414: How To Get Into Oprah And Other Magazines For Free With Andreea Matei

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You’re listening to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast, the place where I bring on successful bootstrap business owners and dig deep into what strategies they use to grow their businesses. Now today, I have my friend Andrea Ayers on the show. And a common question I get asked is how we were able to get into popular magazines like Brides, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Real Simple. Well, Andrea is an expert when it comes to getting free press. And in fact, we used her service long ago to get in some of these publications. And she’s helped us a lot over the years. And in this episode, she’s going to teach us how to get

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featured for free in magazines. But before I begin, I want to thank Klaviyo for sponsoring this episode. Always excited to talk about Klaviyo because they’re the email marketing platform that I personally use for my e-commerce store. And it depend on them for over 30 % of my revenue. Now you’re probably wondering why Klaviyo and not another provider. Well Klaviyo is the only email platform out there that is specifically built for e-commerce stores. And here’s why it’s so powerful. Klaviyo can track every single customer who is shopping in your store and exactly what they bought.

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So let’s say want to send out an email to everyone who purchased a red handkerchief in the last week. Easy. Let’s say I want to set up a special autoresponder sequence to my customers depending on what they bought piece of cake and there’s full revenue tracking on every email sent. Klaviyo is the most powerful email platform that I’ve ever used and you can try them for free over at klaviyo.com slash my wife. That’s K-L-A-V-I-Y-O dot com slash my wife. I also want to thank Postscript for sponsoring this episode. If you run an e-commerce business of any kind, you know how important it is to own your own

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and this is why I focus a significant amount of my efforts on SMS marketing. SMS, or text message marketing, is already a top five revenue source for my ecommerce store and I couldn’t have done it without Postscript, which is my text message provider. Now why did I choose Postscript? It’s because they specialize in ecommerce and ecommerce is their primary focus. Not only is it easy to use, but you can quickly segment your audience based on your exact sales data and implement automated flows like an abandoned cart at the push of a button.

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Not only that, but it’s price well too and SMS is the perfect way to engage with your customers. So head on over to postscope.io slash Steve and try it for free. That’s P O S T S T U P T dot I O slash Steve. And then finally, I wanted to mention my other podcasts that I released with my partner, Tony. And unlike this one where I interview successful entrepreneurs in e-commerce, the profitable audience podcast covers all things related to content creation and building an audience. No topic is off the table and we tell it like how it is in a random entertaining way.

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So be sure to check out the profitable audience podcast on your favorite podcast app. Now onto the show.

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Welcome to the My Wife Quit Her Job podcast. Today I have Andrea Ayers back on the show and the last time I had Andrea on was back in episode 27, I think it was 2014 or 2015, and it’s been long overdue to have her back. She is the creator of Launch Grow Joy, where she helps e-commerce businesses get free publicity. And long ago, actually, she started a t-shirt company and a soap company.

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that she’s scaled by appearing in more than 200 magazines, newspapers, and TV shows. And today, she helps others replicate her success. Now with the holidays kind of right around the corner, Andrea is going to teach us how to get in magazines and television to maximize your Christmas sales. And welcome back to the show, Andrea. How are you doing? Oh, good. I’m so happy to be back. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Wow. I was just thinking about it. I can’t believe I’ve been podcasting that long. You were one of my first 30 or so people on the show, so I thank you.

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Wow, that’s crazy. Yeah, I’m honored to be back. So thanks for having me back on. Yeah. So it’s actually been a long time. Do you sell physical products anymore? Or is your focus just on Launch, Grow, Joy and the media leads aspect of your business? Yeah, my focus right now is solely on Launch, Grow, Joy and media leads and helping other e-commerce entrepreneurs to grow their business through PR. So I’m not selling anything right now that could change in the future. I do have a bunch of ideas. So

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at some point I may get back into the e-commerce game. Yeah. So what were your motivations for creating like a media publicity company? main motivation was actually my own business where I realized that whenever I got a mention in either a blog or a print magazine that I would get a bunch of sales. And I just kept thinking, wow, this is really where it’s at. now

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This is definitely a lot different because I had my business back in 2001. So things have changed drastically and we can talk about some of those changes on the podcast today. But I just realized the power of PR and I also realized how time consuming it was. And it would just take so long to go to a website on go to Barnes and Nobles and look at the masthead of a magazine and try to figure out who the editor was and

