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Editors' Advice

just remember that editors are people, too. They're not someone scary. That might seem super intimidating because they have a big fancy title and you are an entrepreneur who maybe doesn't have as much experience as they do. But they're people, too. That's their job there at work and just be professional. Don't try to be their best friend if you don't know them just but be genuine. And they really are people, too, or working other jobs and trying to get something done. So remember that, and I think you're gonna have a lot of success in pitching. So now I wanted to share with you guys all of those quotes from the editors that I email them and ask them what they like. So I'm not going to read them all. I'll just give you a couple of seconds to read each one, and then we're going to talk a little bit about it. And a lot of these we've already talked about. But I think sometimes just hearing from them directly has more of an impact. So so here. So the style editor at Travel and Leisure E. I...

think he was a he. He has a great point because what happens a lot is if we see a product that was covered and we have a similar product, we're probably going to get really excited. And we're going to say they just wrote about this last month. They're probably gonna want to write about it again. Let me tell them about it. But that's not always the case. They usually want to wait, and this goes to your question than to how long they want to wait. But if it's a super similar product, they're probably gonna want a little bit of time. So keep it in mind that they wrote a story on this product and maybe six months or year down the line. You can pitch your product similar, and you condemn, definitely refer back to the story. You can say I remember reading a New York February issue that you wrote about, um, packable clothing. If you're looking to do a similar story for this season, I have another great idea for you. So you read the magazine. Don't pitch them something that's exactly similar Teoh what they just wrote about So next. This is unedited er at or on the editorial assistant at Self Magazine. So she talks all about mastheads and the importance, and they make it super easy for you to know who's working on what. So don't call them. Sometimes it's OK to call the main number or the reception desk to maybe try toe. See what editor is working on the holiday gift guide or something like that. Really specific. But you shouldn't call them and say, Hey, are you working on the story or can you refer me to the right person who is working on it again? That's not relevance them. It's not part of their job to direct people to the right editor, so keep that in mind as you are reaching out, and the mastheads are really, really great. They give you all of the information that you need, except for the email address, which sometimes is the most important one. But you can easily get that email address from some of the ways that we've talked about today. So here is a style news editor at people style watch. So you guys take a couple of seconds to read through that. So this is something that we were talking about before where if you are really familiar with the magazine and you know what section of the magazine your products would be a great fit for when you reach out to them, Even though let's say you might not have a specific story in mind if you have a specific section in mind that can go a really, really long way so you can be really specific and say, Hey, id Love Teoh, I just read your section on this. I think the products are great. If you're ever looking for something like this, here is my product. Would you like sample? So just know if you can if there's a section that your products would fit into and he's also saying Never follow up the same day, especially by phone. So sometimes we like to send an email and then think that we have to make a phone call and say, Hey, did you want to? Just wanted to make Just wanted to make sure that you got my email. Um, that's the quickest way to turn them off. So stay away from that exactly. Call them given space. Yeah, so true. Yes, it's true. I mean, yeah, and it is sort of a dating game because you don't really know them. You have to work your way into it and slowly get to know them and see what they like. And they get to know you and your company. So it is kind of like a dating game just going back and forth. Now this is from a local magazine in Austin, So their audience is totally different than the audience of, Let's Say, like a Self magazine or Shape or Marie Claire or something like that. So yeah, so I pitched a lot of times Teoh magazines that were regional because I thought my products. If a woman lives in Austin, she can use them. If she lives in Derm, she can use them. If she's in L. A. She can use them, so why not pitch every single woman's magazine out there? And sometimes it works. I've been able to get featured in some regional magazines, but usually regional magazines and local ones. They really love to profile and feature products and entrepreneurs and things that are going on in their town. So this is a great way to start. If you're in San Francisco, I'm sure there's a local San Francisco magazine that you can pitch. I know when I was in New York, time out, New York was really great and it was local. So think about almost every town has a local magazine and a local paper, so start there and picture to them. And if you think it's something like, maybe you do want to get your product in a magazine in L. A. Just make sure that it's for something more general, like a gift guide or something like that. But again, she saying, Here, your product will not serve the needs of everyone. And that's true. You really have to know who your target market is and what would