how to get blogs to feature your products Archives

Holiday Gift Guide Publicity

Now is the time to be pitching to print media for inclusion in their holiday gift guides, due to their lead times. While appearing in a print gift guide might not have the immediate results that appearing in an online gift guide would, it does have its benefits. Being mentioned in a major print publication gives your shop instant credibility and can help if you are trying to get wholesale orders, as retail is taking off again.

This Year’s Tips

If you are a black-owned, Asian-owned, Latino-owned, LGBTQIA-owned or female-owned business, it will not hurt to mention this at the end of your pitch.
There is also still a big effort this year to support both local and nationally-based businesses, so mention your city, state/province and country as well.
“Personalized Gifts” was the top search on Etsy in November last year, so try to pitch a product that can be personalized with an initial, name, date, quote, photo, etc.
Family-oriented gifts (especially matching) will be popular this year, since many people didn’t get to spend last Christmas with their families. “Matching family swimsuits” is a top Google search right now (which could be people thinking ahead for the holiday photo) so think outside the box.

Gift Ideas to Pitch

Editors and writers also like it if you can position the product you are pitching for a certain gift category or recipient, such as:

Secret Santa, Stocking Stuffers, White Elephant Gifts
Gifts for Knitters, Sewers, Crafters, Bakers, Woodworkers
Gifts for Wine Lovers, Whiskey Lovers, Coffee Lovers, Tea Lovers, Chocolate Lovers
Gifts for Plant Lovers, Music Lovers, Nature Lovers, Gamers
Gifts for Dog Lovers, Cat Lovers, Bird Lovers
Gifts That Give Back
Gifts For You

My Etsy 2021 Holiday Sales Planner has the names and contact information for 80+ writers who wrote gift guide editorial last year for major print publications and blogs.

Send out your pitches for print this week, and for blogs in mid-September.

About Me

As a long time marketing consultant who has been blogging about e-commerce since 2012, I advise, coach and mentor small businesses selling online. I first got involved in e-commerce back in 2002, wanting to sell online a book I had written. After years of selling on Amazon I decided to take the experience I had in e-commerce, merge it with my professional marketing background and start a blog with marketing advice for small businesses selling online. My advice has been featured in the NY Times, Success Magazine, American Express Open Forum, Big Commerce blog, Business2Community and SheKnows to name a few.

Ever wonder how to get blogs to feature your products?

Blogs have taken over online content in a big way. According to Blogging.org, WordPress alone hosts 42 million blogs with 329 million readers. That is an unbelievable statistic!

So, if you sell fashion, you would love to have a top fashion blog mention your products. If you sell wedding items, you would love to have a top wedding blog mention your products. So how do you do this?

Bloggers are constantly looking for new and exciting story ideas. Therefore, the key is to pitch a story, not a product.

How to Submit to Blogs

Before you pitch your products to any blog, you need to check out their content first, mostly to make sure that you are not submitting a story idea that they have already recently done.

So, think of something timely (bloggers are looking up to six weeks in advance) like an upcoming holiday. An example story pitch would then be “10 Great Finds for Your Easter Dinner Table”.

Then read their submission guidelines. Typically, a blog’s editors will detail what they are looking for, and what they are NOT looking for. It is best to read this part and do what they say for the best chance of success. NY TIMES SMALL BUSINESS

Also, if they are asking for submissions by email they will tell you what to put in the subject header of the email. If you don’t follow their instructions, your email won’t get read.

Keep the pitch short and to the point. Link to your product. Insert, do not attach, a photo (it will go into spam otherwise).

Customer Success Stories

I have a client who took my advice and got her products mentioned on a top fashion blog. As a result, she got hundreds of product views and several sales just in the first few hours that it appeared (this is a good conversion rate, remember not everyone buys right away).

I have another client whose product appeared on a shopping blog, resulting in 330 product views, but more importantly 49 sales, in just a few days. In other words, a 15% conversion rate (which is very good), mostly because it got directly to her target market, and not just to the masses. As an added bonus, her product got pinned to Pinterest from the shopping blog over 200 times. And almost a year later, she is still getting traffic and sales from that blog post.

Want one more reason why it is a good idea to make blogs aware of your shop? Because it has become a big trend for online marketplaces to have popular bloggers pick their favorite products and act as guest pinners on Pinterest. Etsy recently did this with the blogs Camille Styles and Daily Candy. Fab.com has profiled favorite product picks from bloggers, as has One Kings Lane.

My Publicity Pitch Service

I’ve written pitches that have gotten my customers featured in Real Simple Magazine, Apartment Therapy, House Beautiful, Vanity Fair, Houzz.com, Glamour Magazine, LONNY, DesignMilk, Emmaline Bride, Martha Stewart, just to name a few. My publicity pitch service is just $59 USD where I will write a story pitch with 10 top media contacts for you to send to.