers will still head to your website to view your other products. It’s common to have a ‘winning’ product that gets featured again and again.
It’s about having your brand name and products featured so that you can capture Christmas shoppers at a key time - don’t be hung up on which of your products are featured. The editors know what items their readers want and what will look good on a page.
How competitive are the Christmas gift guides?
As with any press space, the Christmas gift guides are competitive, however, compared to the regular press all year round, the number of opportunities increases significantly. This is because short-lead and online publications tend to run multiple gift guides in the lead up to Christmas - and in total last year, there were over 400 online gift guides alone.
The editors compiling the gift guides will be actively looking for great products to fill their pages with - and if you’re on their radar and in their inbox, you’ll massively increase your chances of being featured.
There are hundreds of products that go into each Christmas gift guide. Remember that the press need your suggestions (and want to include independent brands and eCommerce businesses) to compile their gift guides. It’s a win-win relationship.
What images and assets do I need to pitch to the Christmas gift guides?
Having the right imagery in place is essential if you want to pitch to the Christmas press and gain coverage in magazines. The key imagery for Christmas gift guide press is product cut-out images. Here’s a quick image checklist:
✓ They should be professionally shot
✓ Be at least 300DPI
✓ Saved as a JPEG or PNG file.
If your budget is limited, prioritise getting cut-out shots done of your most Christmas press-worthy products that you will be pitching to the journalists.
Having the right imagery ready to send when requested by an editor will increase your chances of being featured.
Some online gift guides might occasionally use lifestyle images, but for the majority of the time, cut-out imagery will be your main asset.
If you have a bigger range of Christmas-relevant products, then showcasing them on a PDF line sheet with the retail prices, cut out images and contact details is a handy asset that will help journalists browse your curated Christmas products on one page. Make sure to exclude any wholesale details from the line sheet as that’s not relevant to the press.
How do I pitch to the Christmas gift guides?
Once you’ve done your magazine research, have established your key Christmas products and the different categories they can fit into and have nailed your product imagery, it’s time to plan and write your pitch emails. Before you hit send, ensure that your emails are concise and as tailored to Christmas press as possible. Here are a few quick tips to help you out:
✓ A descriptive and snappy subject line can make all the difference and make it clear that you’re pitching to the gift guides in your subject line - below are two examples of what these could look like:
‘Christmas gift guide suggestions: Sustainable beauty products’
‘Independent homeware for your Christmas gift guide’.
✓ Use gifting keywords in your email so that when an editor searches for Christmas products your email will appear.
✓ In the body of the email, you want to keep the copy short and sweet, mentioning your brand name and the products you’re suggesting.
✓ Always include the price of the products you’re pitching, along with a link to your website and direct links to the products you’re pitching
✓ Include the low res images of the products you’re suggesting at the bottom of your email along with the direct website links.
✓ Attach a line sheet if you’ve got one (mainly relevant for bigger product ranges)
Persistency is everything when it comes to PR. If you’ve pitched to the Christmas gift guides once, but haven’t heard anything back, don’t let it dishearten you. This is perfectly normal. Editors get swamped, emails get lost so be sure to send that all-important follow-up email 1-2 weeks after pitching (depending on the gift guide deadline) and you’ll instantly increase your chances of getting a response.
If you get a response requesting imagery or credits provide the journalist with the details and assets in a timely manner. The Christmas press works to tight deadlines and responding too late means that you could miss out on a piece of crucial coverage.
matthewcalvin.com
Digital publications will often ‘pull’ what they need directly from your website as the online press are able to feature lower res images. This means that you could pitch and follow up, never get a response, but still be featured. That is why tracking your coverage regularly is key.
Remember that most short-lead and online publications will be running multiple gift guides covering multiple categories so you’re fine to go back to an editor with different gift suggestions and angles. By pitching different products into different categories and themes you’ll maximise your chances of being featured.
Will I need to send product samples to the Christmas press?
The majority of the Christmas gift guides will use images, however, there are some gift guides that shoot and style the products - this refers to an editorial gift guide. If your product is a good fit for one of these, then the editor might request one or more samples to use for the shoot. Be sure to include a lending sheet with your samples detailing the return address and product information of the samples you’re sending. Depending on the nature of your products, you might not need to request them back - such as food/drink products, candles, wrapping paper and so on.
Want to access more free tips and advice on how to get your business featured in the Christmas gift guides? Head to our downloads page: https://www.prdispatch.com/downloads
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