10 Pro Tips To Get Your Brand PR Ready for the Holidays
Even though we’re not yet through September, the holidays will be here before you know it! It’s never too early to start planning your holiday strategy. In fact, major national media outlets often plan for coverage well in advance (as in the summer!).
At Little Bird Boston, we help both national and local brands maximize their PR coverage over the holiday season. And, as much as possible, we like to get a head start on our end to optimize our client’s chances of getting covered.
For national companies looking for widespread national coverage in print and broadcast opportunities, we at Little Bird Boston get started pitching in the summer and by the time fall has arrived, most of the media contacts have made up their mind on coverage. However, local PR and online opportunities typically have a much shorter lead time.
Nevertheless, the clock is a-ticking! So, today on the blog, we are reviewing a few pointers to prepare your brand and get your company PR ready for the holidays. It’s time to solidify your strategy so you can make the most out of this optimal time to promote your brand and products to your target audience who is ready and willing to buy! Whether your company is a brick and mortar, retail, offers services, physical products, gift cards or otherwise (albeit a different strategy), there’s typically an opportunity to boost your awareness even more during the holidays.
Prepare Your Deals
Holiday time means discounts, freebies, bonus add-ons. Customers want to feel like they are getting a benefit from buying from your company. With so much competition out there, they want to feel special and that means, we have to give them a reason to buy from you. Luckily, there are so many options out there. Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday…It’s time to think through what you will offer, what’s competitive in the industry, what is compelling to your customers. Think this through and put together your strategy including dates through the end of the holiday season. For PR, we need to know this so we can reach out to media contacts who are doing round-ups for all of these deals. Rest assured, these will be covered in the media and in order for journalists to write about what deals and discounts you are offering, we need to know in advance!
Prep for Gift Cards
Over the past few years, gift card sales have soared for a variety of reasons. They can be bought in person, online and are a great last minute option. Companies also love them because it brings in new customers that may not have bought from you before, customers typically spend MORE then the amount on their gift card and they encourage loyalty and repeat customers! What’s not to love! For the PR side, make sure that your gift card promo is clear and concise and easy to buy. Doing this will set you up for media success. Many journalists write about last minute holiday gifts and if you are gift card ready, you will be more likely to be covered here in the media.
Strategize Your Samples
For PR, media contacts and influencers are more likely to cover a company or brand that they’ve experienced first hand in the past. That means, if you are selling a physical product, they want to see it and feel it in their hands. Or, if it’s a service or experience, they’ll want to do it themselves. That means getting out ahead of it. What’s your budget? How many samples do you want to give away? How far in advance will you need to send out these samples or get in touch with them to experience it? These things should be dealt with several months in advance of the holidays in order to provide ample time to get in touch and engage with your target media contacts. We’ve helped companies strategize about the best way to approach this for the holidays, so drop your questions below or shoot us a note directly!
Engage Your Influencers
Adding on to the sampling strategy, another aspect of that is including Influencers in your media targets. Look at bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers or other public figures who you may want to engage with to promote your brand over the holidays. And think through the strategy. Some may want up front advertising dollars, while some will work for a set price per sale (affiliate marketing) while others may want to share products and services that they love. Either way, make sure you provide them a discount code to share with their followers which helps to create a call to action on their end and also a way to track source sales on your end. Including Influencers in your PR strategy is key, especially during the holiday time!
Organize Your Media Library
By that we mean get those photos and videos or other media kit items lined up and ready to go. We can’t even tell you how many times journalists have wanted to cover our client’s products and services but they haven’t yet finalized professional photography. If you haven’t yet lined up holiday photos, video shoots or other media library items needed, now is the time. This is one item that you cannot delay on. In order for journalists to cover your company, they need the photos to do just that!
Go Multi-Channel
PR can support your holiday marketing strategy, but it’s important to engage all channels so you can reach customers in different places. Make sure to include your blog, email, social media and any other marketing outlets you cover such as digital, SEO and advertising. Even something so simple as giving your PR rep the right link to send to journalists with all of the details for your holiday promo will help to support your PR holiday efforts!
Seek Out Events
Many brands shy away from events throughout the year due to the high cost and low return (I hear you!). However, typically the holidays are a great time to either try out or lean into this strategy if you haven’t had success in the past. Many local communities host special holiday events and encourage people to buy local. If you are considering this route, think ahead to ensure you have enough product and staffing to cover your bases. That may mean putting out the word for extra help or finding a place to source last minute staffing if needed. Around the holidays, these events tend to pay off in the long run. And for PR, that gives you another angle to use for journalists and media contacts.
Plan Your Partnerships
Partnership marketing is a great strategy for small businesses and startups without a big budget. Finding like-minded companies with a similar shared audience that don’t compete with each other are gold. Leading up to the holidays, either seek out new partnerships or revisit partnerships that have been in the works for some time. Whether you are merely sharing each other’s info on social media or other channels or even thinking through larger opportunities, partnership marketing is an effective way to promote your brand for the holidays. It may even perk up the ears of journalists if they hear about a new partnership or maybe a big brand that you’re working with. Partnerships are always news for your PR rep to use in any way they can find as relevant.
Branded Appreciation Gifts
For many companies that don’t offer a physical product, holiday time is the perfect time to line up a few appreciation gifts. Whether you use them for your staff, clients, prospects or even media contacts and influencers getting your company logo front and center is a great way to keep your brand top of mind. For example, sending someone a 2020 branded calendar around the holidays is a huge benefit so you can get year-long brand awareness. You just need to decide the end goal and how you want to approach it, so think through this early. However you decide to use branded gifts, definitely loop in your PR rep to see if they can utilize it on their end leading up to the holidays.
Get Started!
Now that your brand is finally PR ready, it’s time to hit the road running! If you are DIYing your PR, this will take some prep time. Put together your media list, review all of your angles and if needed, develop your press release. Pro Tip: Look at least year’s holiday gift guides or what stories you’d want to be included and get in touch with those writers. If you are working with a PR company, make sure to give them all of the information or plan in advance so that they can do their thing and get you covered in the media!
For any questions or to talk through your holiday PR strategy, please reach out to us at any time: 617-680-4827 or holly@littlebirdboston.com
