Holiday Gift Guide PR: 2019 in review
Well hello there 2020! 2019 went by in a whirlwind. We hardly had time to come up for air in between getting our clients featured in media outlets from Boston throughout the country. Starting early in the fall through the very end, holiday gift guide spotlights in the media helps brands increase their sales for the year BIG TIME. Whether it’s promoting gift cards, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, Black Friday deals or just their products featured on various media outlets, gift guide PR is huge for both products and services. Along with driving customers directly to their website to purchase gifts, these Gift Guide articles help with SEO, brand awareness, and builds your brand credibility throughout the coming year!
Though we’re past the holiday gift guide season, it’s never too early to think ahead for the coming year. Even though you only have a very small window for when customers will actually buy your products and services, media outlets, journalists and Influencers start their holiday gift guide planning very early on in the year. We typically start to plan in the late summer months for PR coverage, because particularly in print, media outlets are way ahead of the holiday season. Journalists want samples, they want to experience or physically touch your product and we need to ensure that your product is top of mind when they are thinking through what to put in their holiday gift guide.
And, even before the PR strategy and outreach takes place, brands need to prep themselves to think in advance what they want to do for the holidays. Thinking through your company goals, securing your PR firm and getting them up to speed (key), planning out promotions, discounts, along with non PR marketing strategy like Ad Spend and ROI, etc…..this is all something that needs to be done well in advance to make the most of the holiday season. For more insight into holiday PR planning, start here.
And a few more key points to note for holiday gift guide PR.
You don’t need to be a huge brand to be featured in huge national media outlets
You don’t need a BIG PR agency that will cost you several thousands of dollars per month
You don’t need to pay for media placements
All you need is a PR person or small consultancy/agency who knows how to put the creative, unique spin on your product and get it out in front of the right people, while also putting in the work and helping your brand hit their goals with planning and strategy done up front. It’s important to note that the brands featured below are not paying for features in these publications, but it’s strictly editorial, meaning the journalist or editor loved their unique gift idea and chose on to feature it on their own merits.
So, today, we’re going to share some pretty cool features for our clients that hit the last few months in Holiday Gift features, which we secured placement for several of our product-based clients:
OK Magazine: Give Good Presents
The Doctors: The Holiday Extravaganza Episode
Reader’s Digest: 30 Personalized Gifts that Go the Extra Mile
FOX News: Unique Gifts for those who seem to have everything
Daily Mom: 25 Last Minute Health and Beauty Gifts for Christmas
Style Caster: 14 Personalized Gifts That Go the Extra Mile
FOX Good Day Chicago: Best holiday Beauty Gifts for Every Age and Price
International Business Times: Last Minute Stocking Stuffers for Her
Urban Milan: 2019 Holiday Gift Guide
This is just a sample of some of the features we’ve helped our clients get into this holiday season. Though they are still finalizing their ROI from PR, it’s safe to say that any investment in PR services has more then paid for itself through increased sales and profit.
Ok onto Valentine’s Day and even Mother’s Day (yes, it starts that early!) We’ve even had one client featured in a Valentine’s Day Gift Guide round-up in Working Mother Magazine!
