PR Special Opp: Lead for 4 Holiday Gift Guides

Holiday Gift Guides for BestGifts.com

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: MONDAY and WEDNESDAY

These Gift Guides are for Ziff Davis' website BestGifts.com.

These guides will feature gifts from Entrepreneurs and Small Business Made products.

For each of these guides, there is no price point requirement (can be high-end or low-end, pricey or budget-friendly).

Bonus: if your product is on Amazon, Nordstrom, or Etsy, media outlets like this because they are on the take for the affiliate link now. So, include this info if you have it, but it is not necessary. A high-resolution picture of your product on a white background is required.

GIFT GUIDE #1:
DEADLINE: ASAP (today) 11/12/2018
THEMES: The themes of the Gift Guides that they are looking for are:

• Gifts For Entrepreneurs

• Gifts For Everyday Unsung Heros (dog walker, hairdresser, babysitter, etc)

GIFT GUIDE #2:
DEADLINE: Wednesday, 11/14/2018
THEMES:

• Gifts that Boost Your Mood & Lower Your Stress

• Gifts for the Trendy Fashionista

CONTACT DETAILS & PITCHING TIPS:

Tin Shingle has prepared tips for the best way to pitch your product to this contact, including exactly how your email should be set up.

Email and further details are available to Level 4 Tin Shingle Members.

If you are an All Access Level 4 Member, then log in right now and view this PR Lead here.

Upgrade or Start a Pro Membership now if you haven't already!

Tin Shingle is not affiliated with any lead unless otherwise specified.

Vogue Knitting 2019 Editorial Calendar Added To Tin Shingle's Magazine Pitching Resources

Vogue Knitting's 2019 Editorial Calendar has been updated to Tin Shingle's Magazine Deadline Database for Tin Shingle’s All Access Pass Members. The biggest takeaway: The Holiday Gift issue is produced in July. So mark your calendar for next July to remind yourself not to check out too often by the pool if you want to try to get mentioned in this magazine. Also, listen to Tin Shingle’s monthly Training TuneUps, specifically the “PR Planning: What To Pitch This Month” ones where we give you hot tips like this!

Other magazines are releasing their 2019 plans at the end of November, so keep your eyes here for more updates!

PS: Vogue Knitting does have a Shop Local section for Yarn store listings. It’s a paid spot in the list, but seems like a great list to be in the middle of. We recommend it.

PPS: Having reviewed Vogue Knitting’s entire Media Kit, their paid advertorial features do look gorgeous. Organic PR is great for earning validation, while advertising is a great way to control your message and exposure. You know our position - advertising keeps the magazines in business! Without it, there’d be no book at all. If it’s in your budget, this ad spends seems like a great buy. In addition to any free PR you’re going to try to get!

New Class Available to Stream: Tin Shingle's Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Guide

Training TuneUp Available Now:
Tin Shingle's Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Guide Online Class

There are 3 submission deadlines of the year when your business has as chance to be featured in one of the most coveted magazine issues of the year: The Holiday Gift Guide Issue that hits newsstands in November and December.

Those deadlines are:

• July (right now!) for national print magazines like O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple.
• September for regional print magazines.
• October/November for last minute blog submissions and TV shows.

What Businesses Are Good for Holiday Gift Guides?

Yours, most likely. You just need to think of the right angle.

• Products: Obviously!
• Books: Magazines will be recommending must-reads on those holiday reading lists.
• Gift Cards: Got a boutique fitness studio? Yarn shop?
• Experts: In the same magazine issue as the Holiday Gift Guide, the magazine still fills other pages with holiday advice. This is the time for New Years Resolution stuff.

 
Magazines Are Collecting Holiday Gift Ideas Now for December Issues

So here's the thing...if you want your business featured in the December issue, you must email the magazines of your dreams now. Yes, think big. But how will you do it? Here are the answers!

Watch This TuneUp Webinar - We Tell You How!

In this Training TuneUp that just released into Tin Shingle's Training TuneUp Collection, we partnered up with our dear friend Sabina Hitchen of Press for Success. Tin Shingle's owner Katie interviews Sabina for the inside scoop on how Holiday Gift Guides work, and the best ways you can email an editor with the suggestion that they consider your business in their recommendations. Tin Shingle does have a list of magazine editors in our Media Contacts Database to make this job a little easier on you.

Hot Tip: Go Niche

There are SO many gift guides possibilities:

• "Gifts for Moms"
• "Gifts For Nerds"
• "Gifts For Guys Who Love Gear"
• "Gifts For Yarnbombers"
• "Gifts For Self-Help Addicts"

The sky is the limit! Part of your job when pitching your brand to be considered for a Gift Guide is to suggest a great theme, or reason. Liberate yourself here. Identify the magazines you want to be featured in, and go for it.

The best way to liberate yourself to pitch your brand into a magazine is to watch or listen to our Training TuneUp: The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Guide as Katie and Sabina explore the ways you will accomplish this mission. If you are a member of Tin Shingle at Level 3 (Online Classes) or 4 (Media Lists), you can stream this TuneUp for free any time. Otherwise, you can just purchase it!

Covered In This TuneUp:

• The Big Picture – Inside a Magazine
• What Makes a Holiday Gift Guide
• 1st Chance for Holiday Gift Guides (Magazines)
• 2nd Chance for Holiday Gift Guides (Local)
• 3rd Chance for Holiday Gift Guides (Websites)
• The Pitch - What It Should Look Like
• The Photos - How Important Are They?
• Packaging - Worth It?

Tin Shingle Member Price for Levels 3 & 4: FREE
Non-Member Price: $65.00

Packaging Will Be Important When Pitching Magazines for Holiday Gift Guides

While perusing Instagram one evening, I saw this beautiful photo of white roses arranged neatly in a stark black box. I’d already slated in Tin Shingle’s Content Planner to write about Packaging as upcoming prep work for your Holiday Gift Guide Pitching to Magazines, and doing it via a re-gram from a Tin Shingle Member seemed cherry-on-top-awesome.

A Tin Shingle member who runs the PR agency, Great Her Good enforced to her following that packaging is everything. See her full message below.

Tin Shingle has started alerting you to the upcoming Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Season - where you email magazine editors with a carefully worded email planting the idea that they might include your product in their Holiday Gift Guide this winter.

Sending samples will be an important component to this. Don’t skimp on the packaging. The investment will be worth it for getting ink (coverage in print media like magazines and newspapers), and customer purchases who buy from you at markets and retail stores.

 

Message from Jackie of Great Her Good:

#Repost @greathergood with @repostapp 

My clients can hear me now, it's all about the packaging and presentation! How you put yourself, your biz and your passion out there.

🚫Bad Packaging? No PR.

✅Great Packaging? Great PR.

Have you ever seen a beautiful package for something on the shelf and it catches your eye? I bet you've even purchased it if the messaging had enough pull. This is a set of 16 beautiful roses, but they cost 10X more than a dozen roses from the grocery store. (Plus, they last for a year, so it's totally worth it!) It's all about how you present your offerings to your customer.

How would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on the packaging and presentation scale?

Image via @venusetfleur

What To Do Next

1. Join Tin Shingle’s Community Level of Membership to talk more about this in our private Facebook Group or Forums aka The Boards.

2. List your business in Tin Shingle’s Business Directory for a chance to be re-grammed like this by joining our Directory Listing Level.

3. Join Tin Shingle’s membership at the All Access Media List Level 4 that includes instant access to over 3,000 Media Contacts and over 80 Editorial Calendars to help you plan your media outreach and execute it. Browse through our lists to get on-point ideas of editors and writers to pitch.