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Magazine Features

All right everybody so welcome back it was so nice to hear all of your different insights and what he took away from from yesterday and I have a lot of great info to share with you today but first I wanted tio mention something that then said in his take away and I don't know if you guys noticed but he didn't just say I help people back up their data he said if you don't want to lose your precious photos I could help you back up your data so if anyone's listening it was all about what's in it for them so I'm so glad he said that and because it's so true you could imagine yourself losing your photos and why you would need online backup for all of your data so I'm so glad he said that and because of our class great great yeah so we're already changing our businesses and applying over learning here so we should always be thinking about what's in it for them how is online backup going to help you? I know I've personally lost an entire business because my hard drive failed and I didn't have...

it backed up so as an entrepreneur this is a great thing for all of us to have so it was just so great how you put that in such a what's in it for you and what's the benefit so thank you so much for saying that so are you guys already today? We're going to talk a lot about magazine is and we're going to go right inside the magazines and think about or look at what the editors are actually thinking, and I have slides here that are going to show exactly what they're thinking so you could take all of the guesswork out of your publicity offered so let's, go ahead and get started, everyone. So as you know, I love inspirational quotes, and this is a quote that I came up with as I was getting the presentation together, and it says, if you consent an email, you could get featured or you can get your products featured or your services for featured in magazines, and it really is that simple so many times and yes, there's a lot of different strategies and different things you can do with your emails, but really, it is as simple I just sitting down at your computer, putting together an email with the right things in it, which I'm going to share with you today and pressing the send button. So you guys, I know you can also email us everyone online, we sent e mails all the time, so why not send an email where you couldn't get your product or your services featured all over the media? So let's talk about magazines all of this presentation for the first part is going to be all about magazines, so the great thing about having your products featured in magazines that it really gives you instant credibility and proof. So imagine if you want tio, a web site that was selling jewelry and that jewelry was featured on oprah magazine, and he went to another website that was also selling jewelry though similar, but they didn't have any press feature, so if you're a customer thinking about which jewelry to buy and what side to buy from which one would you be more likely to actually buy your julie from the oprah magazine? Exactly. So what publicity doesn't? It doesn't have to be oprah magazine, it could be a local newspaper or a local tv show or even a regional magazine. It doesn't have to be oprah magazine, but it really helps to get that social proof that people are looking for when they're shopping online. They can talk to you sometimes if you have a chat box, they might be able to talk to you, but they're looking on your site for all of these signs that they need in order to be able to trust your company and having magazine mentions and media mentions is one way that they could do that, and by having that it could also help to increase your sales so ask people are trying to decide whether or not they should buy from you the more mentions they see the more testimonials they seethe that's another great thing that works really well to get people to actually buy the more likely they are to actually hit the buy button added to their card and before you know it you have a new customer just because he had magazine mentions on your website and another great thing is that it really could increase your following and your influence as well I can't tell you how many times I went over I mentioned somewhere people come to my side and again if they don't buy the first time which is probably not going to happen they like me on facebook they like me onto it follow me on twitter so it's really important to make it easy for them when they do come to your site you want to make it super easy for them tio actually follow you all over your social media network so just have a prominent box up there where they could just click a button without leaving your site they could just go ahead and follow you so the's are just I mean there's a tine of other reasons why magazines are so great for helping you go to launch and to grow your business but these are just some of them that really have an impact on the bottom line and on your sales so next, I wanted to share something with you so what do you think? What do you guys think? This is a chart of yes, this is advertising so this is how much a magazine this is a more popular magazine how much they charge for advertising so how many of us have you know, seventy nine thousand six hundred ten dollars to spend on an ad? We don't write? So this is why editorial coverage is so different because you don't have to spend that much money on advertising and there's a ton of companies that are spending this and you could be in their magazine pages right alongside them cos that our spending one hundred three thousand dollars on an ad so this is the great thing about getting coverage and magazines is that you don't have to pay for it outside of the actual sample that you're sending, which you do have to pay for, but editorial coverage is free, so we all of free things right now some magazines my charge. I know some smaller regional magazines that have smaller budgets they often will charge to be