- Last week, we talked about holiday gift guides,
and what a huge PR and sales opportunity they present
for handmade businesses.
If you missed it, you will definitely want to watch it
after you watch this video.
I'll put the link below for you
because it covers some really important parts
of the planning process that need to happen
before you start pitching your products.
One very important factor
about pitching your product successfully is the timing.
It's much, much earlier
than you might imagine,
and if you miss your window of opportunity,
you have to wait an entire year
before trying to get into holiday gift guides,
which we don't want to happen.
So today, I'm going to talk about just how early
you need to start prepping and pitching your products
and explain why it's so important
that you get started so early
so you don't miss out.
Ready? Let's dive in.
(drums beating)
Bonjour, my name is Deb,
and I am the founder of Tizzit.co,
a membership community for makers and handmade shop owners,
just like your fabulous self.
You can learn more about our community, Tizzit HQ,
via the link below this video.
But for now, let's jump straight into today's conversation:
When to start pitching your handmade products
for holiday gift guides.
Before I start, I have a very, very exciting opportunity
to tell you about.
I asked my friend and PR expert, Nora Wolf from Wolf PR,
to share some of her tips and tricks
for securing holiday gift guide placements,
and she has graciously offered to do a free workshop for us
to show you exactly how you can get your handmade products
into holiday gift guides.
If you're watching this video as it comes out,
you should definitely join us live.
If you're watching this video a little too late,
don't worry, I'm gonna have some links,
definitely worth checking out below this video as well.
So some resources for you to check out.
A little bit about Nora.
Nora has worked in PR her entire professional life
and regularly gets her client placements
in national and local publications
in front of the eyes of millions of readers.
She's absolutely no fluff
and will teach you exactly how she does it.
You'll learn why all their gift guides
are five times the amount of press opportunities,
how these great placements
can lead to millions of new eyes on your products,
when you should start pitching
so you don't miss out on this great press opportunity,
plus you'll also learn five gift guide pitching tips
that she has perfected over the years
so you'll know exactly what makes a product
ready for press outreach.
And as she says herself,
Nora hates, hates, hates fluffy advice,
like surface-level, how-to-grow-your-bees workshops
that leave you with no actionable information.
She's not in the business of wasting other people's time,
and I love that about her.
So be sure that when you finish this video,
you sign up for a free workshop
using the link that I'll put down below.
And okay, now onto today's topic.
When you are creating a timeline
to pitch your products to holiday gift guides,
you need to get started very early.
And when I say early, I'm not kidding,
like, you want to start working on this
sometime between May and July.
And I know the holidays
can feel really, really far away at that time of year.
But, from a media perspective,
they're actually much closer than you might imagine.
And if you want the benefits
of this great media opportunity,
you'll want to get organised and get started early.
Nora's going to give you even more specific details
of why you need to start early
and what your timeline will look like.
But let's talk about a few of the most important reasons.
First, and very important, is the need to research
which holiday guides have the most potential
for your handmade products.
Before you start sending out pitches,
you need to set aside time to do some research
to find out things like:
What publication in your industry
put out holiday gift guides to start with?
So, for example, if you make puzzle activities for children,
what children's publications have holiday gift guides
that you might want to pursue?
Nora takes this a step further and teaches the clients
to also consider what publications
that aren't in your industry might be worth targeting.
So for example, men's magazines will not be a place
you would typically advertise home goods or beauty products,
but the holiday gift guides will be a great opportunity
for handmade sellers
who make products that these men
will want to buy for their partners.
So to take advantage of all these media opportunities,
you'll want to start researching publications
sooner rather than later.
Nora will also be talking about photos
for holiday gift guides,
stressing that you may need
to take new photos of your products.
Product photography for gift guides
can require different types of photos.
When you're doing your publication research,
you want to note how products
are displayed in past gift guides
for any publication that you're considering.
So for example, are individual products featured,
or are there sets and collections?
To successfully secure placements in gift guides,
you have to have the right photos
for the right publications you've selected.
Often, they won't be interested in the shots
that you already might have
in your handmade or Etsy shop,
even if they're really good photos.
They need a specific style of photos
so they can easily integrate them in their magazine design.
This means you may need to set extra time aside
to strategically plan
and rephotograph some of your products.
And if you're working on holiday gift guide pitching
for the first time,
you'll need even more time to prepare your photos.
Nora's workshop will also cover important topics
such as what the standard lead times are
for holiday gift guides and spoiler,
it's longer than you think.
How lead times can differ
between digital versus print publication,
and she'll also answer a question
many of you may have
depending on when you are watching this video,
which is: "What do I do if I start too late?"
And another spoiler, you'll want to take the workshop
because she shares a great strategy
for how to still get your products into holiday gift guides.
While it's quite easy to see the benefit
of getting your products featured in holiday gift guides,
it can also be a bit overwhelming
because there are thousands of gift guides out there.
So, how do you go about finding the right one?
And once you find them,
how in the world do you pitch your products?
If you are feeling a bit of this overwhelm and thinking,
"I just have no idea how to even start
and pitch my products, and who I would pitch it to,
and how do I contact those people."
Don't sweat it,
the workshop's gonna walk you through this step-by-step.
Let PR expert Nora Wolf
teach you how to successfully pitch your handmade products
for holiday gift guides.
Her no fluff style means this workshop
will be packed full of advice from an actual PR pro
who knows what it takes to successfully pitch products
for gift guides.
Be sure to click the link below
to sign up for this free workshop.
And if you haven't watched my video from last week
about holiday gift guides
and the huge opportunity they present
for handmade businesses,
click the video thumbnail
that's showing on the screen somewhere right now
and go and watch it now.
Thanks for watching.
Looking forward to seeing you
during the workshop with Nora.
The links are below, and until next time, au revoir!