It’s time to plan your Christmas PR now! with Jenna Farmer

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:01

Welcome to the Bring Your Product Idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell. I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started. Hi. Today on the podcast, I've invited back Jenna Farmer. Jenna is a journalist in PR and I've invited her back onto the podcast to talk to us about PR specifically for Christmas. I'm of the belief and understanding that Christmas is a great time to get PR if you sell products because there'll be lots of journalists looking for opportunities to feature them. Um, and I think that even if you haven't done any PR up until this point, now is a really good time to get started. Jenna explains in the episode, the best time is now. Um, I mean, this episode is going out on an early October and Jenna informs me that it would have been better if we could have done it in September or even August. Believe it or not, that seems really early to think about Christmas to me, but um, yes, but this is not too late. There are still plenty of opportunities out there and Jenna's going to explain to you how you can find opportunities, how you can pitch journalists, the kind of information you need to send and everything that you could need to know about getting your products into publications for this Christmas. So I'd love now to reintroduce you to Jenna. So hi Jenna, thank you for being here again.

Jenna Farmer: 00:01:29

No problem. Thank you for having me.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:31

So for anyone who hasn't listened to your previous episode, which we'll link to in the show notes, can you just give us a really brief introduction into who you are and what you do?

Jenna Farmer: 00:01:40

So hi everyone. I'm Jenna and I am a journalist and PR and I help businesses get into the media, whether that's magazines, newspapers, podcasts. Um, and that's what I do.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:01:52

Thank you, Jenna. So as I mentioned, this is the second time you've joined me on the podcast and today I've invited you on specifically to talk about Christmas PR because this episode is going out in the beginning of October and Christmas is going to be here sooner than we think. So the first thing I would like to ask you, Jenna, is when is the right time to start thinking about Christmas PR?

Jenna Farmer: 00:02:16

So now is the right time. So, um, from a PR's perspective that's doing it every day, obviously we're starting to get stuff sorted sort of the end of July, start of August. Um, but it works a little bit differently now. Like many years ago, there was only print magazines and we know that print magazines, uh, sort of work between three to five months ahead of time, which means that, you know, many years ago, when there was only print magazines, sort of PR had to be sort of finished for Christmas. Um, and that was where sort of in the industry, we have this phrase called Christmas in July and all of the sort of press releases and the press events for Christmas would be July. However, obviously that has changed now because we've got so much online content. So now a lot of the brands and a lot of the publications that are online start working on it in September. So there's often Christmas in September events instead. So. If you're being really, really organized and you're really, really determined, August, September is brilliant. If you're listening to this and you've just, you know, life has got in the way and things have been busy, that's okay, there is still lots of opportunities that are coming up that might be for weekly magazines or online magazines that are publishing more frequently. But, you do need to start now because by the time we get to sort of November, December, um, a lot of those publications will almost be thinking about the new year, they have to sort of get their Christmas content done and start looking towards the new year. So if you're listening to this, now, it would be the perfect time to get going.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:03:52

That's brilliant. Thank you. I wanted to start off with that because, yeah, I know that when, when we spoke before we started recording and I said, when should we be thinking about it? And you went, oh, before now, really, let's just start with that. So everyone's really clear that if you listen to this episode and you're inspired and you want to go and get some press for Christmas. Get to it now.

Jenna Farmer: 00:04:12

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:04:13

Um, so something else I'd like to ask Jenna is obviously I've invited you on to talk about Christmas PR. How is PR at Christmas different to PR at other times of the year? Um, that might, I don't know if that's a silly question, but you know, how, how is it, how is it different? I mean, are you, are the benefits different? I mean, if someone hasn't done much PR all year and it's October, um. Yeah, why should they think about it for Christmas?