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to contact and that process was so time consuming. And I always thought I wish there was an easier way to do this, like a quicker, faster way to do it because this is so effective in terms of getting sales, but it’s so time consuming. once I sold a t-shirt business, kind of knew that I wanted to create a resource for other e-commerce entrepreneurs to get their products in the media without either spending thousands of dollars on a PR agency or

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buying a PR database, which can be up to $10,000 a year, and just saving people time. So that was my main motivation with Media Leads. So last time I interviewed you, it was 2014, 2015. I’m sure media has changed drastically since then. One question I have is, getting in magazines as relevant as it was in

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It’s definitely still relevant, although it’s really interesting because there have been a lot of shifts and the main shift is that a lot of print magazines are shutting down and some of them closed now in 2022. Others have been closing over the last few years and they have been focusing a lot of their efforts in their online media. So it’s interesting because there’s fewer

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opportunities to get into print magazines because so many of them are shutting down. But those print magazines are constantly turning out stories like daily on their websites. So in some ways, there’s a lot more opportunity to get into those magazines, but into their online version instead of the print version. you know, there’s still, it’s still relevant to get into print magazines. People are still seeing sales from it and

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I wouldn’t discount that as a strategy. I would still definitely focus on it, but just know that online is really where a huge focus is right now for editors. Yeah, so when you get into the print magazine, does that mean you get into the online website as well? Yes, most often that’s the case because they just republish their print articles onto their online websites.

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And then they also publish other articles online that they don’t publish in print. but yeah, usually all of the print articles are also published online. Okay. So when you’re talking about getting publicity to these days, is it more about getting on the online website as opposed to the print media? I think it’s both. So I always recommend both. And the reason I still believe in print is because

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it’s easier to get found in a print magazine than it is to get found on a magazine’s website. And let’s say, for example, the editor’s big section of a magazine, there may be only like five or six products. So your product really stands out. Whereas if you’re on their website, there could be hundreds of products that are listed in that article because there’s more room. So.

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because there is less room in the print magazine, you stand out more. And people are still reading print magazines. They’re still subscribing to them. They’re still reading them. So it’s still really effective. Okay. I was just thinking like we’ve been featured in many, not nearly as many as you have for your other business, but I would say a good like 50 or so magazines and they’re always hit or miss. What would you say is more effective being in print or online?

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And the only reason I ask this is because whenever we’re featured online, there’s actually a link that people can click on. Whereas in a magazine, they actually have to go and Google the company, find the product and make a purchase. Yeah. So that’s such a good question. And usually what I’ve seen is that it is hit or miss. unless you’re in one of the large, like large national magazines, like, you know, Oprah, although Oprah is not only doing one print issue a year for the holidays, but unless you are

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in a large magazine like that, sales are not necessarily a direct result of publicity, but they can be. I’ve had products featured in Oprah magazines. I had a client who had over two million in sales just from that one feature. then I’ve had other clients who got into Lady’s Home Journal and Real Simple and Martha Stewart and all of those. And he’s had $20,000 in sales. then

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I’ve also had clients who were featured in, I don’t know, like let’s say Time Out New York or some of the local or regional ones. And they’re like, I only got a few hundred dollars in sales and others have resulted in no sales at all. So I think it really ranges and it varies depending on the circulation of the magazine, obviously. But when it comes to online media, the reason I also focus on that and getting featured in online magazines and

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blogs and online media is because of the SEO power of it and getting links back to your website. sometimes, although it’s not a direct, like it doesn’t always result in direct sales, it oftentimes results in indirect sales because it helps with Google rankings. It helps with link links back to your site. And it also helps to build credibility because as you know, sometimes it takes a bunch of times for people to see you.

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before they buy your product. And I don’t know what the average is now. Last time I learned about this, was like seven to eight times or something like that. someone can see you, let’s say in the Give Guide for Organic Spa Magazine, then they’ll go to WI Co. This is a cool product. And then they’ll see you on maybe like Refinery29 and they’ll think, oh, wow, yeah, I remember seeing that product in Organic Spa Magazine.

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And I remember liking it. So now here I am again in front of this product. Let me go buy it. So oftentimes it’s like that indirect sort of path that someone takes to buy your product. you talked about these articles generating millions or $20,000, how does the attribution work? It works because yeah.