featured in their holiday gift guide, and they do it as a special advertising section but again that's an advertising section, not an editorial section, so all of this that we're talking about today is free it's going to be in their editorial pages where they do product reviews and we're basically where they share content and stories with all of their readers, so I think I've convinced you why magazine publicity is really important, but here something's that magazines are actually looking for yes, you talked a lot about sending articles to or put, you know, uh can think the word pitching articles to magazines like a gift guide ten you know, great gifts for moms or whatever if you do something like that, should you include like one of your products and then nine other people's products? Or I mean, I was just wondering about that, yeah, you can you can definitely do that, and I've actually done that as well, but if you have a product, I would pitch more of the actual product and the story behind it, and if you have a service, then I would page the top ten gift or more of an article type of thing, although you can definitely do both. But usually magazines will probably take their own products, but you can say I have some great suggestions for you again, you're providing value, making their job a lot easier, so they're probably going to look at that and look at your suggestions to on your product could absolutely be a part of that as long as you know, eight out of the ten products are not different variations on your own product yeah, yeah, but if you d'oh provide them with other different products that their readers will fight and relevant, they're actually going to love you for it, because you're saving them so much time from doing research. So yes, great question. Yeah, yeah, so here are some things that magazines are looking for when they are looking for what products to feature on their pages, and the great thing is that they love to discover new products. So if you're just launching something new that's, a great opportunity for you to pitch it to them again, not necessarily with a press release, but with a story as to how it can fit into their magazine on dh I was saying yesterday that they also the more press to get, the more likely they are to give you even more press. So if you have new products coming out all of the time I know with my t shirt business I would be launching two or three new lines or new collections every year, and that always kept it fresh always kept the new. So even if a magazine had mentioned one of my t shirts and their september issue, when I was pitching the new line of t shirts, it was a completely brand new t shirt that hadn't been mentioned before, so even though you're not always launching a new company, you can still be launching new products within your company and I know jewelry designers do this all the time clothing designers, accessories and fashions and even with myself I have one line of soaps but I do plan on launching up, launching other ones and other products as well. So that's a great way to make that newsworthy and pitch them to magazines yes about services here we can tillerson three way we launched new courses so it could be something similar to that instead of line because that would be our product yes, so we could okay, yeah, definitely. So if that's your product and I know I launch crew joy I have a couple of different products too. So yes, if it's new especially if it's something like with a new technology or for me it was with pinterest at the time because he was brand new in terms of everybody adopting it to use it for their business it's definitely time timely and definitely news or the so great point yes um they also look for products that are interesting so there's your product do something different I know for you shitty sha your products are I haven't really seen anything else out there like it and it's interesting to them you know it helps to solve a problem I was talking about that you know what problem are you trying to solve? And your products are a great example of that because they are solving a problem that people have when they travel. So that's, why you're I think your product would be a great fit for magazines, especially women's magazines and travel magazines, because we all have different aspects of our businesses and products that we can focus on and tell their story. They also look for products that are newsworthy. So if it's something that's a little known technology that you're just starting to use or a different take on a product that could definitely bunnies or the and even a new collection that you're launching, even though it's sort of, you know, not news that needs to be known right now in terms of the magazine's readers. But it is something that is news, especially if it's something new that they hadn't seen before, and they also more importantly, look for products that have a story. So we talked all about story yesterday and what's your story? What your product story? Why that product? Why your company and I'm going to show you some slides in just a couple of minutes, but you're going to see that a common theme throughout all of those products that they talk about our stories. And I think I'm going to give you some really great examples of that, so you guys can really start thinking about your product as a story rather than a product. They also look for products that photograph well, so if you ever look through the pages of a magazine, you're going to see that all of those products that are on there look of really good and photos and something might look really great. Percent, but if it doesn't photograph well, maybe it's no t shirt designers deal with this all the time, and maybe even some jewelry designers who maybe just have silver or gold gold jewelry and not so many colors it's a little tougher to photograph and is the same for a white or a black t shirt. I know a lot of t shirt designers, I think, you know, let me be safe and start out with a black