Jenna Farmer: 00:04:42

So obviously we're really talking about product based businesses here. Service based businesses can of course, get involved as well. But obviously, you know, the reason PR is different around Christmas time, is it is very shopping driven. It's very, uh, gift guide driven. At the end of the day, we spend spend more money on gifts around Christmas time, so therefore publications will be printing all sorts of different gift guides to cater that and essentially make money themselves from the traffic and from the revenue of affiliates and things like that. So, uh, there is a massive drive at Christmas time for gift guides, which is really just articles that sum up the best gifts for X, Y, Z, in all sorts of different categories. And that's because we ourselves are making so many more purchases and making so many more buying decisions. So for product based businesses, we tend to see less sort of, um, you know, when I work with a product based business, there's all sorts of ways that we can work together. But at Christmas time, the vast majority of ways to work publications are these sort of buying guides, these shopping guides that we all read, we all flick through, all influences, you know, when it's two o'clock in the morning and you can't decide. You are on your phone searching best gift for somebody that is impossible to buy gifts for, best gift for a new baby. All of those sorts of things that we're figuring out and searching for is what is driving the content at Christmas.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:06:02

That's brilliant. Thank you. And what I'm hearing from that is that for products businesses, even if you've done no PR all year, this could actually be a really good time because presumably journalists are looking to feature products, maybe more so than other times of the year. So if you've maybe missed out on opportunities today, or you just haven't done anything, it sounds to me like, yeah, for products businesses, this is actually a really good time.

Jenna Farmer: 00:06:27

Yeah. And it's like, for example, you know, sometimes product based businesses struggle to sort of feel like where they could fit in. Like say, if you've got like a dog brand, um, that's like, I don't know, dog clothes or dog shampoo, you might think, well, who is writing about that? But with Christmas, it's, it's. We've already done the guesswork for you, you know that this sort of content is going to be published. So, um, yeah, there are so many more opportunities, I think, at Christmas. And as I say, because there's so much being written, it gives you an idea. You don't have to do the guesswork because all of these gift guides will be looking.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:07:00

Perfect. So is gift guides what we should be going for? Are there any other opportunities or would you say focus on gift guides?

Jenna Farmer: 00:07:07

I mean, gift guides is really around Christmas, but of course with PR, you know, there's things that you can do like competitions with magazines or, you know, January, for example, if you're like a health food business, you know, in January, there will be things like, you know, 10 best things to buy to get your New Year's off to a good start. Start, there'll be things like that. And of course although um, you're a product-based business, there is always opportunities to tell your story as well, so might not be necessarily something that is, got lots of opportunities at Christmas, but all year long. For example, I was just sharing in my PR membership, you know, there will be people that do like meet the founder question and answers or, you know, um, interviews with them or being on podcasts. All of that stuff keeps going, but I think with Christmas, um, you know, and a lot of businesses that are product businesses, you know, they know themselves, they take a lot more revenue at Christmas, you know, Christmas is where all their customers come from. So there's pre order opportunities all year round. It doesn't have to be gift guides, but the most obvious thing is gift guides for a lot of product based businesses.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:10

That makes sense. Thank you. And it also sounds like this is a good opportunity to drive your sales as well, because if you can get included, presumably in the right gift guide, and we'll talk about that in a moment.

Jenna Farmer: 00:08:20

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:08:21

This could be a really good opportunity for customers to find you as well.

Jenna Farmer: 00:08:24

Yeah. And it's, it does, it's a few different things. It's really great for. Get people to find you. It's also really great for that authority. So, you know, like if you've got your sales page and, you know, I'm looking at your product and it says, you know, like say it's a wine, you know, was featured in good food magazine, then those customers make those buying decisions. We all do it. I remember when my son was little, I think I've told this story before, but, uh, you know, I didn't know what to buy. I was a new mom. So I was just reading. And when it said like, oh, it's won in a mother and baby award or it was in Grazia. I'm like, oh, I'll just get that one then. So all of those things really influence our buying decision. So that's, that's another way it can help even with your existing customer base as well.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:09:05

Yeah, that makes sense because I guess it just gives you a bit of authority, doesn't it? You've been in a magazine, publication, whatever it is. So, okay. So we know that gift guides are a good opportunity, but how do we find them? And how do we know, as a product business, it's like which gift guides we should be going for, or where even has them? Because you're right. If I Googled, I don't know the best Christmas presents to, get my dog. Presumably I'm going to get lots of results. Um, but if I were trying to sort of pitch that for, for a guide, I don't think I'd know where to start. Or is it as simple as doing that Jenna? Do you just Google that and see who's running that?

