Tag: holiday gift guide pitch

2 Hot Tips for Pitching Your Etsy Products to Blogs

September 1, 2017 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

As I have said many times, to get press for your Etsy products you have to pitch a story that would incorporate your product, not just pitch the product itself. Editors want a story, so here are two story ideas.

Seasonal Stories

Seasonal stories are always popular. If you have my 2017 Etsy Shop Marketing Plan, then you knew to pitch fall theme stories to blogs around the end of July (May for print media). For example, here are a few fall theme blog posts that just came out this week that promoted some Etsy products:

“Pumpkin Spice Latte Candles Are Already Here for All Your Sweet and Spicy Fall Needs” from Time.com.
“Pumpkin Spice Highlighter Will Let You Take Your Fall Obsession to a New Level” from Bustle.com.
“The Top Fall Jewelry Trends According to Etsy” from Refinery29.com.

By the way, I told you back in 2014 that Pumpkin Spice products are always hot fall editorial for blogs.

“Etsy Finds” Stories

I have also always said to leverage the Etsy name by pitching a story as part of an overall “Etsy Finds” type article. Here are some recent blog posts that did just that:

“13 Etsy Wedding Dresses We Love” from Bride.com
“The Best Deals from Etsy’s Labor Day Sale” from The Insider
“These Disney Princess Blanket Patterns You Can Find on Etsy Will Make You Feel Like Cozy Royalty” from HelloGiggles.

I will caution you. Do not promote a product that has any type of copyright infringement. I have seen many products lately (especially Harry Potter related products) get amazing press and then the listing is shut down within days of that press appearing due to copyright infringement.

Get your holiday gift guide pitches in NOW!

The Holiday Gift Guides You Really Want to Get Your Products Into

August 20, 2015 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

If you sell products online and want to take advantage of those huge holiday sales, then I highly recommend you re-read my post of two years ago, Why You Should Be Pitching Your Products for Holiday Gift Guides Now. However, today I want to give you a more current suggestion for getting holiday gift guide publicity.

how to get your products into holiday gift guides

Popular Pinners

You want to pitch to the lifestyle bloggers who are excelling at creating beautiful, comprehensive, and highly pinnable gift guides for Pinterest. One of my favorites is The Everygirl blog. Their gift guides are really well done, great at attracting attention on Pinterest and getting thousands of repins, not to mention turning up first in Pinterest search results. Other bloggers whose 2014 holiday gift guides also got huge circulation on Pinterest last year include:

All of these blogs create gift guides for every family member, every type of interest, so don’t be afraid to pitch your own category. Some of these blogs were also part of a mass marketing effort last year by a group of lifestyle bloggers, all promoting each other’s holiday gift guides, creating even wider exposure by tapping into each other’s social media following.

YouTube Vloggers

I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot more holiday gift guides on YouTube this year. Many popular “vloggers” (people with popular YouTube channels) last year did holiday gift guides that were viewed by millions of people. Granted, most of these vloggers and their audience tend to be young, but they are recommending gifts for mom, dad, boyfriend, boss, your pet, etc., so it is a wider market than you think. Vloggers are known to get paid for endorsements, however, you should still pitch to them asking for consideration as an artisan/indie seller, and hopefully they haven’t completely sold out and would still recommend your product because they like it, not just because they got paid to say so. You would likely have to send them product to show. Here are a few vloggers who had popular gift guides last year:

Now, Before You Go….

Follow my blog on Bloglovin
Pin this post to Pinterest and follow me
Check out my E-book shop on Gumroad for more creative ideas!

Thanks so much for your support!

Gail

Why You Should Be Pitching Your Products to Holiday Gift Guides NOW

July 14, 2014 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Originally posted July 2015; updated July 2022. Pitching Products Holiday Gift Guides.

As you may know, print magazines typically work about four months in advance, so, right now they are planning their December issues (which go on sale in early November). A big part of any December issue is a holiday gift guide. Therefore, if you want your products to be included, you need to be pitching to editors ideally before mid August. Remember, I am just talking about print publications. You can wait until mid to late September to pitch to blogs and online publications.

How to Pitch for Holiday Gift Guides

Email is still the best way to pitch to writers and editors.
Pitch a specific product.
Keep the pitch short and to the point with no more than three brief paragraphs( editors will not read a long worded pitch).
In the email subject line put: Product Submission for Your 2019 Holiday Gift Guide.

What To Include In Your Pitch

Indicate who the potential recipient could be, such as gift for husband, gift for boss, gift for teacher, gift for hostess, and so forth, to match any categories they may be organizing their gift guide into.
Mention the type of person who would like this for a gift, such as the Fashionista, the Fitness Buff, the Geek, the New Mom, the Guy Who Has Everything, the Home Chef, etc.
List the price as a lot of gift guides are categorized as such i.e. Gifts less than $25, Gifts to blow your budget on, etc. For the most success, try to pitch products under $100 unless it is for a luxury category.
Mention if your shop gives back, for example, part of the proceeds go to charity, as again, many gift guides have a category for this.
Tell where your business is located. Most publications want to support locally-made, American-made or specific country-made products, depending on the origins of the publication.
Include a link to the product in your shop, but do not attach photos or you might send the email into their spam folder.
Make sure your product photo is magazine-quality, and preferably on a white background. You do not have to include a photo, they will take one from your site.
Mention what type of business you are, such as an Etsy shop, as a lot of magazines actually have a holiday gift category just for Etsy finds.

Sample Pitch

Hello {name of blog or writer}!

I would like to submit a product for consideration for any holiday gift guide editorial you might be doing this year.

My 3-piece all-natural spa gift basket makes the ideal Christmas gift for woman, especially new moms. Beautifully packaged, it contains bath bombs, bath salts, and a soy scented candle. It sells for $40 at my Etsy shop below:

{link to product}

I even offer free holiday gift wrapping and can send the gift set directly to the recipient.

Thanks so much for your consideration and support of small businesses like mine.

Sincerely

Jane Doe

XYZ Shop

Pitch Your Products For Other Holiday Editorial

The holiday issues are typically the biggest of the year, filled with other editorial that you can pitch to have your products included in, such as:

Holiday Decorating – If you have any products that work for holiday decor, including garlands, tree decorations, pillow covers, artwork – anything goes.
Holiday Entertaining – All those holiday parties require festive food, drinks, serve ware, glassware and table decor.
Holiday Travel – The holidays are high travel times and magazines are always writing about products for the traveller, such as travel journals, luggage, bathing suits, beach coverups, ski wear, etc.
Holiday Fashion – Maybe your products add to the perfect outfit to wear to a holiday party, Christmas day or New Year’s Eve, and this includes clothing, shoes, jewelry, nail and beauty products.
Holiday Cards – Holiday cards, as well as invitations to Christmas parties, cookie exchanges, housewarmings, etc., are obviously in big demand this time of year.
Holiday Photos – Everyone wants that perfect family photo for the holiday card (or Instagram), so it’s a great time to promote any product that will enhance the photo i.e. matching family pajamas, special outfit for new baby, Santa hat for dog, “Happy Holidays” sign to hold up, etc.

In previous years, I have had several customers use my tactics to successfully get their products included in many major publications’ gift guides including Real Simple, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, and Buzzfeed to name a few. Get a full list of 2020 Holiday Gift Guides to pitch to in my 2022 Etsy Shop Holiday Sales Planner.