Selling at Christmas? Promote in the summer!

Although most of us haven’t even set off for our summer holidays, forward thinking brands, journalists and bloggers have already begun thinking about Christmas. Less than six short months away, this key selling season gets bigger and bigger every year. Companies who want to make the most of it need to make sure they’re ready to begin promoting their products while the summer sun is still high in the sky, otherwise they could miss out on vital PR opportunities.

To ensure your company takes full advantage of the lucrative festive season, we’ve put together a guide for creating an effective Christmas PR plan. For this guide we’ll be using new client Whitebeam Gift as our example brand. This well-organised company is already getting its name out there and getting ready for Christmas.

Research

When putting a PR plan together for a product or brand, the first thing you’ll need to do is some research. Take a look through as many magazines as you can to find out which are most relevant to your industry or target audience and which run Christmas gift guides. For Whitebeam Gifts this covered national magazines, national newspapers, regional magazines, regional newspapers and men’s and women’s lifestyle magazines. As the company also offers a range of boxes for weddings and newborns, it included baby magazines and bridal publications.

As well as printed magazines and newspapers, you need to make sure you promote your products online if you want to reach as many people as possible. Take some time to research bloggers that write about relevant areas.

Contact

Once you’ve made a list of publications and bloggers that run Christmas gift guides and that appeal to your target audience, it’s time to make contact. Put all of this information in a spreadsheet so you can keep track of who you’ve spoken to and what the outcome was.

Christmas in July

One of the key events taking place this summer in preparation for the festive season is Christmas in July. This great new event gives journalists the opportunity to find out which products and brands will be promoting this winter. Whitebeam will be exhibiting this year, and so when their PR team contact magazines, journalists and bloggers they can tell them to visit Whitebeam’s stand and see their beautiful gift boxes for themselves.

If you are planning on attending Christmas in July, take a look at the event’s social media to find out who else will be there. This will give you the chance to network online, learn a little more about the competition and stay ahead of the curve.

Press releases

Before attending Christmas in July or any other PR event, you’ll need to write some press releases. In Whitebeam’s case, this meant compiling five different releases for the different sectors they’re involved with: For him, for her, wedding, baby and Christmas. Once you’ve sent your press releases out, you’ll need to follow up with journalists to answer any questions they may have, to send samples and to encourage them to feature your brand or product.

To find out more about creating a festive PR plan, explore our site or get in touch with a member of our team.