Jenna Farmer: 00:09:43

It depends on the product. Like, if your product is really niche, then it can definitely be worth doing that sort of thing. Um, because, you know, sometimes, you know, for example, if you've got a candle, then that is, you know, that could be in 20 different gift guides. But if you've got something a lot more niche, like your book, for example, you were asking me about that. So, that is, that's going to be a tricky one because, um, it's going to be maybe gift guide for business owners or, uh, people that, you know, around money and entrepreneurship and all of those sorts of things, perhaps. So then you may be better off doing those searches and actually just typing those search terms in and seeing what publications come up. I talk a lot about Readly or Readly, I'm never sure how you say it, but it's an app that allows you to read lots of magazines at once. So again, if I had something really specific, like another one might be, I've got a menopause client that I work with, she's a menopause expert. So I might be searching for things like, you know, gift guide for over 40s or a menopause gift guide. And those are the sorts of things that even I wouldn't know necessarily what covers them because they are quite niche. So, you know, doing that search, you don't actually see who's covering it. If you've got something that is a lot more general, like you've got like candles or food or things like that, then there's going to be almost too many possibilities that mean that Googling it is not going to necessarily be that helpful. So instead, we need to, we need to figure out who the best person to contact is. So one easy thing to start with can be a local publication. So almost every local magazine, you know, those ones that either come through your door or they have them in like the coffee shops. Um, you know, those sort of local glossy magazines, um, a lot of those will be doing gift guides and they will have sort of online versions as well. So sometimes starting, especially if you've got like a local angle, like it's made in X, Y, and z,. Picking up copies of those magazines. Sometimes you can see online, like last year's Christmas edition, you know, like if you search like December, 2022. And that might give you an idea of like who's writing that gift guide. Um, and that can be a great way to start. Otherwise, you know, there's loads of places to find press opportunities. So a big one I always talk about is Twitter. So, well, I refuse to call it by its new name. I know it's not called Twitter anymore. It's called X, but I mean, what does that even mean? So. Well, let's call it Twitter, but, um, you know, I've just had a press opportunity today. It's only 10. 40 for one of my clients to be in stylist just from Twitter. So Twitter is hashtag journal request and, um, you know, you just use that search function to scroll through. It's not just gift guides, there's other stuff as well, but it is a really great way to just get some ideas from people. Um, you know, I could just see one already saying someone's seeking a Christmas gift guide and, you know, looking for experts. And, uh, so that is a really great free one that I suggest you may be doing once a day. Um, and then there's other things that maybe cost a little bit of money, but that can be worth the investment. So for example, um, editorial is a sort of a press opportunity, um, network that you sort of sign up for. I don't know if you ever use that yourself.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:12:44

Not yet. It's actually you that told me about it, Jenna. I do want to do a trial of that because I know you're probably going to mention this, you can do a free trial that is on my list of things to try. Oh, is that, is that not the right one?

Jenna Farmer: 00:12:57

No, no, no. Well, the, the thing about editorial is, so it's, it's something like nine pound a month. So it's a really low cost way to just sort of dip your toe in the water. You get 60. No, you don't get 60. You used to get 60. You get about 30 opportunities a day, but they just do one email. But you do have to bear in mind that, um, you know, those 30 opportunities could be anything from like a travel expert. But so obviously you're not sure what you're going to get, but it can be a really great way. You know, I tend to maybe just get maybe one piece of press coverage from that a month, but it's what, you know, for me, that's worth it. Um, but so that's one thing you could do as well. It's sort of really low cost, um, a way to, to get an introduction. A lot of publications as well, actually. Put their call out. So it's finished now, but Red did their call out, um, last month and I actually just put it on their website and said, this is how you get in touch with us. And more places are doing that now. So don't feel like, you know, you might actually just stumble across the right contact. Don't feel like you have to have, um, the right, you know, a, have an agency or things like that. You know, red just put on their website and on their Instagram, we're looking for small businesses. This is how to email. Um, so more publications are doing that as well. And you know, if there's a magazine, um, maybe not a magazine, but say if there's a website that you read often, follow the journalists on Instagram. You know, see what they're posting about. Um. And then you might, sometimes they often use their social media as well. So more and more journalists are using their social media, um, to put these call outs out as well. So there are ways around it. I know it feels impossible, but it's just about taking that time to just do that research and, you know, finding things, uh, that could work for you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:14:40

Thank you, Jenna. And if you don't see, so say there's a publication you come across and you think, oh, this would be great if my product was featured here, but you're not seeing the call out for gift guides. Is it okay to contact them proactively and say, I don't know if I'm running many gift guides, but if you are, consider me.