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usually the magazine will hit new stands like let’s say you know November 15th or something like that for the gift guide and what I’ve seen personally happen is that during like those first few days of when people get their magazine in their mailbox or on the new stands all of a sudden my sales would increase you know I have like ten thousand dollars in sales and I’ll think where did this come from and then I would realize that you know Red Book magazine just published

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And then oftentimes people, so you’ll see like an increase in sales where it’s sort of out of the ordinary for what your daily sales volume is like. So you know that a certain magazine probably just got published and hit the newsstands or people’s mailboxes. So that’s one way to know. And then I would also have a bunch of people say, oh, hey, I just bought this because I just saw you in Red Book Magazine or in Shape Magazine.

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So sometimes people will tell you and you’ll get emails and they will ask questions and they’ll say, hey, I just saw this in this issue, but I have a question before I buy. that’s one of the ways to know. Right. OK, so let’s go to the juicy part. How do I get in magazines? How do people get in magazines or their products? And are there certain types of products that work better than others, actually? Yes. So definitely products that are like mass consumer.

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products that have a wide appeal are usually have a lot of success. So things like water bottles or certain food products or anything that’s unique but appeals to the masses has a lot more success of getting in magazines. Now there are things like baby and kids products, that’s a mass appeal product as well. But if you have like, let’s say something that is specifically

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for babies and kids, but it’s maybe designed for like allergies. Well, the majority of kids don’t necessarily have allergies. So you can still get publicity for those products because there is a wide audience, but it’s just a lot smaller because it’s more of a subset of like a larger audience. So I would say that’s how, know, if it’s a product that like millions of people would use, then you know, that you have

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somewhat of a success if you pursue publicity. And I had actually someone reach out to me yesterday and she’s like, I make rings that are in like the goth kind of style and I know it’s coming back, but is your platform a good fit for me because I’m not appealing to a mass audience. And in that case, it’s really not. There are a few goth publications and online websites and

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For anybody like that, I would recommend you can just do like your own research because there are hundreds of publications targeted toward that audience. So that’s kind of how you would know if your product has mass appeal or not. So mass appeal, any other attributes? So for example, like let’s say I sold like office supplies. I mean, that wouldn’t be good for publicity necessarily, right? It depends. So like if you have, you know, if your office supply is something that can help

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people with planning or if it’s like an office chair that helps to alleviate back pain or if it’s something that has some sort of like therapeutic thing in it that reduces stress or something like that where it’s like almost everybody has an office chair and a desk and they have supplies in their office. So that could totally be a mass product even though

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It’s not necessarily something that people buy every single day or regularly, but people still use it a lot. don’t like almost everybody, especially nowadays has a home office and needs office products. so yeah, I hope that answered your question. right. So let’s say, so does the product have to be unique or special, or is it more about just kind of legwork and pitching your product to get into magazines? Like, does it need to be special or?

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Um, it doesn’t necessarily need to be special. It does need to be maybe a little different or even if the product is not different, if you, if the story you share about it is different, then that can help. So it’s basically about how you shape the story that you tell to the editor as opposed to the actual product. But yes, if the product is unique, if it hasn’t been done before, if it solves a problem that

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no other product can solve that, that’s always a plus. And that always really, really helps. Like the uniqueness of a product really helps. But what’s even more powerful, it’s how you tell your story to the media. Okay. That’s good to know. Okay. So let’s, let’s get started. Let’s say I want to get my product in a holiday gift guide in a magazine. Just walk me through the steps.

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Yeah, so I have five easy steps that you can do. So the first one is to think about your product and think about the story that you want to tell with your product. for example, with holiday gift guides, oftentimes magazines will have a holiday gift guide category or different themes. So they will do things like gifts under $50, gifts under $100, gifts for the mom who has everything or the person who has everything or

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gifts for pets, gifts for teachers and so on. you wanna think about specifically with holiday gift guides, you wanna think about, okay, what are maybe like five to 10 different ways or different themes that my product can fit in? So I’ll give you an example with my t-shirt business. I had gifts that give back because we would donate money for every t-shirt that we sold. I had eco-friendly gifts because my t-shirts are made out of bamboo.

