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Suggest You - 12 Tips to Get Your Products Included in Gift Guides All Year Long
Fundraising letter reply devices—also known as reply coupons, donation coupons, reply slips, response forms and gift forms—are the instruments that conclude your request for funds. If your reply device doesn’t work, your appeal letter doesn’t work—and you don’t get the gift.Here are some tips for getting your reply devices right.General Guidelines· Assume the reply device is the only piece in the package your donor will read. This forces you to make a strong case for giving.· Ask donors to do as little as possible in returning a gift to you in the mail—make the process as quick and easy as possible.· Involve the donor in some way (placing a check mark in a box, answering a survey ques
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gi
It's all very well having a flashy (and expensive) advertising campaign, backed up by a wealth of positive PR, but if your staff are not all pulling in the same direction this could be the biggest leak in your plan.Want a more in-depth guide to internal and customer communications, plus a CD-ROM with software with advice, additional content and links to helpful sites?Buy 'Marketing your Business' todayFirstly, everyone need to be able to get accurate information, so ensure that you have a good computer network (or better still, a fully-fledged Intranet) and routinely store the latest versions of documents where everyone can access them.Keep all staff that have any exposure to customer AT WHATEVER L
For many product companies, sales opportunities increase during the Christmas holiday season, as well as other gift-giving times -- Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving and others, depending on your product.
That’s why many businesses rely on a strategic Public Relations effort to boost sales during these peak seasons. And one of the most effective ways to kick up your sales is to get your product listed in a magazine, newspaper, or TV Holiday Gift Guide. Why is this so important? Because these holidays are when readers or viewers are READY TO BUY and eager to see what a media outlet recommends.
Another good reason to get your product featured in Holiday Gift Guides is because media outlets almost ALWAYS list the ways for readers to order the product (usually a Web site, telephone number and/or retail store location), while in many standard publicity articles, contact information is not included.
As you might imagine, getting into a Holiday Gift Guide is not all that easy. There’s lots of competition from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other companies that are also pitching their products. Here are a dozen tips to help you get your products covered in Holiday Gift Guides:
1. Send your pitches at the right time. Timing is critical. Know the deadline for each Holiday Gift Guide. Magazines, for instance, have long lead times, and newspaper and TV have shorter lead times (more specific information about deadlines is covered later in this Special Report). And remember, while sending product samples out too late is obviously a wasted effort, sending them out too early is also not a good idea, because the products can get misplaced.
2. Determine the category of gifts that each media outlet covers. For example, Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine covered only technology gifts in their Christmas Holiday Gift Guide this year, while Alaska Airlines' in-flight magazine covered upscale items.
3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I’ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won't even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have those products. Most business magazines, men’s magazines, and in-flight publications cover gadgets (technology) in their Holiday Gift Guides, as do many consumer magazines. Family Circle, for instance, covered Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide. Family Circle will also cover tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication looking for tech gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gif
Before we begin, I want you to think about how many times you actually sought out an advertisement. How did you know where to look for it? Why did you choose that one? Whether you know it or not, the number of times you were exposed to the message has a huge impact on you. Also, the message and how it made you feel had a large influence on your response.On the other side of the table, how do you know how well people are responding to your advertisement? If you are spending your hard earned cash advertising, you should be able to tell exactly what type of response you are getting and be able to track the performance of your ads.The above are two separate but related topics that need to be evaluated when d
Another good reason to get your product featured in Holiday Gift Guides is because media outlets almost ALWAYS list the ways for readers to order the product (usually a Web site, telephone number and/or retail store location), while in many standard publicity articles, contact information is not included.
As you might imagine, getting into a Holiday Gift Guide is not all that easy. There’s lots of competition from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other companies that are also pitching their products. Here are a dozen tips to help you get your products covered in Holiday Gift Guides:
1. Send your pitches at the right time. Timing is critical. Know the deadline for each Holiday Gift Guide. Magazines, for instance, have long lead times, and newspaper and TV have shorter lead times (more specific information about deadlines is covered later in this Special Report). And remember, while sending product samples out too late is obviously a wasted effort, sending them out too early is also not a good idea, because the products can get misplaced.
2. Determine the category of gifts that each media outlet covers. For example, Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine covered only technology gifts in their Christmas Holiday Gift Guide this year, while Alaska Airlines' in-flight magazine covered upscale items.