Jenna Farmer: 00:14:57

Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, definitely. So always good if you can, when you're doing that sort of making that connection. So it'd be really great, like if you, you know, say I was reading Stylist and I saw, well, I actually did this other day. I saw that this person for Stylist was always writing about careers. So then straight away I emailed and was like, I know that you always write about careers. I've got this really great client who's a career expert. She could talk about X, Y, and Z. So similarly, you know, it, this is what journalists get hundreds and hundreds of emails a day. So it's very, very, very normal. So it's cold pitch. And all I mean by cold pitch is just, um, you know, just reach out out of the blue. So that is not rude. That is not like that is, you have to do that really to get press coverage. So nothing wrong with you all reaching out, but I would just say do some research there. So I wouldn't just reach out and you've got no idea what they're featuring, what they do. So, you know, having some understanding of what section the journalist writes for, what sort of things they're looking for, um, is the best.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:16:01

Thank you. And final question, Jenna, when we start reaching out and pitching our products, whether it's cold emails or whether we're like responding to tweets or, or however we're doing it. What do we send a journalist and what do they need to know in order to know whether to include us? Because I'm thinking there's probably a fine line here between giving them so much that their eyes glaze over and then not giving them enough information that they can determine whether it's a good fit or not. So what do we tell them?

Jenna Farmer: 00:16:30

Yeah, so ideally you would have a press release. So a press release, um, might be too much to talk about on here, but a press release is really sort of a one page or a little bit over one page document that has got all your key information on. So it's written on in the third person. And, you know, for example, we wrote one for your book, didn't we? For example, so, you know, that would, and it's really simple. Once you, once you've done one, like if you had to write another one now, you'd probably be like, oh, it only took me 10 minutes. It's just understanding the style of press releases. So, you know, for example, in your case, it would be, you know, the title would just be that you've launched this book and what it's going to help people with. Um, and then in your press release. It's just about having that key information. So, you know, with your one, it would be, you know, what the book would cover, where it stopped, what the price is. A little bit about you and why you're the expert to write the book with product based businesses. This is really super easy to do for if you've got a Christmas range, you know, have the title of, um, So, you know, like, for example, I'll just give an example from someone in my membership, like, you know, this skincare brand has just launched their new Christmas collection. Have a bit of information on the skincare brand, and then I'm going to have a few pictures of key products, why they're so great, what the, you know, what the price point is, where you can. you know, where you can buy them and in that press release as well, making it really clear to the journalist, like this is where you can get your images from. This is how you can get in touch with me. So if you, if you can create a press release first, um, and I do have some, I can give you afterwards, like I might have a podcast episode or I might have a free link on how to do that. I'll see which one's the best. I can maybe put it in the show notes for you. But, um, so have a press release if you can, if you don't have a press release, don't be put off, but the key things that you need to have ready for the journalist are some pictures and we don't want to send them loads of attachments. If you've got like a we transfer or a drop box, that'd be great. Obviously, I know this sounds really obvious, but links ready to go because a lot of people think, oh, I haven't actually got this products up yet. And that is just of no help to the journalist. So a shoppable link in terms of just directing them to the product. Um, and yeah, in your email, whenever you're emailing, so even if you're listening to this and maybe you're not going to do gift guides, but you're going to do something else next year, I always just say to do three things. So the first thing that we do when we email is just say who you are and what you do. So, you know, I'm Jenna and I'm a PR expert and I help businesses get in the media. The next thing is to make some sort of connection. So this is where you might say something like, I listened to your last podcast episode. I know that you cover, or you know, I know you cover healthy gifts. I know that you are working on X, Y, Z. I love the magazine, and I think this would be really great for this section. Anything to show the journalist that you understand what they're working on. And then how you can help. So when I say how you can help, it's really reframing and thinking, I'm not going to just email you loads of great things about me for the sake of it. How can you help the journalists with their story? So really spell out, you know, what you, what's interesting, you know, what you can offer, whether it's, you know, I think this would be perfect for your gift guide because it's sustainable, it's made in England, all of those key things. Um, and also making sure with how you can help, letting the journalists know, making their life as easy as possible. So that's when you can say, here's my press release, or here's a link to the images. If you want a sample, just let me know your address. Um, this is how you can get in touch with me, anything that you can do to make it as easy as possible. So those three things, like who are you and what do you do, and obviously try and make that sound exciting and unique. Um, I forgot the last thing I'm saying, them, I'm saying them really, oh yeah, make the connection, uh, make the connection with the journalists, and then how you can help them. And those three questions, that will help you with whatever you're pitching really, because it's, I do the same, whether it's a podcast guest, whether it's to write an article, it's a gift guide, just have those three questions in your mind.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:20:42

