As one would soak and baste a turkey before the big day to ensure it’s as its best, businesses that want to showcase products and services in the run up to the festive period also need to prep – starting Christmas PR and marketing campaigns as early as possible.
With journalists eager for Christmas content, starting your efforts straight after summer will only serve you well; putting your products and services to the front of the media queue – which gets longer and longer with time – as every business tries to claw for attention in an over-saturated Christmas media storm.
At Jennie Holland PR, we know a thing or two about getting your products and services noticed and when it comes to Christmas, we’re plotting plans whilst the summer sun is still hot.
We’ve put together five tips to consider if you want to ‘sleigh’ PR this Christmas:
1. Get in first
Journalists looking to plan festive features or fill Christmas gift guides will be working way ahead of December to secure relevant products for pages, so looking into planned media features and jumping on journo requests on social media is so important. If you’re looking to secure quality media coverage for products, be sure to send information/content and images in a clear format to journalists so it’s as easy as possible for them to use in the lead up to the big day.
2. Be proactive with Christmas PR
As well as reacting to media requests, it’s just as vital that you contact journalists proactively to see what opportunities are out there and make your products or services known. Proactive and regular sending of product information is also crucial for getting the key messages of your business and its offering in front of the right audiences. Whilst journalists can indicate what they want, they are just as happy when you send relevant ideas and information to them.
3. Be as informative and visual as possible
When contacting journalists, keep content short, simple and clear in the form of a press release or product pitch. If possible, include as many images of the product or service as you can so journalists can get an overall visual representation of your offering. For retail items – it goes without saying, always include product prices and list stockists details.
4. Have plenty of samples prepared
Often journalists will want to sample products in order to feature them and they will ask for samples to be sent to them. It’s advisable to ensure that stock is available specifically for the Christmas period.
5. Be ready
If you’re generating some great PR around your products or services, then it’s important to ensure that stock is available to buy and there is capacity in the team for a spike in demand of your services. There’s nothing worse than not being able to deliver when you have interested customers.
If you need help with your Christmas PR, you know where we are…