or a white t shirt, but it doesn't really photograph well, so if you look through magazines, chances of you're seeing a black and white t shirt in there are not that high unless they're doing a specific story on basic colors or black and white t shirt so it's really important if you do want to get publicity and you have a product to have as much color and bright colors as you can on dh that's one of the reasons why I did my so packaging and so many colors. First of all, I love color, but at the same time, I knew that it would be really eye catching for magazines and interestingly enough, when I would email them photos they would all of the ones that would write back would say, I love your packaging, I love the colors, and they love bright colors on dh the same thing is with great packaging, if if you have a t shirt, maybe you're you don't have packaging. I know I didn't when I had a t shirt line, but I know some t shirt designers do have packaging that makes it stand out and makes a unique and also photographs really well, and they also look for products that are easily available. So are they are your products national? Do you have a website where people can buy your products? Do you have stores all over the country and maybe not necessarily in every single city or in every state? But if you do have a couple of stores, they're more likely to write about you because they know again other stores are believing in you people, their readers who live in those towns can actually get your products in person, so interestingly enough, the more national stores you have the more likely they are to write about you and yes, they'll definitely right about you as well if you just have your website where you sell through your website, so don't go out there and thing that all of a sudden now you have to sell wholesale if you want to get in stores because you don't, because you can still ship to the readers who are located across the country, and lastly, they look for products that are relevant to their audience. So does this make sense? Is this a product that my readers would actually use, and could I actually use it? I know a lot of times with my t shirts, the editors would want to try them on, and at first I thought, you know, it's, a t shirt as a t shirt. Why do you need to try it on? But a lot of times they would write back two minutes. I love the way your t shirt feels, and I love the way it fits on my body and it's just it feels really great. So then the fact that they got to try it and see how it made them feel and how it made them look, they were able to do invite a story about that, and including their description, how great my t shirts made them feel so that's a lot of times why they like to use the products on the same goes for myself so I have editors who write to me and say, I've been using your soap since I got them they're awesome. They make my entire house smell really good on and I loved them and that really helps them to craft the story that they're going to tell their own readers as well. So when I wanted tio sure this slide with you this is actually an organic spot magazine where my soaps were just featured and this is part of their holiday gift guide for the person who does yoga so I'm curious to know what? When you look at this picture what's your initial thought what do you guys see here exactly? Yes. Thank you so much for saying that bright colors they love bright colors. And if you look at any of the magazines that you might want to be featured in, just go ahead and take a look at their editorial pages and see what they actually have on there. And most of the time, especially products are maggie things like oprah magazine. It looks just like this even brighter color. So if you have a product that's not so bright and you want to get an oprah magazine and you see that all of the things that they write about are really bright colors and bright products, then maybe you might want to think about, you know, how can I package my product so that it's going to appeal to them a little more? Because that's what they actually love. So this is definitely bright colors, and you're going to see this and every holiday gift guide. Sometimes they will have a feature where it's maybe like just black and white products or products made out of wood, where there's not that much color variation, but usually if you're going to look at a holiday gift guide or any spread in a magazine, it usually looks like this. Yes, I have a friend who has a product that is brilliant. Brilliant. Um and it has a great story and it's white, and it is part of the story is because it entails that it's white it's, it's bed linens, but it's white, really challenging the packaging is not white, but how do you it's part of its story, too? So if I know it's been frustrating for her because it she has been featured in some magazines, but it's, it has to its pre she's, featured more about the story, then the product, because of the whole fact that its weight and I guess she just has to created and color now, but it's that's been a real struggle for her because it's a brilliant product yeah, and it is sometimes it is a struggle and I hear this from t shirt designers all the time who just have white t shirts, but I would say in her case maybe she wants you present her products maybe she can photograph her bed linens and a really brightly colored room where everything else around it is bright but not necessarily her but sheets on her bed linens. So in that case you could just position it differently. Or if you have jewelry that's on lee silver, maybe you can photograph it against a color background and when you're sending it to them you can just send them that color photo as opposed to just a product photo with your product on a white background on dh then they can sort of imagine how it would look on their pages and then if they're interested they could decide if they want him photograph the product and a brightly colored room or bright colored setting s o that might be one way