That's super helpful. Thank you Jenna, and thank you because I think you've made this hopefully, um, for everyone else, certainly for me a lot, you know, you, it's a lot, it feels a lot easier. It feels like it's a lot doable. So thank you for being so practical because I think now we can all go away and start looking for opportunities, um, and pitching. And um, yeah, if you can please make sure you send me over some sort of resource for the press release. We'll get that included in the show notes as well. And then hopefully everyone has everything they need to get going.

Jenna Farmer: 00:21:13

Yeah, and I thought I'd just add as well, it isn't really a big like, you don't have to be like, I am doing PR, be like, really, really, you can just take one step and I actually just posted on Instagram yesterday, just saying, you know, for some people, the difference between the coverage and not the coverage is just sending the email, you know, I've had some people who, um, I've asked for a bit of PR help, and then maybe just sent a couple of emails, and they got one piece of coverage, and that's okay for now, then they're going to try again. So it doesn't have to feel like a big, like I'm going to commit to doing PR every day, or you could just literally test the waters, see what happens. If it doesn't work, then January, okay, what could we do instead? You know, could I try podcasts? Could I try writing something? Could I be interviewed as a founder? So it doesn't have to feel like a massive commitment because it is so simple. Like I said, even if you're just looking on a journalist request on Twitter, even if you're just flicking through magazines, all of these are just little steps for PR rather than having to go, right, I'm going to do so much PR now.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:12

That's really helpful, Jenna. And I can say as well from my experience that I've been trying to get a little bit, as you know, I've been working to try and get a little bit more PR this year. And actually it's not as much work as I initially thought. And you're right. Sometimes just filling in the online form or sending the email does lead to something. Sometimes it doesn't, but actually it, once you've got a press release and you've done it a few times, when you do spot those opportunities, it does make. You can literally send an email in two or three minutes and then.

Jenna Farmer: 00:22:41

Exactly.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:22:42

And maybe it'll make, it won't.

Jenna Farmer: 00:22:43

That's, yeah. I think people get really disheartened about when they don't get a reply, but I always think like, you know, there's so many other types of marketing, like, you know, Instagram, like, you know, we do an Instagram post, but that's, you know, maybe it takes you 10 minutes to do a reel, but if you don't get any new customers from that. You don't just think, well, I'm never doing Instagram again. It's just one of those things to do that, isn't it? And then the next day you might do something and you might get five new customers. And it's just like that with PR as well. But I think you're right. Like people just, um, you know, send the email, um, and then nothing back. And then think, wow, this was a waste of time. I was, you know, so it's like you say, it's just having those expectations of let's just see what happens. And let's just keep putting myself out there in small ways. Um, and seeing the results.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:23:28

Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. Um, thank you so much, Jenna. That's so, so helpful. I think it's really, and I think that's really reassuring that final reminder as well, because you're right. But I think also as well, and if you don't mind me adding, I think as someone who's been trying to do some PR, I think the more, almost the more you don't hear back, the easier it gets as well. Like the first couple of times you can take it a bit personally and think, oh, they didn't, they don't think it's any good, but actually it just becomes like, oh, well, um, nevermind. And then when you do get a bit of coverage, it kind of, yeah, it feels like a win. So I think, yeah, yeah, it's, I think it's one of those things where you just need to get started. And I do think again, coming back to the episode. I do think as well, Christmas is a really good time for products because I think most of us, whatever we're selling, there will be a gift guide or an article somewhere that suits our customers, our product. So I think it's actually, I'm not going to say it's easier, but I feel like for products businesses, there are going to be maybe more obvious opportunities this time of year as well. So I think it's supposed to be a really good time if you've never done any before, so just get started.

Jenna Farmer: 00:24:39

Yeah.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:40

And, um, And see how you go, because I'm sure at the moment journalists list like, you know, they want to hear about our products.

Jenna Farmer: 00:24:46

Yeah. Definitely.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:49

Oh, well, thank you so much, Jenna.

Jenna Farmer: 00:24:54

Thank you.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:24:54

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg. com. Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.