3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I’ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won't even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have those products. Most business magazines, men’s magazines, and in-flight publications cover gadgets (technology) in their Holiday Gift Guides, as do many consumer magazines. Family Circle, for instance, covered Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide. Family Circle will also cover tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication looking for tech gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gi
It always amazes me when I see someone on television holding a press conference – a lawyer outside a courtroom, a businessperson at the launch of a new product. Reporters ask hardball questions. The answers are given with conviction, without hesitation. The person being questioned exhibits supreme confidence. Where does that confidence come from? How do they get it? What lessons are there for those of us who also have to face difficult circumstances and need that same, high level of confidence?You may be facing a difficult task. It might be something very unpopular. It might be something confrontational. It could be something you have never done before or puts you or your business at risk. It could be that yo
1. Send your pitches at the right time. Timing is critical. Know the deadline for each Holiday Gift Guide. Magazines, for instance, have long lead times, and newspaper and TV have shorter lead times (more specific information about deadlines is covered later in this Special Report). And remember, while sending product samples out too late is obviously a wasted effort, sending them out too early is also not a good idea, because the products can get misplaced.
2. Determine the category of gifts that each media outlet covers. For example, Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine covered only technology gifts in their Christmas Holiday Gift Guide this year, while Alaska Airlines' in-flight magazine covered upscale items.
3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I’ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won't even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have those products. Most business magazines, men’s magazines, and in-flight publications cover gadgets (technology) in their Holiday Gift Guides, as do many consumer magazines. Family Circle, for instance, covered Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide. Family Circle will also cover tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication looking for tech gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gi
Plastic has, quite literally, become the cornerstone of our society. We make so many things from plastic that it is hard to imagine what our lives would be like if it was never invented. With so many of our everyday products being made of plastic, it is easy to understand why plastic injection molding is such a huge industry.Approximately 30% of all plastic products are produced using an injection molding process. Of this 30%, a large amount of these products are produced by using custom injection molding technology. Six steps are involved in the injection molding process, after the prototype has been made and approved.The first step to the injection molding process is the clamping of the mold. This clampin
3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I’ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won't even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.
4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have those products. Most business magazines, men’s magazines, and in-flight publications cover gadgets (technology) in their Holiday Gift Guides, as do many consumer magazines. Family Circle, for instance, covered Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide. Family Circle will also cover tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication looking for tech gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gi
Patrick Atkins is Senior Manager for Agency Training of a major insurance company. When people asked what he did for a living, he used to reply, ‘I sell life insurance’.In his second year of selling, a customer died in an accident and he went to visit the widow. She was distraught, of course, but she spoke to Patrick after the funeral.‘I always resented the money my husband spent on insurance,’ she said. ‘I thought it was wasted money that we could have used for something else. But now your insurance payment is going to allow my children to stay in school and give us enough money to keep living in this house. You’ve saved our family.’Today, when people ask Patrick Atkins what he does for a living, he says
5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gifts under $40.”
6. Send in your most colorful products. Most media outlets are visual, and color looks better in the pages of a magazine or on TV than drab colors do. If you flip through magazines with Holiday Gift Guides, you’ll notice that most of the items are bright colors. So, make sure that either your product or your packaging has eye-catching color to capture their attention.
7. Donate a portion of your product’s sales or profits to charity. Some media outlets ONLY cover products that donate to charity. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also increases your chances of getting publicity. Be sure to mention this in all of your pitches.
8. Offer something that is brand new to the marketplace. Remember, Gift Guide Editors are just like other media people -- they want something new. If you create a new product, you’ll get the media’s attention.
9. Don’t forget products for pets. While Prevention Magazine’s December, 2005 issue didn’t have a Gift Guide for people -- it did have a “Pet Gift Guide”. Many other Gift Guides, especially in women’s magazines, include gifts for pets. Remember, there are millions of pet lovers out there who consider pets their “family” and want to buy holiday presents for them. If you have a unique gift for a pet, you may very well get coverage.
10. Mention any celebrity tie-ins. Some entertainment media outlets will only cover your products if celebrities use them. Other media outlets like to know that celebrities use the product, because readers and viewers are fascinated with celebrities, and want to use the same products. So, if your brother-in-law’s cousin knows someone famous who’s willing to tout your product, go for it.
11. Manufacture the product yourself. It is much easier to get coverage if you make the product (unless, of course, you’re an exclusive seller of a product). For example, Real Simple Magazine’s Beauty and Grooming Department will do a three-page Gift Guide for Dads in June. They are looking for men's beauty and grooming products. If you make anything in this category (shaving creams, hair and skin care products, etc.), this would be a great opportunity for you (Real Simple Holiday Gift Guide products often get hundreds, even thousands of sales).
12. If you can get a major retailer to sell your products, include that information in your pitch. Gift Guide Editors feel more comfortable recommending products sold by major retailers.
Remember . . . throughout the year the media is working on Gift Guides. Use the
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