Should you be pitching to the Christmas gift guides?
Running your own business, we know that time will always be limited, and the thought of adding another task to your ever-growing to-do list might fill you with dread. Because Christmas PR (and PR generally) is one of those important but non-urgent tasks, it often ends up at the bottom of business owners’ priority list. But if you’re never dedicating any time to it, you won’t be able to drive your brand forward.
The good news is that through our Christmas gift guide PR access, you get access to expert support, advice and a press contact database allowing you to pitch to the Christmas gift guides in just under 60 minutes per week.
With Christmas around the corner, you might currently be planning ahead and thinking about the Christmas gift guide press. Will this be the year where you ramp up your Christmas strategy and pitch to the editors compiling the gift guides? Will it be worthwhile your time? And why should you be pitching to the Christmas gift guides? Read on to find out just some of the reasons why Christmas PR should play a key part of your strategy.
Countless Christmas press coverage opportunities
The UK produces some of the most comprehensive gift guides in the world - and last year's Christmas gift guide figures show that there were countless opportunities for your eCommerce business to be featured. To give you an idea - in 2022 there 29,000+ products featured in UK gift guides. Over 54% of these products were from independent brands and small businesses. That means you’ll have so many opportunities to see your products featured in the gift guides in the lead-up to Christmas. Having a small product range doesn’t equal fewer opportunities. Establish your most Christmas press-worthy product (s) and pitch into the relevant categories and themes. Many eCommerce businesses often find that they’ll have 1 ‘winning’ Christmas product that gets featured by the Christmas gift guide journalists time and time again. Customers will still head to your website and browse your other products, despite them not getting any attention from the press.
2. The Christmas press need you
Does the thought of pitching your own brand and products to the gift guides scare you? Want to make Christmas PR part of your strategy? We understand that it might feel daunting to pitch to journalists at first, however, we can reassure you that the press love hearing from small and independent businesses. In fact, they’re dependent on your email pitches - remember that if they didn’t have product suggestions from great brands they wouldn’t have anything to fill their Christmas gift guides with. And in the lead up to Christmas, they will have an increased number of gift guides and shopping pages to fill.
3. Capture thousands of potential customers and increase sales
Did you know that Christmas gift guides are the number one place consumers will look for Christmas gift inspiration? So if you want to build your brand awareness, capture more customers and increase sales in the lead up to Christmas, it’s crucial that your product is featured in the Christmas gift guides. PR is all about making potential customers aware of your brand. If potential customers don't know about you, they will buy from other eCommerce businesses over yours.
Statistics show that it's not unusual for businesses to achieve 50% of their annual sales in the last 6 weeks of the year. Normally PR shouldn't be seen as a sales driver for a business, however, as statistics show, Christmas is an exception to that.
4. Tap into consumers’ shopping mindset
During the busy Christmas period, the customer's decision process about buying is much quicker than usual and so you want to make sure you’re on their radar. People do not have a lot of time to compare products or shop around like they do the rest of the year. They will turn to the Christmas gift guides for inspiration. They provide consumers with a ‘narrowed’ selection of gifts within different themes, which helps consumers to choose gifts while saving time. This is extremely handy for busy shoppers.
Once a customer buys from you once, they are far more likely to buy from you again, therefore Christmas is the key time of the year to capture these customers - and potentially turn them into customers for life.
5. Boost your SEO and be more discoverable online
It is something special to see your business and products featured in print, especially at Christmas time. However, many PR opportunities are with the online Christmas gift guides, simply because there are more of them. In fact, 70% of Christmas gift guides are online. This includes online-only magazines, but also the online counterparts of print magazines and newspapers. Many publications also publish their print content online, meaning double exposure. Someone might not have spotted you in the print magazine, but when they look for products online, online Christmas gift guide features will appear.
88% of consumers begin their Christmas buying process with an online search, and Christmas gift guides are exactly what potential customers are looking for. So having your products featured online will massively boost your SEO. If your product is featured in a Christmas gift guide and catches their eye, it's a convenient, easy click-through for the customer, exactly what they are looking for during this busy shopping period.
Another major advantage of online Christmas gift guides is these features online live forever, so the feature could drive traffic to your website for years to come.
6. A bigger network of press contacts
After Christmas, a number of Christmas gift guide contacts will likely be searching for something relevant for a feature they are currently working on. They will search through their emails and if your brand and product are relevant to what they’re looking for, up you'll pop. So, pitching to the Christmas press and getting your products featured in Christmas gift guides, whilst crucial for the Christmas key sales time of the year, could also potentially lead to ongoing PR opportunities well into the future. If you pitch to them now you've already built that initial relationship with the editor or freelance journalist.
One important thing to remember is that PR is for life, not just for Christmas. Pitching to the Christmas press and getting your products featured in the Christmas gift guides is a great way to build your PR strategy for the next year, but it should be done on an ongoing basis all year round.
7. Reach and test new audiences for free
Another huge benefit of the Christmas gift guides is the opportunity to be featured in publications that you wouldn't normally be featured in. For example, men's publications may decide to run a 'For her' Christmas gift guide in which your women's lingerie, beauty products, candles, or jewellery could be featured, products that would never normally be featured in a men's publication. This is the perfect way to widen your potential customer base and test audiences that you otherwise wouldn’t necessarily be on the radar of. Likewise, if your business sells children's clothes or toys, rather than only getting featured in the usual kids and parenting publications, there is the potential to also get featured in many other types of publications that may run, for example, a Christmas gift guide for kids.
Now you’ve discovered the many benefits of having your products featured in the Christmas gift guides, hopefully you feel motivated to prioritise your 2023 Christmas PR and pitch to the press needing product suggestions for their guides. If you want to pitch to the Christmas gift guides and gain coverage, you need to start early. The long-lead printed Christmas press start compiling Christmas gift guides in July, so it's never too early to start preparing ahead.
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
Want to get your product-based business featured in the Christmas gift guides?
On the 6th of July, we open our yearly 2023 Christmas gift guide PR access - but we only have 120 memberships available. Last year we sold out of all our Christmas gift guide memberships in just 67 minutes and we expect the same this year. So make sure you secure your place on the tour, the only way to guarantee 2023 Christmas gift guide PR access.
The Christmas Gift Guide PR access gives you everything you need to pitch your product to the Christmas press and you'll have access to 200+ UK Christmas press contacts for over 150 gift guides between July and December 2023 covering long-lead, short-lead and online magazines and newspapers.