Plan your Christmas PR with Jenna Farmer

Hi. So nice to talk to you all. This week. I

am recording this episode, or this intro, I should say, in

are turning to quarter four and Christmas. And with that in

mind, I wanted to re release one of my most popular episodes from this time

last year, which was when I spoke to Jenna Farmer about how to

plan your Christmas PR last year. That episode was released

in, I believe, mid October. And some of the feedback I got from

Jenna at the time she actually says is in the interview is actually, it would

be much better if we could put it out in September to give everyone a

little longer. So with that in mind, I wanted to re release

this episode because what was you thought in

2023 still applies now. And there's so much you can take from

this episode if you're looking to get some pr around your products before Christmas. But

I wanted to share with you that a little bit earlier to give you a

bit more time to implement the things that Jenna speaks about. So,

as I say, this is a re release. So everything you're about to hear was

depending when you're listening. And I really hope that you

enjoy. This episode of Jenna. Again, as I say, there's so much practical

advice in here. So if you're looking to get some pr for your products

this year, there's plenty for you in this episode.

So, hi, Jenna. Thank you for being here again. No problem.

Thank you for having me. 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?

So, hi, everyone. I'm Jenna, and I am a journalist in PR,

and I help businesses get into the media, whether that's magazines,

newspapers, podcasts, and that's what I

do. Brilliant. 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? So

now is the right time. So 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, but it works a little bit differently

now. Like many years ago, there was only print magazines. And

we know that print magazines 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 in July. 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, 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 would be the perfect time to get going. That's

brilliant. Thank you. I wanted to start off with that because, yeah, I know

that 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. 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? I don't know if that's a

silly question, but, you know, 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.

Yeah. Why should they think about it for Christmas? 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 gift guide driven. At the end

of the day, we 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 there is a massive drive at Christmas time

for gift guides, which is really just articles that sum up the

best gifts for XYZ 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, 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

to get someone, 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. 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 to date or you just haven't done anything,

it sounds to me like, yeah, for products businesses, this is actually a really good

time. 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 that's like, I don't know, dog

clothes or dog shampoo, you might think, well, who is writing about that? But with

Christmas, we've already done the guesswork for you, you

know, that this sort of content is going to be published. So, 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 perfect. So as gift guides, what we should be going

for, are there any other opportunities, or would you say focus on gift

guides? No, 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, ten best things to buy to get your New Year's off

to a good start. There'll be things like that. And of course, although

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, interviews with them or being on podcasts, all of that

stuff keeps going. But I think with Christmas, 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 prior 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. 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. Yeah, this could be a really

good opportunity for customers to find you as well. Yeah, and it

does. It's a few different things. It's really great for getting 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, what's 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, 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 a mother and baby award or it was in grazie, I'm like, I'll

just get that one then. So all of those things really influence our buying

decision. So that's another way it can help even with your existing

customer base as well. Yeah, that makes sense because

I guess it just gives you a bit more 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

present to get my dog, presumably I'm going to get lots of results.

But if I were trying to sort of pitch that 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

article? It depends on the product. Like if your product is really

niche, then it can definitely be worth doing that sort of thing

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 was asking me

about that. So that is, that's going to be a tricky one because

it's going to be maybe gift guide for business owners or 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 Readley or Readley, 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, give guide for over 40

or 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 searching and actually seeing 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 figure out who the best

person to contact is. So one easy thing to start with

can be 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, you know, those sort of local glossy magazines,

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

and that might give you an idea of like, who's writing that gift? Cardinal.

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 let's call it Twitter. But, you know, I've just

to be in stylist just from Twitter. So Twitter is hash

journorequest. And, you know, you just use

that search function, 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. You know, I could just see one already saying someone's

seeking a Christmas gift guide and looking for experts.

So that is a really great free one that I suggest you maybe doing once

a day. And then there's other things that maybe cost a

little bit of money, but that can be worth the investment. So, for example,

editorial is a sort of a press opportunity

network that you sort of sign up for. I don't know if you ever use

that yourself. Not yet. It's actually, you

told me about it, Jenna, and I do want to do a trial of that

because I know you're probably going to mention this, so you can do a free

trial. That is on my list of things to try. Oh, is that

not the right one? No. Well, the thing about editorial

is, so it's something like nine pounds 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 get used to about 60. You get

about 30 opportunities a day, but they're just in one email. But

you do have to bear in mind that, you know, those 30 opportunities

could be anything from like, a travel expert. 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.

But so that's one thing you could do as well. It's sort of really low

cost a way 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

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 the right, you

know, 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. So more publications are doing that as well.

And, you know, if there's a magazine, 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, and then

you might sometimes, they often use their social media as well. So more and more

journalists are using their social media 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 that could work

for you. 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 a call out

for gift guides. Is it okay to contact them proactively and say, I don't know

if I've run any gift guides, but if you are considering it, is

that sort of the dumbest thing? Oh, 100%, 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 say, I

was reading stylist and I saw, I actually did this the other day, I

saw that this person for stylist was always writing about

careers. So then straight away I emailed and I thought, 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, this

is what journalists get, hundreds and hundreds of emails a day. So it's very,

very, very normal. There's cold pitch and all I mean by cold

pitch is just, you know, just reach out of the blue. So that is

not rude. That is not like that. 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

is the best. Thank you. And

final question, Jenna. When we start reaching out and pitching our products, whether

it's cold emails or whether we're 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? Yeah, so ideally,

you would have a press release. So a press release

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've done

one, like, if you had to write another one now, you'd probably be like, oh,

it only took me ten 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. And then in your press release, it's just about

having that key information. So with your one, it would be

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, have the title of

your Christmas range, for example. I'll just give an

example from someone in my membership. 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, 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

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 Dropbox, that'd be

great. Obviously, I know this sounds really obvious,

but Link's ready to go because a lot of people think, oh, I haven't actually

got these products up yet, and that is just of no help to the journalist.

So a shoppable link in terms of just, you know, directing them

to the product 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, you know, I know you cover healthy gifts. I

know that you're working on XYZ, 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

journalist 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 and

also making sure with how you can help, letting the journalist

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. 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.

I forgot the last, make the connection.

Make the connection with the journalist and then how you can help them. And those

three questions that will help you with whatever you're pitching, really, because I

do the same. Whether it's a podcast guest, whether it's to write an article, whether

it's a gift guide, just have those three questions, questions in your mind.

That's super helpful. Thank you, Jenna. And thank you. Because I think

you've made this, hopefully for everyone else, certainly for

me, a lot. You know, it's a lot. It feels a lot easier. It feels

like a lot do. So thank you for being so practical because I think now

we can all go away and start looking for opportunities

and pitching. And, 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. 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 post

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 have asked for a bit of pr help and they've maybe

just spent a couple of emails and they got one piece of coverage and that's

okay for now, and 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 journal requests 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. 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, once you've got a press release and you've done

a 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.

Exactly. And maybe it won't. Yeah, I

think people get really disheartened about when they don't get 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, you

know, maybe it takes you ten 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, isn't it? And then the next day 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, you know, send the

email and then nothing back and they think, well, 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 and seeing the results.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Okay, thank you so much, Jenna. That's 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 is,

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, never mind.

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. 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 possibly a really

good time if you've never done any before, to just get started

and see how you go. Because I'm sure at the moment journalists list, like, you

know, they want to hear about our products. Yeah,

definitely. Oh, well, thank you so much, Jenna.

Thank you. Thank you so

much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do remember that you can

get the full back catalog 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.