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I had gifts for everybody on your list because my t-shirt is something that you can literally give to anybody on your list. I had gifts for men because I had men’s t-shirts, gifts for babies and kids because I had babies and kids t-shirts, gifts for women. I had affordable gifts, gifts under $50. So right there, that’s eight different ways that you can categorize your product. So the first step is to think about what sort of overall themes

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your product would fit in. And it’s crazy how many ideas you can come up with, you know, when you think, oh, it’s just, it’s just one, one idea that I have, but you literally can fit it into so many different things. So that’s the first, um, how do you know what magazines are looking for though? So that’s the next step. So, um, so the next step would be to think about, um, okay, what kind of magazines would I want to get my products in? What kind of magazines do my,

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does my audience read? So for example, if you have yoga products, you know that a lot of your audience is gonna read yoga magazines and spa magazines and spiritual magazines, women’s magazines, fitness and health. So if you think about what does my audience read and who is this product for, those are the types of magazines that you’re gonna wanna look at. And you know, can…

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A lot of people know or what do want magazines they wanna have their product in, but you can also go to Google and you can look for lifestyle magazines or you can go and look for health magazines. There’s another website called magster.com. It’s M-A-G-Z-S-T-E-R, I think something like that. And you basically, it’s like a website that has access to

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almost all of the magazines that are out in publication. you can, you don’t have to buy any subscriptions or anything like that, but you can go down their list of like, what are the health magazines that are out there? What are the lifestyle ones? What are the men’s interests? So if you’re not familiar with the magazines in your niche, then you can find them that way as well. Or even Amazon has like a list of all the magazines in the categories. And the next thing you can do, can also Google,

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different gift guides. So you can type in gifts for women under $50. And then you’ll see what magazines and websites in the past have done that sort of type or like that sort of gift guide. And then you can start building your list of publications and websites and online media that provide those types of gifts and that they’ve done those gifts in the past. And the chances are if they’ve done it in the past, they’re gonna do it again.

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This year maybe with like a slightly different twist, but usually like the themes are the same. So oftentimes you just have to, to Google, you know, the, the magazines and online media in the industry that you’re in.

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If you sell on Amazon or run any online business for that matter, the most important aspect of your long-term success will be your brand. And this is why I work with Steven Weigler and his team from Emerge Council to protect my brand over at Bumblebee Linens. Now what’s unique about Emerge Council is that Steve focuses his legal practice on e-commerce and provides strategic and legal representation to entrepreneurs to protect their IP. So for example, if you’ve ever been ripped off or knocked off on Amazon, then Steve can help you fight back and protect yourself.

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Now, first and foremost, protecting our IP starts with a solid trademark and Emerge Council provides attorney-advised strategic trademark prosecution, both in the United States and abroad for a very low price. And furthermore, the students in my course have used Steve for copyrighting their designs, policing against counterfeits and knockoffs, agreements with co-founders and employees, website and social media policies, privacy policies, vendor agreements, brand registry, you name it. So if you need IP protection services, go to EmergeCouncil.com and get a free consult.

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And if you tell Steve that I sent you, you’ll get a hundred dollar discount. That’s E-M-E-R-G-E-C-O-U-N-S-E-L dot com. Now back to the show. So given that there’s like probably thousands or tens of thousands of magazines, do you have any criteria about what to go for? Like minimum circulation, readership and that sort of thing? Or is it just shotgun effect, you get what you get? Well, it’s both. So I think when you’re first starting out with PR, it makes sense to reach out to the smaller ones.

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because you’re more likely to get featured in a smaller publication and smaller magazine. So can you define small? Yeah, smaller is local and regional publications. So things that are only sold for people or only applied to people, let’s say who live in Montana or Las Vegas or, you know, Austin, Texas or whatever. So things that are geared towards a local or regional population.

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and interests of that city or state as opposed to like Ladies Home Journal, which covers the entire nation. So those are the smaller ones. I don’t necessarily think that you should say, oh, this magazine has only 2000 subscribers a month. I shouldn’t pitch it. I think you should still pitch it because every little bit helps and it helps you to build your confidence and get more links back and.

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It’s interesting how like the more press you get, the more press you seem to get from other places and not necessarily because like magazines don’t read other magazines to see what’s published, you know? So it’s not like that, but it’s just this crazy thing happens that like once you get publicity, you keep getting publicity. So I am a fan of reaching out to as many relevant people as possible.

