No Products to Pitch? Learn How to Work Your Clients in as Sources for the Holidays
Plus: A slew of handy holiday resources all in one easy toolbox
Happy Thursday Top Tier Consulting Crew!
As we approach the official start of fall, writers and publicists have one thing on their minds: Holiday Gift Guide pitching. That’s right. It’s time (to get you completely dialed in, we have a ton of helpful links below to make sure that you’re set up to rock your pitching this season).
But holiday pitching isn’t just about products. It’s also a great time to pitch clients to be sources for a variety of different article topics. We’re diving in deep to that this week.
Pitching 2024 holiday gift guides? Here are our most popular HGG Resources!
Here are all our resources to help with your holiday gift guide efforts:
The ULTIMATE INSIDER’S GUIDE to Holiday Gift Guide Pitching Workshop (one full hour of best practices, sample subject lines, a checklist of what to include in your pitch, advice for how to stand out from the crowd, tips for getting your sources included, examples of real HGG pitches that worked and answers to your most pressing questions)
Christmas in August Zoom Q&A with Affiliate Marketing Expert Sarah Karger (this will answer ALL your affiliate-related HGG questions!)
A Real-Life Example of an HGG Product Pitch Format that Most Writers Will Delete (hint: Don’t do this!)
What NOT to Pitch in a Holiday Gift Guide (seriously, save these pitches for another time)
A Handy-Dandy Checklist of 10 Things to Double-Check Before Sending Your Pitch (don’t send another pitch before making sure you’ve included everything a journalist needs!)
Book a 1:1 Consulting Session With Us for September (We only have 2 spots left!)
Want to tackle a client issue, have your pitches perfeceted or pick our brains? We offer a variety of consulting packages. Contact us at info@toptierconsulting.NET or fill out this form for more information. Here are a few of our most popular sessions:
All Your Questions Answered Session
Have a bunch of questions you’ve been dying to ask two top-tier journalists? Here’s your chance to learn about what goes on behind the scenes. Book a panel with us and prepare your list. You’ll walk away with all of your questions answered, plus we’ll sprinkle in our best practices throughout the session to help give you (and your clients!) an edge in this highly competitive media landscape.
Pitch Perfecting Strategy Session
Ready to take your pitches to the next level? Or are you wondering why certain pitches aren’t getting much response? Learn how to take your emails from, “Here’s a client I represent,” to “Here’s a story idea you can’t possibly turn down.” Between the two of us, we receive thousands of pitches per week, so we have many tips — and examples — of what works and what doesn’t. From coming up with the perfect email subject line to improve your open rates to sealing the deal with your closing remarks, your word choices matter throughout the entire pitch. We’ll help you perfect them.
Become a Journalist’s BFF: Networking and Relationship Management Session
Some publicists seem to have a transactional “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” approach to their work, but highly successful publicists know that building long-term relationships with journalists is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Learn how to meet new journalists, and discover best practices for staying in touch, following up, and creating meaningful relationships. You’ll also discover how to become a writer’s go-to source, how to stand out when answering a writer’s call for sources (whether that’s on HARO, a FB group, Twitter, or Substack), how to avoid common writer pet peeves and more.
Press Package 101 Session
Looking to mail out samples of your clients’ products in hopes of landing coverage? Great, but there’s a list of things you should know before dropping them off at the post office — things like planning, packaging, and communications will make all the difference in your ROI. We’ll help you make your packages more enticing, while actually saving your clients money in the process. And we’ll discuss how to target the right audiences, how to handle post-delivery follow-ups, and more.
Press Trips Invites and Itineraries Session
The two most important aspects to pulling off a successful press trip is nailing your invites and itineraries. First, we’ll dive into journalist targeting and invitation etiquette do’s and don’ts. Then, you’ll learn how to build a press trip itinerary that will actually land you coverage. We’ll focus on striking the perfect blend between offering media the chance to experience a destination, while zeroing in on quality and unique experiences that can lead to coverage — and help you find that elusive balance between keeping writers entertained vs. not overbooking them.
Hosting the Perfect Virtual and/or In-Person Media Event Session
Events are efficient ways to connect with a lot of media in one setting. During these sessions, you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to create a media event that journalists will A) Want to attend B) Will stay engaged at C) Will work into coverage. We’ll teach you how to target the ideal attendees who are there for article ideas and not just the free swag. We’ll talk venues, guest lists, and what to say in your presentation, plus how to coach your clients to interact with media at events in the most beneficial way.
Your Custom Session
The above options are just a sample of topics, based on questions we get asked about most frequently. But if you have something you’d love to discuss that you don’t see on the list, we’re happy to create a custom session around it. Let’s dive deeper!
Now onto this week’s topic: How to Work Your Sources Into Holiday Coverage
It may seem like the holiday season is ALL about products, and it kinda is — but that doesn’t mean there are no opportunities for clients who are awesome experts! Plenty of holiday stories lean on interviews with experts and that means your clients ARE needed this time of year! It just takes a little creativity to figure out how to position them and find the right opps.
So read on as we tackle this topic, we’ll share tips and tricks for getting your clients more interviews this season:
Have a talk with your clients now and start coming up with a game plan
Ask them what types of things they are hearing in their industries around the holidays. Are people coming into therapist’s offices stressed about having to spend time with family this holiday season? Are finance or retail experts hearing about cool new apps to help you save money this season? Are personal trainers finding new ways to inspire clients to enjoy the holidays without indulging? Are moms finding new hacks to help them find shortcuts to get things done over the holidays?
If so, people probably want to hear about these! Anything trending, new or interesting is worth pitching. And what better way to find out about these than from the lips of a subject matter expert who works in a particular industry where these things are trending?
Shoot, there’s a paywall and the rest of our best advice lives beyond it! Not a paying member? Upgrade your membership to read the rest of this newsletter and gain access to:
Full access to our weekly newsletters
Access to our extensive archive of paid posts on every PR topic under the sun
The ability to attend/participate in our monthly Zoom Top Tier Talks
Discounts on all our most popular group workshops (like our upcoming Pitch Perfecting Workshop)
*Note: Our consulting sessions, workshops, Zooms and Substack newsletters are strictly educational. Signing up for anything has no bearing on landing coverage in any of our outlets. Our role is to fine-tune your approach and tactics so that you can apply these learnings when pitching other journalists.