Hello Editors! Product PR Gifting Guide For Brands

Hello Editors! Product PR Gifting Guide For Brands

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Product PR Gifting Guide For Brands

It’s important to take a moment to appreciate that magazine editors and bloggers get sent huge amounts of products to sample in the hope that a well-written article can catapult them into sales stardom.

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So how do you cut through the noise and make your product really stand out? By being selective, creative, personal… and generous.

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Here’s our Product PR Gift Guide:

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1. Before you start:  Your pitch begins before you even pick your sample from the shelf.

In an ideal world, you’d be able to send product samples to everyone, and in turn everyone would write glowing articles about your range. Perfect but for two key elements: time and money. So when you have limited time and a conservative budget, your first step is selection.

Only send samples to journalists in your target publication pool. Identify who is likely to write about you (and when) so you can focus of knocking your product gift pitch out of the park. Quality over quantity.

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2. Take your time:

• Make the gift itself personal to the recipient: almost all journalists and naturally all bloggers have social media profiles, so you can do some research about their preferences and if possible, tailor your pitch to match. When you’re researching to gain that personal touch, remember there’s a line between considered and creepy. Go for the former.
• Choose the best sample of a product in your range. The BEST. And since you’re only sending to a targeted list, be generous… be worth writing about.
• ‘Dear Sir / Madam…’ ‘To Whom It May Concern…’ Ban those intros right now! First & last names only.
• Address your gift by hand. With beautiful handwriting (call that Aunt who did an evening class in calligraphy if you need to…) Success is in the details.
• For the love of Pommery: Wrap the gift before putting it in the postage box. Go for glam. Build curiosity, intrigue and desire. Be your own velvet box, baby.
• Make sure this inner wrapping is crease-free and crisp. We’ve been known to iron tissue paper for client campaigns…
• …And we’ve even straightened silk ribbon with our GHDs #truestory
• Tell your Aunt to keep hold of the pen: always include a handwritten note about the product itself. Be personal, be human. It’s fine to include other on-brand marketing material and press details, but the note itself is crucial.
• It doesn’t take long to make sure all your scotch tape is hair-free and of equal length when you’re wrapping. Well, not that much longer…
• Try to deliver your gift in person. Or, via mariachi band.
• …But if you can’t, make sure you get the postal address right: even if you need to call the publication 10 times, you want to be sure that your gift is received in tact, to the right person in the right department.

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3. Follow-up:

Wait a few days – but not as long as a week – and follow-up with each contact individually. But rather than applying pressure for the coverage (as hard as this sounds:) detach from the outcome and try to build a relationship first. The best of intentions, combined with the best of strategies, will always get you there in the end.

.To your Product PR success!

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