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if it makes sense for your brand. there’s a lot of local magazines whose website, I’m sad to say, but their websites look like crap. And it’s a website that I would never want to be associated with. So sometimes if you go to their website and it’s like, this doesn’t look professional, doesn’t look like anybody’s reading this, then I wouldn’t recommend those magazines. you kind of just have to see. But if you’re working with online media, I would say,

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Usually if you want links for SEO and credibility, then it doesn’t really matter how many visitors they have. If you want sales, I would go for websites that have at least maybe like 10 or 20,000 visitors per month if you want sales. So it just depends because the goal isn’t always sales, but oftentimes it is. Is there a reason not to go for a big publication even if you’re just starting out?

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Um, no, I always recommend going for the big publications anyway. The only reason where I wouldn’t do it is if you don’t have enough product to meet demand. So if you are getting featured in Oprah magazine, you better have inventory on hand, um, to sell because if you don’t and you can sell, like you just can’t keep up with demand, then that looks, that makes you look really bad and Oprah is never going to feature you again.

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You know, because people will get back, you know, they’ll say, Oh, I found out about this product in your gift guide, but they’re all sold out. This is really frustrating. So you just want to make sure that you have enough inventory on hand to meet demand. If you’re going to pitch the larger publications, what is enough? I thought you, I knew you were going to ask that. Um, enough, would say, depending on how much sales you have usually, I would say.

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like at least four to five times that. So if let’s say right now you only have $2,000 in inventory, I would up that to maybe like 10 to 20,000 in inventory. Not necessarily when you’re pitching the larger publications, but when you hear back that they’re gonna feature you. And oftentimes like a place like Oprah, they’ll tell you, they’ll be like, okay, we love your product. We wanna feature you, but you need to make sure you have.

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at least 5,000 units on hand before we do this, because they kind of know how much demand their publication gets. So I hope that answers your So they’ll let you know, basically. Yeah, they will let you know. The really large places will. But even if they don’t let you know, you should be prepared. All right. So we have a list of publications now. Walk me through, I guess, how to get the big guys, since that’s the most interesting it seems.

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Yeah, so the easiest way to do it actually is to go to the magazine’s website and see who else or see who wrote that gift guide a year ago or six months ago or the last time that gift guide came up. And oftentimes you’ll be shocked. They will tell you the name of the person who wrote it, their link to their bio on their website, and in their bio, they will give you their…

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email address. know, I think Business Insider does this. Maybe Mashable does this as well. But like a ton of these magazines will tell you who wrote it and what their contact information is. So that’s the easiest way to do it. Oftentimes, if you if they don’t have the contact information, then they at least have

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the name of the person who wrote it and you can search for that person and find their name on LinkedIn. You can use a database like MediaLEADS to find the contact information. You can sign up for like a media database as well. there’s different ways to do it depending on like, do you have time to research or do you have money to spend? And then you just type in the person’s name and their email address comes up if you have the money to invest into like a database or something like that.

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If it’s so easy to find, that means these people probably get thousands and thousands of emails per day, right? They get more like hundreds. So I think it’s crazy. It’s easy to find, but not a lot of people do it because it’s work. And I think one of the things about PR is that you do have to, unless you’re hiring a PR firm, you do have to spend time to do the pitching and kind of personalize.

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your pitch and have a great pitch that somebody is going to be inclined to answer. So yes, all of this information is out there. It’s really easy, but it takes time. And I think so many entrepreneurs don’t have the time. So oftentimes they’re not going to do it simply because they don’t have the time. so yeah, it’s okay. Yeah. Well, walk me through a good pitch.

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So a good pitch is something that is short and to the point. And I usually like to say, you know, like three to four paragraphs of two to three sentences each, where the first paragraph you talk about what, you know, what do you want to be featured in? So you’ll say something like, you know, hey, Anne, I know you’re working on a holiday gift guide for XYZ Magazine, and I’d love to introduce my product to you. So you’re telling them.

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why you’re reaching out, right? Cause you want to be in the holiday gift guide of XYZ magazine. And I feel like a lot of people start out with, know, we just launched a new collection and it’s so great. And it’s like, that’s not telling me why you’re reaching out. It’s like, what do want me to do with that? So I’m sure you get pitched all the time. I get pitched all the time too. And it’s like, you just want to know why the person is writing. So in your first paragraph, just tell them why you’re writing and why you’re reaching out and where you want.