appeal to a woman in Austin might not be the same thing that would appeal to a woman in Chicago, for example. So just get to know them really well. And I think again that's gonna go a really long way when you are pitching. Oh, okay, so this is from the same editor at Austin Woman magazine and you'll see here. She's saying the same exact thing that the previous editor were saying If you can find out if there's a specific page that you could imagine seeing your products on. That's going to go a really long way again. This is another similar one from a magazine in Seattle. And as you can see, one of her pet peeves is when she's getting pitched from products that are outside of Seattle. So, yes, you might have a great product that moms in Seattle can use. But the whole point of that magazine is to showcase and to highlight things that are going on and are local to Seattle. So if your company is not based there, yes, they probably would be a product or service that people in Seattle can use. But that's now what that magazine is interested in. So just be mindful of that as you are pitching drinkers somebody else this morning and I apologize. I don't have it in front of me who actually posted this. But it was many hours ago they were saying this, noticing a trend that a lot of American magazines right now I only want to proper size or talk about American products, and it's becoming very, very difficult for international companies or individuals to pitch to American magazines. Have you seen that as a trend. You know I have. Yeah, I have seen that. And I know there's a magazine that I just learned about on. I can't remember the title, but it might even be something like made in the USA or something like that, or the Onley feature products that are made in the USA. So if you're an entrepreneur, that's based out of London or Australia or somewhere outside of the USA, and you want to get into the U. S. A. Market, that's probably not gonna be a good fit for you, but I'm definitely seeing a trend towards that. And, ah, lot of people trying to move production to USA and interestingly magazines. If your product is made in the USA ah, lot of times they'll mention that because it's important to them. So there is definitely a trend. So when you are pitching, if you have a product that's made in the USA, make sure to highlight that as one of the features again, that's not a benefit, but it's definitely something that could be important to the magazine, so it's good for them to know about it. All right, so here's a magazine editor from all you, which is, I think, a magazine for teenagers. So you'll see again here. Pitching on topic is so important, and this is why you have to know the magazine that you're pitching because all you might cover teen products, but they're never gonna cover products for women. So even though it couldn't be listed as a women's interest magazine, maybe if you're going to the app amazon dot com, where they have all of the magazine's list that it could be listed under women's. But if you really took a closer look, you've realized that it's a magazine for teens and what teens like and what women like could be completely different. And some teen magazines are more conservative. Other ones are a little more out there. So you again you just have to look at the magazine, see how it fits. Get to know it before you decide if it's a good fit for your products or not, and a couple more quotes that I wanted to share with you. You still works. Yeah, and that will happen a lot, too, because if you get a meat access to media list or you buy a media database sometimes even if they updated on a monthly basis or even on a daily basis. There's hundreds of thousands of editors that are working at these magazines, and they can't always keep up with who is there and even a masthead. Maybe what whoever was at Oprah this month maybe just love their job, where they moved on to something else. So sometimes it's not relevant, and you don't always have the latest information. But if you can try to look at the masthead, make sure that it still fits. Make sure that it's still relevant and that they're working there because if you're going to send a pitch with a topic or to a person that's not even there, they're probably going to delete it, even though a lot of times they will get that person's email because he will be forwarded to them. Because, let's say there were the features editor before this other person that just came on meeting mean one. Yes. So best sign meetings. Yes. Um, I don't have a specific side on desks I meetings, but what Basically what those are is that you call upon editor or you send them an email and you say, Hey, I'm in town for the next couple of weeks. I'm setting up desk side meetings to show my product. Would you be interested in having me come into your office so you can see my products? And I know people who are doing this, especially if they're based out of New York City, where a lot of the magazines are and it really works. They only do it a couple of times a year, and a lot of Times magazine editors don't really have time for it. But what a lot of publishes you and public relations firms. They already have relationships with these magazines, so they will take all of their clients products, set up a meeting with the editor, show up in person. The editor can look at all the products, choose which ones are relevance to them and decide if they want to cover them or not. So it's a really great way Teoh get right in front of them, literally in front of them. I've never done it. I know people who have and it's worked really well, So if you are maybe wanting to pitch a local magazine, I think it's appropriate If you live in a bigger city like New York or L. A. Or Chicago, where there's a lot of magazines based out of there, it's definitely worth a try. The worst that can happen is they say no, or maybe they're too busy. But if you couldn't get in there, it's a different way to stand out from sending an email, and you could really get your product right in front of them. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. And I'm sure I'm glad she brought it up here as well, actually. So that's something that still happens. Yeah, Going well, It are you more likely to get a test site meeting if you are affiliated with the PR firm? Or like, is it less likely? If it's just like me and my company and, you know, Yeah, I think of the pines on their schedule. But I do think if your affiliate with a PR firm that they already have a relationship with great and they already know that person personally, you're probably more likely to be able to get it in there. I know when I was working with a P R firm for my T shirts. Sometimes my account report email Man shoots a Hey, I'm meeting with X Y Z magazine today. Is it okay if I take a couple T shirts? So, yes, So they have a lot more access to them, and these editors are already trusting them because they've worked with them before. So they know they're not gonna waste their time by showing them products that are not relevant. But I think it's worth a try. I think if you guys feel up for it, and if you feel like why not try this? Let's see what happens. Go for it and see what happens. It's the worst that can happen is they say no. So here's another one from Scene Magazine. So I know we've talked about this, just giving them as much information as you can and again not by sending a long email that has all of the information about your company. But make it easy for them. Just embed a picture of your products in your pitch, so that way they can see it. Give them quick facts like the name of your company, how much you're product costs were your based water. Some of the basic features and focus most of your email on the benefits to them and their readers. But sometimes they will appreciate knowing exactly how much a product costs. And when I do a pitch, all say in my last paragraph, I'll say something like Our products are available at soaps to live by dot com, and they retail for $8 will be available at stores across the country. Would you like a sample to test so in down one sentence? I'm already telling them the name of my company, the website, how much it cost, where it's available and asking them if they want to sample. So it's just with one sentence. You really can get all of that across. So don't take this as you have to be super wordy and write a ton of different paragraphs to get everything you need to get out there. And here's another one. So she's encouraging. You hear if the first time didn't work, try again. So obviously the first time I not have worked because your products might not have been a good fit for that issue. Maybe the timing was off, so she's saying, It's OK if you didn't hear anything back or something. Didn't work out. Feel free to try again. So this is something that I've been saying all of the time. Keep trying and keep trying without stocking. So, um, let's see. I have another one. This is another one from really? Ah, more local magazine. So when I saw this, I thought, Wow, sending a pitch by video. I have never thought of that. I wonder how many people are doing that. And I think the answer is that not many people are doing it. So part of my strategy going forward would be to make a video specific for that person just to try it out and see, See how it works. Is this more effective? And, yes, you're gonna have to send an intro email with the video. But how cool would it be? And how different And how much more would you stand out if you send them an email and said, I know you're working on this issue. I made a quick video for you. Do you have a couple of seconds to watch it? And in the video it's you. You introduce yourself, you maybe show them your product or tell them about something that's relevance to them. I think that could be really great and make you really stand out. So I'll be definitely trying that with some of my next pitches, especially maybe four more major magazines, where all of the pictures that they get our via email or via phone I think of video would be would be really cool. Self. If you guys like doing video, consider sending out a video pitch. And I know personally I've been pitched by video from some affiliate partners where they saw me online and said, Hey, I think you would be We could make really great affiliate partners Click this quick video that I made for you and I watched it and I was like, Whoa, that's pretty cool. They took the time to do this. Obviously, this means something to them, so I hadn't thought about it in terms of pitching to a magazine, But obviously this editor would probably prefer that. And if she feels this way, I'm sure other people would feel this way, too. So try it and see what happens. The question we have from Mary from this morning session, because Mary was saying she has a fairly expensive product. She's reluctant to send it because she doesn't want to get it back. Maybe this is the perfect solution for something. That video. What's your thinking on terms of delivering the video? Actually sending in a DVD causal, sending a link in an email. I guess the problems of the non hoping to remain in the first place are they going to open your email with with the video? Lincoln. It was your thinking. Yeah, I think to be safe, I would send it via email. I think if you send a package in the mail and make them open the package, take the DVD output in their DVD drive. Ah, lot of times or a lot of computers don't even have those anymore. So I think you're sort of asking them to a lot of extra work. So I would recommend sending uploading a video to YouTube and sending them dealing directly