How to Pitch Products for Gift Guides and Boost Your Clients’ Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Jun 20, 2022

PR is the best way to support your clients’ holiday marketing campaigns this season, but you can’t rely on just your usual strategies! You need to have a strong, targeted, strategic plan just for the holidays to really support your clients. And getting ahead is key here—especially since there’s so much to think about and prepare for during the holidays.

The main way you’re going to support your clients through the end of the year? Holiday gift guide pitches. Gift guides are some of the most powerful press placements in PR. They’re going to create major momentum for your clients going into the new year.

What Are Holiday Gift Guides?

Honestly, holiday gift guides are the holy grail of PR for product-based businesses. You get to showcase your clients’ products to people who are actively looking for things to buy. And during this time of year, people are usually very open to trying new brands. I mean, boosting your clients’ holiday marketing campaigns doesn’t really get better than that!

Gift guide coverage is super powerful and you should aim to land placements for each of your clients regardless of their niche. Pitching for gift guides is an absolutely essential strategy to master as a PR pro.

Throughout the holiday season, gift guide coverage happens in print and digital media outlets, blogs, and on social media.

But even though there seem to be so many gift guide placements available, it can be really challenging to snag your clients their spots. I mean, everyone is going after the same press! So you have to make your pitches stand out amongst the sea of options journalists are sorting through.

Why Are Gift Guides So Important to Your Clients’ Holiday Marketing Campaigns?

Knowing why gift guides are so essential to your clients’ holiday marketing campaigns seriously helps you improve your pitches. You’ve got to know your audience before you send out a pitch! Here are three reasons why gift guides are key to holiday press.

More People Are Consuming Different Types of Media This Time of Year

The holiday season comes with some much-needed vacation time (for everyone), and with kids out of school and adults home from work, more people are hanging out on the Internet. As a PR pro, you need to take advantage of this online surge and get your clients’ products out there.

The holiday season is an incredible opportunity for you to reach more potential customers for your clients. You’ve got to jump on opportunities as they come and make sure as many people see your clients’ holiday marketing campaigns as possible.

Media Moves Faster Around the Holidays

Media just moves faster this time of year. While everyone else takes time off or slows down for the last few weeks of the year, the media industry keeps a breakneck pace. They’re craving great stories to share with their audiences…and you need to show them why you’re the perfect fit for their next open placement.

Plus, since many PR agencies are also taking time off, this is an amazing opportunity to take advantage of the pitching lull and secure some last-minute placements.

Everyone Is Making a Lot of Purchases

PR pros know that the goal of PR isn’t to drive sales. You also know that direct ROI from press coverage can be hard (if not impossible!) to track, depending on the context. But during the holidays, you have a window of opportunity to actually boost sales with each gift guide placement and really wow your clients.

Their target audiences will be open to new, helpful gifting ideas, so if you can present your clients’ products in a great light, you will see results for their holiday marketing campaigns.

When Should You Start Pitching to Boost Your Clients’ Holiday Marketing Campaigns?

The time to start pitching for holiday gift guides is…RIGHT NOW! It may be only June, but this is truly the time to get everything sorted and start prepping your pitches. Holiday gift guide opportunities start with Black Friday, and we’ll be there sooner than you think!

You need to start the process super early to take advantage of both long- and short-lead gift guides for your clients. Short-lead opportunities can be pitched right up until the week of Christmas, but you should be getting started on long-lead pitches 5-6 months in advance (aka right now!).

How To Start Preparing For The Holidays As a PR Pro

Do your research and get your creative juices flowing AHEAD of time so that you’re not trying to smush all your creativity into a few pitch-writing sessions. Check in with your clients to see what they’re planning and craft unique pitch angles for everything featured in their holiday marketing campaigns. Brainstorm the best outlets to pitch for all of the relevant holidays during this season (everything from Small Business Saturday and Giving Tuesday to New Year’s Eve is fair game!).

Wondering how to tackle holiday gift guide pitching? Join us inside The Pitch Lab—we have annual masterclasses all about holiday gift guides and how to maximize them for your clients. Not to mention, you’ll get access to all our incredible masterclasses, our comprehensive monthly pitching Execution Plans, and core content stacks to help you sharpen your skills.

One major thing that people can easily overlook in the craziness of gift guide prep is to get your clients set up for success before you even start to pitch. Make sure they have their affiliate links ready to be added to their features, gather all of the assets you need from them, and confirm that they have enough inventory on-hand to fulfill orders if you land a huge placement.

Gift guides are absolutely crucial to the success of your clients’ holiday marketing campaigns. You need to start prepping your pitches NOW to take advantage of the best press and give yourself time to craft creative, irresistible angles. If you do, you’ll be setting yourself and your clients up for major success this holiday season!