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to be considered for. The second paragraph, you wanna talk about a little bit about your product and why you think it’s a great fit for the readers. So you can say, I know your readers are busy moms or I know your readers love yoga or they love to travel. Here’s a couple of reasons why I think my product would be a great fit for your readers. So you’re still like, you’re making your pitch about them and why your product is good for their readers as opposed to

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how wonderful your product is and what it does where it’s all about you. So you wanna keep the whole email all about them. The third paragraph, you wanna say how much your product costs. So you can say, our baby blankets, for example, range in price from 20 to $60. And you can find them at our website and list your website. If you sell on Amazon, you can link your Amazon store as well. So basically just telling them how much it costs and where you can find it.

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or where the readers can buy it. And then the last paragraph would be basically just offering them a sample or more information and asking to connect with them. So you would say something like, if you’d like a sample, let me know what color you want or what kind of material you want and we’ll get it out to you right away. And I really look forward to working together and helping you find products because basically,

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you need to frame your pitch as in, I’m going to help them find an awesome product for their gift guide, as opposed to my product is so great and it’s made out of organic cotton and this and that, and I’m going to tell them about it. So you just need to phrase it more like, here’s a great product that I think would be great for you. Now my product is so great, if that makes sense. So yeah, you just need to keep it really short and then

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it’s always a good idea to embed an image in your pitch. So that way they can see like what your product is and exactly like what the packaging looks like and the sort of vibe that your company has without them having to go look at your website. So if they’re interested, they’re definitely going to go look at your website. But oftentimes that like that eye catching image or picture is what’s going to get them interested. So you definitely want to embed, not attach.

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a photo in your email. Should it be a product shot or should it be a lifestyle image? It couldn’t be either. I often recommend anything that’s more colorful and that stands out. like if your product is, I don’t know, let’s say a white water bottle or like a silver necklace or something like that, that’s not really that bright and colorful to look at. So in that case, I would recommend lifestyle shots. I usually go for the lifestyle shots in

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in the pitch email and then make other shots available for them once they’re interested and all of that. But yeah, like the more colorful and bright and happy and oftentimes the only way to convey that is through a lifestyle shot. So I tend to go for the lifestyle shots. How much of this pitch is generic versus specific to the person you’re applying to?

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Most of it is going to be generic. The only thing that’s going to be specific is your intro paragraph. So in your intro paragraph, you’re going to say, am, you know, if you’re working on a holiday gift guide for Glamour magazine. you’re kind of like specifying what you want and in which magazine. So like your first sentence or two are the only things that I usually keep personal to

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to the editor and the magazine, and then the rest you can kind of just copy and paste. But it has to be relevant because you’re not gonna pitch like a men’s watch to a parenting magazine, you know, and say that every mom would love this because it’s a men’s watch. So sometimes you need to change the features of your product and the benefits based on who you’re pitching. But oftentimes those are gonna be the same.

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So I get pitched all the time, but I’m not expecting the pitch, nor am I looking for it. Are the people who are these editors, are they expecting people? Do they want people to submit their products? They do, because it makes their job easier. If you pitch the right way, and if you make it relevant, it really makes their job easier. And oftentimes, what I know editors do is that they have like a folder where they’ll keep your pitch.

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if it’s relevant. let’s say you pitch them for holiday gift guides, but they’re now working on that for like another week or two, they’re going to file. If it’s a good pitch and a relevant product, they’re going to file that away in their holiday gift guide email folder and come back to it. So oftentimes they will do this. And it’s crazy, especially with like freelance writers, which a lot of magazines are now using freelance writers. But freelance writers even have

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this thing called, I think they call it like a call for pitches where they send out like a weekly or sometimes daily email while they’re like, I’m looking for the best hammocks or I’m looking for, like I had an editor the other week say, there’s a Sriracha shortage coming up. I’m looking for like Sriracha alternatives. I think I’m saying that wrong, but so it’s like, they will reach out to their list.

34:48
of people and brands and publicists to get product ideas. So that is part of their job. in addition to seeking their own products and going to different shows and using websites, they also expect to get pitched as well. What about the subject line? What should that be? The subject line is very important. It’s actually the most important thing because it’s going to determine whether or not they’re going to actually open your email. But that subject line should be really simple.

35:17
And it should pique their interest, but not necessarily tell them too much, right? Like you don’t want to use the subject line and have like 20 different words about what your product is. So an easy subject line, effective one, can be, you know, for your holiday gift guide in Oprah magazine or product for your Valentine’s Day gift guide in Glamour magazine or just like,

35:47
a few words where you’re telling them what the pitch is about. So that way they know, you know, or like the best face wash after the beach, you know, if, you know they’re working on a product about that. So it’s like really concise, a couple of words where you can use their publication name or their website name in the subject line as well. So do you want it to be clickbaity?

