How to Attract Seasonal Shoppers

A couple of years ago, one of my clients was featured in the December "O List" of Oprah Magazine – the publication's Holiday Gift Guide.

That one placement led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of sales. While that is obviously a "home run" in the product publicity world, one thing is for sure: Holiday Gift Guide placements lead to sales.

What are Holiday Gift Guides?

They're those product roundups you see everywhere in the media during fourth quarter, with recommendations for great gifts to buy.

If you sell products, and fourth quarter sales are important to you, this information is critical:

Top magazines accept product submissions for fourth quarter Holiday Gift Guides during the summer. Once their summer deadlines have been reached, they are no longer open to product Gift Guide submissions.

After getting thousands of product publicity placements, I can share with you five ways to make your product irresistible to the media for fourth quarter Holiday Gift Guides:

1) Offer something new. Even if you have no new products this year, you can create something new, by bundling several products together as a gift pack or offering a travel size option. And if you do have something brand new, lead with that product. The media always want to feature the newest thing.

2) Provide something colorful. Check out top magazine Gift Guides and you'll find they are all consistent in one way – they're colorful. Art Directors have lots of input on Gift Guide choices, so give 'em what they want. If your product itself isn't colorful, use colorful packaging, or photos with colorful props.

3) Help others. Some Gift Guide editors require that items included offer a percentage back to a charity. Others ask that you offer readers an exclusive discount on your products. Provide these, and you'll be ahead of the pack that doesn't want to provide these offers.

4) Consider changing your price point. Most Gift Guides are broken down by category: Under $10, Under $25, Under $50 and Under $100. So if you have a product that is $10.99, lowering it to $9.99 makes it available for pitching in the Under $10 category, which generally increases the chances of media coverage (the media is always looking for great, really inexpensive products).

5) Provide great photography. One of the biggest mistakes I see with product companies is offering so-so photos of products. The media usually see a photo of the product before the actual product, and a great photo can make the difference between interest and no interest.

For more information on how you can pitch the media (or have us do it) in an affordable way, please visit.

Margie Zable Fisher is president of Zable Fisher Public Relations,
and author of the Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Kit.
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