Resource Guide: Pitching Your Product to Press for Holiday Gift Guides
Get your product ready for the holiday gift guide season! This blog post will provide you with a timeline, a to-do list, and successful campaign examples to help you pitch effectively to editors. As an added bonus, if you want access to 50 press contacts we’ve added a link for you to get your pitching started today!
Timeline for Pitching to Editors
June/ July:
Mid June: Start identifying and compiling a list of gift guide themes and contact information for relevant editors.
End of June: Craft your pitch emails. Ensure they are short, concise, and include bulleted benefits of your product. Examples below 👇
All throughout July: Begin sending pitches. Aim for 1-2 different pitches per week. Use a tool like GMASS or Streak to track opens and clicks.
August:
Early August: Continue pitching until the first week. No follow-ups needed- editors are getting swamped with pitches, no room for follow ups.
Mid-August and Beyond: Shift focus to pitching for everyday themes with catchy subject lines to stay top of mind of editors.
Non gift guide pitches can be sent bi-monthly with follow ups on a weekly basis.
To-Do List:
✅ Research and Preparation:
Identify key publications and editors relevant to your product.
Research and come up with gift guide themes that match your product’s category. (e.g., gifts under $100, gifts for the hostess)
✅ Crafting Your Pitch:
Subject Line: Gift Guide Submission: [Guide Name]
Email Body:
Briefly introduce yourself and your brand.
Product Description: Short, concise description with bulleted benefits. Think: What problem does your product solve and how?
Explain how your product fits into the specific gift guide theme.
Link to specific product and line sheet.
Offer a sample to experience your brand first hand.
Include your contact details for follow-up.
✅ Pitching Strategy:
Send 1-2 unique pitches per week.
No follow-ups needed; focus on quality pitches.
✅ Post-July Strategy:
Develop pitches for everyday themes, remember to look at publications media calendar for the themes for various editions.
Use catchy subject lines to grab attention.
Do not attach any documents to emails you send.
Below are two real-life examples of press pitches that worked for me and got me into Forbes and Buzzfeed. I had pitched these editors about 5 other times, but it was these two pitches that caught their attention!
You’ll notice I use the basic template outline above with relevant links to make it easy for the editor to see what I’m referring to and learn more details if they’d like. In the Forbes pitch I stray away from the template subject line since I’m pitching in August, but I do mention the gift guide in the body copy.
Original pitch to Forbes on August 2nd.
Response on September 1st to Original Pitch— ONE MONTH LATER!
Conversation about sending a sample on September 2nd
Confirmation that samples were received and article link shared with me on September 17th
Final Forbes feature with backlink to the ecommerce website.
Here’s another example of me pitching to Buzzfeed, coordinating sample delivery, confirming receipt and seeing the final article!
Original pitch and response from editor with sample request on July 7th.
Confirmation of sample receipt on July 25th.
Writer sends article link on September 30th.
SO, what are you waiting for?! By following this timeline and to-do list, you can effectively pitch your products to editors and increase your chances of being featured in holiday gift guides that drives sales and traffic to your website! (Hint: Make sure to have your retargeting ads setup to target website visitors post article launch).
Stay consistent, be creative, and make sure to include a Press Page on your site with backlinks to help with your SEO!
To get you started on your pitching we have compiled some contact information for 50 editors just click below! 🌟📈