36:16
Or, know, it depends. there are sometimes I’ve used the subject line, for example, quick question, right? Like who doesn’t want to open an email that says quick question? Cause it’s like, I wonder what that is. Like it picks curiosity. So those emails I’ve done that. I still do that once in a while. It is a bit clickbaity and it works. So I think you need to find a balance. Like if you’re always sending out.

36:42
an email that says quick question to everybody. Like after a while, they’re going to be like, okay, I’ve gotten messages from this person with quick question. I’m over it. Like what else is next? So I think you can experiment. Quick question does work really well though, to get your email opened. So if they’re categorizing these emails from you and their pitches, seems like you want to include your product name somewhere in the subject line. Is that right? So they can do a quick search in case they want to include it somewhere else.

37:10
Not necessarily. think including your product name. It’s like they don’t necessarily know your product, but they know like what the product could do. So I think when you’re searching an email, you can search based on the subject line or sorry, based on the body of the email as well. So yeah, I don’t recommend necessarily putting the your product name because they’re not familiar with it, you know, and they’re not going to open that email.

37:39
because of your brand name. They’re gonna open that email because of either what they’re working on is relevant or the features and benefits of your products. Yeah.

37:52
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38:21
just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

38:33
Can we talk about hit rates here? So you’re sending these pictures out. Let’s say you’ve already compiled the list of magazines. You know the editors. What I mean is it it luck or are there things that you can do to improve your chances? And what is it? Yeah. So I would say on average after sending like hundreds or possibly thousands of pictures by now.

39:01
This is going to discourage a lot of people, but I would say maybe like one to five percent would be a good response rate to your initial email. Now to your follow-up email, that can actually go between like five and 10 percent. So I always recommend following up with everybody because most likely you’re going to get featured because of your follow-up email, not because of your initial email. So

39:29
Don’t get discouraged. You are going to have to send 100 emails to get maybe five yeses and five responses or maybe 10. But yeah, it’s often, I think, one of the biggest things that discourages people. They’re like, I sent 20 emails and I heard nothing back. And I’m like, well, did you send 100? Because you need to send a little more than 20. And sometimes you will hear back after your first email or your fifth email.

39:59
But I would say, you know, if you’re looking at averages, like one to five percent would be a good response. So if you don’t get a response, do email again? Yeah. So if you don’t get a response, you’re going to wait about, I usually say about a week and then write back or follow up again. And your subject line, if it says, you know, either checking in or following up or something along those lines, those kind of click baiting.

40:28
things work really well. So on my follow-up email, I always say, you know, following up regarding your gift guide or checking in about your Mother’s Day gift guide or something like that. So yeah, you want to kind of hint that you’ve already emailed them before and that creates a bit more urgency. For your clients who’ve gotten an Oprah magazine, for example, what was special about their pitch and what was the pitch? I’ve gotten a bunch of clients. So I’ve had

40:58
a client who had Bluetooth speakers that were just like super cute and colorful. And it’s like, you look at these speakers and it was like, oh my God, those are awesome. And I know specifically with Oprah, like they love color. So it’s like, if you look at their gift guide, it’s just full of colorful products. So, and I’ve had clients in the beauty industry who have like really bright and colorful packaging. So that seems to work really well with Oprah, but

41:27
I think the most special thing about their product was their packaging. Honestly, when it came to Oprah magazine, and you need to have really good packaging, you need to have professional packaging. can’t, you know, I know a lot of like, jewelry designers and soap makers, like they, they package their products and you know, it’s cute. But it doesn’t look professional and it doesn’t look like a mass.

41:56
mass market brand, you know, that you can find the like Whole Foods or Target or something like that. So you need just like professional and good packaging. Okay. All right. So packaging is number one. Anything else that made that particular pitch stand out or is it sometimes just the right product that they’re looking for? Yeah, sometimes, you know, it’s I like to say that publicity is pitching the right person with the right product at the right time.

42:22
So it really, it really depends. Like you can have an amazing product, but if a magazine literally just like closed their holiday gift guide two days ago, your product would have been awesome, but it’s not going to make it because you pitched at the wrong time. So a lot of it is like pitching the right product to the right person at the right time. And oftentimes it’s really hard to know who is the right product with, you know, who is the right person at the right time.