to you, too, because they trust you to. Everyone uses it for video, as opposed to maybe having get on your own website. So, yeah, that's a good idea because you've been set the YouTube video as private, which means that only someone that has the link can watch it and you get analytics on If they watched it so usually sending by email, you don't know if they opened up the email. But this way, you can actually see if that person watched the video, which is pretty nice to know. Yeah, when things right wrong. Exactly. At what a great point Because, you know, you're gonna know if they actually watched it or not. So, yeah, thank you so much for adding that in here. And I also wanted to say a little bit about how long should your video be? I know there is a lot of studies and that talk about how long should your video be? So I think for something like this, it really shouldn't be any longer than three minutes. Maximum five. I don't want you guys to go out there and shoot a 20 minute video because they're not gonna watch a 20 minute video. I know even with the videos that I do on my own website there around 3 to 4 minutes, sometimes five or six, depending what I'm saying. And when I look at all of my statistics as interesting as I am on video. A lot of people on Lee watch the first couple of minutes. So keep that in mind that if you're going to send a long video there again, just like you do with email when you scan it to see how long it is. If someone sees the video is 20 minutes, they're probably not gonna watch it. So 23 minutes for a pitch like this, I think should be a great amount of time. And it will be a lot easier for you to dio, right, cause it takes much less time to shoot a two minute video than it would to dio a 20 minute video. Oh, yeah? When you when the other editor was mentioning, Not including photos. I thought that many of them, you know, because of the size of a email, especially when you include a photo, um, that they may be more against that versus just providing a link to go to it. Because the email service that I provide they don't really have an option to embed that image directly into the email laughed at and as an attachment. So I wasn't sure, because I can't gotten away from actually attaching photos because of that reason? Yeah, I definitely wouldn't recommend attaching the photo cause they're not gonna open it. But if you resize your photo so that it's a manageable size So let's say I wouldn't send a high resolution photo. That's 10 mags in an email, cause it's probably not going to get delivered. But you could take that photo. And if you have photo shop or even something like pic monkey where you could just put that photo in there, make it much smaller words just maybe, like, 200 or 300 pixels wide or something like that and really small size. Then you could just easily embed it in your email. But I'm curious to know what mailing service provided. Oh, okay. Yeah. I haven't really used them different emails. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This doesn't give, like a icon embedded. Sometimes if you open up your email and you copy and paste, sometimes you're able to paste it in there. So try that. Okay? Copy and paste. Even if they don't have a specific thing where you could click on it to say insert picture. Okay. Yeah. So try that. I'm pretty sure that should work. Okay? Yeah, yeah, because I know they're pretty up to date. Yeah, with their technology. So here's another one from another local magazine and we talked about this before being ready when you're pitching. So if it's a local magazine and they're doing the story on you and your pitching yourself or even your products, sometimes they're gonna want to interview you. I know. When I was featured in a local newspaper in Boulder, I met with the editor. We sat down for coffee, She asked me a whole bunch of questions and I was made. I made sure that I was available for her on her time schedule and when it worked for her. So if you're pitching something like that where they might want to actually talk to you or sometimes they'll even say, Are you available for a couple of questions by phone? My dad, Linus, tonight. So keep in mind that sometimes you are gonna have to switch your schedule around a little bit to be flexible to what their needs are and make sure you're available for when they need you because they do work on really tight deadlines. Sometimes things that we can't even imagine in our businesses, because maybe we don't have as many tight deadlines as they do. But they're always on that line. Always. Here's another one, and we've definitely talked about this a lot. But the fashion and style editor here, she loves to get photos in a pitch again. Not an attachment, but something that's embedded. And that way they could look at sometimes What they do is they'll just open their email, look at the photo first and see if it's a product that they would feature before they even read their email. And I know we were talking a lot yesterday about visual marketing and where that's going, and I think this is one of those times where a photo can really go a long way, and I think that's why, to I had so much more success with my pitch when I put a really great colorful photo, as opposed to when I had no photo or I had a photo off Onley, one of my soaps with no packaging on it, that wasn't really that eye catching, even though I thought it was, Ah, good photo that I took, but it wasn't really a great photo for this purpose. Entry does that's true. Is that different for service type companies? If we don't have a product, you know, Teoh, add an image. Can we link? Can we give them, You know, the link tour, our website? Or maybe the press page that we have on our website? Or is that one click that they have to do too much work? Yeah, I think it's OK. You can do