Seasonal pitching for the key gifting seasons is critical for gift companies. When doing these time-sensitive pitches you need to be sure of the “lead times” of the magazines and blogs you are targeting. Lead times refers to how far ahead a publication works. Some monthly magazines work to create content two to four months in advance of publication, so pitch Easter starts at the end of December/beginning of January!
You need to plan your pitch in advance and give the publication plenty of time to feature it in a relevant edition and generate the maximum coverage across blogs, online gift guides and print magazines. Here is a quick reminder about lead times:
Long Lead date: Quarterly, bi-monthly and monthly glossy magazines regularly work between 2 and 5 months ahead of seasonal events. It’s very important to have your high-res seasonal images available for journalists to download this far in advance.
Short Lead date: To get press coverage for the weekly magazines and daily newspapers, we recommend having your images ready to download 1 week to 2 months prior to the season/event.
Focus on your images
Ensure you have plenty of high-res images that are Easter-related, whether they encompass decorations, gifts, pastel-coloured products etc. If you have an image library on Press Loft, definitely ensure you have everything uploaded and ready for journalists to browse.
Get your images cut out
Look at having some of your images deep etched if you haven’t already, as this is the most common image style for gift guide features.
Important keywords
Don’t forget to update your product keywords on Press Loft appropriately to include words like Easter, bunny, eggs, gift, present, gift for her, gift for him, foodie etc.
Send a press release
Send a Easter-related press release to journalists; that may be a gift guide or an Easter trend, or a shout out about new products arriving just in time for Easter.
If you don’t have new products to promote, this doesn’t mean you have to miss out on utilising our press release service. Journalists also love specific gift category ideas like “Easter gifts under £20”. Easter also falls on a long weekend so any press releases on entertaining or Easter party decorating would also be a good idea.
Dining and decorating
Don’t just think decorations and chocolate when working on your Easter PR – all things dining and entertaining are popular for features around family occasions.
Pricing info
Ensure that all of your product images on Press Loft have prices saved in the correct field. You’ll notice that every product feature in magazines will show a RRP, so having this information readily available for journalists will make inclusions in features easier, and will help when journalists are searching via price points on Press Loft.
We’re always here to give brands a helping hand too, so if you have some questions about securing maximum results this Easter please don’t hesitate to drop us a line at info@pressloft.com