to get around that just put it somewhere in a bright setting on I know yeah, I have a friend who has a company's called be good to people and it's a really great company she does t shirts and mugs and journals, but everything is black and white it's either a black t shirt or a white t shirt with the writing on it and the her thing is that being good to people is really as simple as black and white so that's why all of her products are black and white and it works for her you know, she's been able to get some press, but again, if it's part of your story it might be a little different but you still have to sort of, um presented in a way that has bright colors, at least when you're pitching to the magazine so that's such a great point yeah, yeah, thank you. Um, so again here I wanted to put this up not only because it's this is part of the holiday gift guide products here, you'll see it in here, but I zoomed in on this because again there's a lot of bright colors, but if you look at the description, what do you guys notice here and about this particular description benefits exactly as thank you, anna so it doesn't just say, you know, a four pack of one hundred percent organic essential oils, but it talks about sinus stress, sleep deprivation, tension, which are all things that we all probably feel during the holiday, so if you're looking at this as a holiday gift, I'm sure pretty much everyone in here goes through, you know stress or sleep deprivation at one time or another doing the holiday so it's making good really relevant to the reader. And again, it's telling a story it's also saying that it's really stylish holiday pouch it doesn't just say in a pouch, but it says, ah, holiday pouch, which makes you think that it's a really great gift for the holiday. So it's, already just this description alone is already I guess I'm getting you to think about. How can you use this? How would it fit into your life and into the story that you're going through during the holidays on dh this is another example similar from the same gift guide, and it talks about thes organic cotton clothing, that's for yoga and again, it's not as bright as all of the other ones, but it does have something different it has. How many times do you actually see clothing packaged in a ten a recyclable ten, right? You never really see that. So just that fact alone makes this product stand out, and again, they talk about it. In the in the description they talk about how it's the perfect stocking stuffer so if you're looking for a really small gift or something that you can give someone last minute or just put in their stockings this is a really great great products for that so it's already in the description telling you ways in which you could actually use it and this is what they're looking for when you when they're being pitched to because they need those ideas just as much as their readers and need those ideas as well so if they had pitched obviously they did something right here when they pitch them because they talked about the cute recyclable tens and the fact that their products are organic and they make great stocking stuffer so is just a great way to talk about the benefits rather than just the features of your products and here's another one that I put up here and this is not necessarily bright and colored it's more like a brownish black but if you look at the story see that they share their there's a story behind it and they're engaging with you and they're using the word you they're not talking about the product they say you know but you can smell or you there's a lot you know you can touch it on all of those things so look at how they describe the products on their pages and see how you can describe your products when you pitch them in a really similar way and that's why it's super important tio really get to know a magazine and do your research, and we're going to talk a lot about how to do your research, how to get to really know what they're looking for, but sometimes it really is a simple I just looking through their current issue, seeing what they're writing about the style in which they write it and then formatting your pitch so that it fits their style as well. So now I wanted to share with you another photo. This was of my soaps again when I first launched and again okay, photo right? I push this as part of my first round of pitches before I had any of my packaging and again, no response, and then I had a professional photographer take this photo with all of my soaps, and I pitched this and I got over one hundred responses, so you can see the bright colors it's more of a lifestyle shot where it shows you the entire product line, and I got so much more response to this photo then to this first one that just had a sobe with no packaging, and my pitch was exactly the same I didn't change any of my words, but just by adding this other photo that would fit into what they were actually writing about and how their holiday gift guide looks like I was able to get and self never underestimate the power photos. The words are really great, too, and the descriptions and the benefits are going to take you a long way as well. But photos are just as important as what you're actually writing to them when you're pitching them, keep thinking, make it easy for them, make it just where they don't really have to do anything and just pop it in your eyes. You see, I get the where you're gonna get featured. Yeah, and the easier you're making get for them again, it's all about adding value because you're saving them time. You're saving them a lot of work that they have to do to take their own photos, and sometimes they will take their own photos. But if you have beautiful photos that they already could just copy and paste onto their pages, imagine how much time their staff is going to save the photographer the editor. All of these photos are already ready to go, so it really does have an impact just being prepared, being professional and giving them as much value as you can.