that. But one thing that I found when I'm pitching, launch, grow joy or maybe an article that I want to write is that I use why Stamp and I'm not. I don't know if you're familiar with it, but what it does it take. It's a program for email. So when, and it helps you to embed a photo or attach a photo in your email signature and have all of the links to all of your websites and your social media profiles. So when I'm pitching for an article when I don't necessarily have a photo to share with them because I'm on Lee pitching, let's say an article on Pinterest, then they can see my photo in my signature and again, it's another great way to to sort of connect self. I would recommend in that way, toe add your photo in your signature. So, like a personal photo? Is that what you're sort of my head shot? Yeah. Yeah. Or I mean, if you have a personal photo that you use as your headshot, then that will probably be relevant. Yes. So you sort of put a picture to the name of their reading it from? Yeah, Yeah, exactly. And they look I mean, everyone loves photos. That's why Instagram is popular. That's why Pinterest this popular and it's a much better way to connect when you get an email from someone and you see also what they look like. You kind of have a different connection than if you didn't know what they look like. So that way they don't have to google you to see to see who you are. They couldn't just see exactly who you are, right in your email. So, yeah, I think for a service based entrepreneur, went or when pictures are not relevant because you don't have a product having your own head shot or your own picture in your email signature, I think would be really great. Yeah, because you said something about your logo. Have your logo and a picture of yourself. You can you can I think a logos. Fine. I mean, with with y stamp, you can put your logo in there, too. You can add whatever image you want, or sometimes you might want to just create one image that has your photo and then your logo right underneath. So instead of sending two separate images, you have only one image with all of that information. And so, yeah, you could put your logo right on top of your major something like that, if you want to. And sometimes that's good, because we are the person behind our brand. And it's really good to get at that out there and again. The more times they see your name or your company name, the more familiar they become. And the seven Times rule sort of goes on from there, So yeah, So here is another great, um, great tip from the fashion and style editor at Pregnancy and Newborn magazine. So she's talking about being prepared with high resolution photo. So all of the photos that we have on our website should be low resolution photos, obviously because you want your pages to load faster. But when you're dealing with the press, they want really high quality images and photos that if they don't have time to take a photo, they want to be able to copy and paste onto their pages. So you want to make sure that if you have a product, you also have high resolution, flat product shots of everything in your line and what she means by flat. I think if you have on a parallel ein, let's say maybe you want to have photos that are both on a model and also just laying flat somewhere where they could really showcase your product. And I'll have to say when my T shirts were featured almost all of the time I had a photo that was used 99% of the time and it was just a stack of some of my T shirts with some of my phrases and he was really colorful and really bright, and they hardly ever used the photo that had a model in it because sometimes the model that you use on your website and for your photos is not necessarily who their audience is and who they're trying to attract. So if you have something that's flat where you don't have sort of a lifestyle shot or something like that, it makes it easier for them. But sometimes they do love those lifestyle shots. So that's why you want to make sure you have a lot of different types of images that they can choose from with individual products with products that are in a bundle or something packaged together. You want to give them as much options as you can again to make their jobs easier and provide them with more value. All right, so I think you guys have a good idea now hearing directly from the editors and writers exactly what they're looking for. And I think this was even. I learned a lot by hearing this some of this stuff I didn't know. It was sort of I thought I knew it and I kind of did it, but I didn't know why I was doing it. So hearing from them directly really helped me to put it in perspective as to exactly what they're looking for. So just think about. We talked about this before, but if there's one thing I want to leave you guys with for this presentation is, think about pitching as a way to build relationships and finding creative ways to present your products. So whether you're pitching yourself as an entrepreneur or pitching your product as a great gift for moms or as a great Valentine's, they give or maybe as a great gift for summer or barbecue in season or whatever it is, just think about it as it's a person that's at the other end of the email that you're trying to connect with and trying. Teoh provide a lot of value for and to make their jobs easier. And I think if you think about it that way, it's definitely gonna help to reduce some of that fear or maybe hesitation that we have. When we first reaching out and thinking okay, I'm totally vulnerable because I'm putting myself out there and I don't know what's gonna happen. I might get rejected, so keep that in mind as you're pitching and I think your pitch is really going to come across as more sincere, more open and more helpful than they would if you weren't on Lee thinking about you