42:51
which is another one, another of the reasons why I launched MediaLEADS because I was like, how do I know, you know, what their deadline is? Cause they don’t tell you, like you’re not gonna go to Mashable and see a list of, we’re looking for Bluetooth speakers and my deadline is February 2nd. Like they’re not gonna do that. So that’s where a lot of like working with an agency can be really great because they find out this information ahead of time. So what I do,

43:19
And what my assistant does is that like we reach out to editors all the time, like we’re talking to them every single week and we’re like, Hey, what are you working on? And what’s your deadline? So that way, like we know exactly what product they’re looking for and when they need it by. So oftentimes, you know, sometimes you’ll have to guess, if it’s now it’s the holiday gift guides, you know, that the national magazines are looking for products for holiday gift guides from like June to August.

43:47
is when that timeframe is, you know, but online media, they’re not going to look for that until like October or November. So you kind of have to know that information. you know, you can find that information on my website if you go, like I have every month, like the main overall themes of what magazines are looking for. So, yeah, it’s just literally pitching.

44:11
at the right time often is more important, if not as important as what the actual product is. How many times do you try until you give up? if you send out like… I personally and for my brand and with my clients, I will do the initial pitch and the follow up pitch. So I’ll try twice. And if I get no response, then I will wait like a month or two and then pitch again, maybe a different person or even the same person.

44:39
I’ll pitch them again. So for example, like let’s say ladies home journal, would maybe, you know, this month I will pitch for like a Valentine’s day gift. The next month I’ll pitch for eco-friendly products. The following month I’ll do a mother’s day gift. And I don’t always reach out to the same person. Like sometimes I’ll reach out to the associate editor, sometimes the lifestyle editor, sometimes the assistant editor, senior editor. So at these large publications, you can

45:08
shoes from quite a few different people. And usually starting out with like the lowest person on the corporate ladder is best because they get pitched or they get pitched, they get less pitches and pitch less often. So if you want to start off with like the assistant or associate editor, then move on to the senior editor, then move on, you know, to the assistant or sorry, to the like editor, the regular editor. So you kind of

45:37
can choose. But yeah, I don’t give up if my product I think is relevant, you know, and when I had my t-shirt business, it took me, I think, I don’t know, I want to say like nine months to get into Shape magazine. And I pitched them like every single month, you know, I’m like, and I did different editors that I would come back to the same editor a few months later. So yeah, it just it just takes time. And I don’t do that with every publication. I only do that with the publications that I’m like, I really, really want to be.

46:07
in this magazine. And maybe that’s like your list of top 10, you know, where like every month you’re finding a different pitch angle and a different person. Can this process be automated in any way? Sadly, no. I mean, I would say the best way to save time is to make yourself a schedule and like a plan and to say, OK, every January.

46:34
I am going to pitch online media for Valentine’s Day gift guides. Every February, I’m going to pitch national magazines for summer features. Every March, I’m going to do this. it’s like, at least when you’re pitching, you know exactly what theme you’re going to be pitching and what products you’re going to be pitching. So when you go in, you’re not just starting from scratch, but the process itself can’t really be automated.

47:02
you can buy like a media database and pull a list of like all of the fashion editors and email like 2000 of them at a time. And you can schedule emails, but that’s not as effective. It works, right? Like I’ve done that where when I had my t-shirt business, I was like, I just want to get out to as many people as I can. And I bought a media database for $5,000 and sent it out to thousands of editors. And I did get quite a few presses from that, but

47:32
So that works. But again, you can’t really automate it. You still have to select the right editors, the right magazines, write in your pitch, schedule it, and all of that. Can you comment on Harrow? Yes. So I think Harrow is great, but it’s really overwhelming. So you can definitely find a lot of good leads in Harrow. And when I have time, I look at Harrow as well.

48:00
But what happens with Harrow is that those editors get like hundreds of responses to their emails and they don’t often look at them. So the competition is really high and it just takes so long to go through each email and look for the relevant products that I find it very ineffective. But I think it’s great if you wanna like, you know, let’s say maybe you have an assistant and you’re like, hey, every morning I want you to look at Harrow and

48:29
pitch like, you know, all of the outlets that are relevant for our product. But I would say like as a business owner, as a founder, I don’t necessarily think that Harrow gives you a good investment on your time return because, obviously it’s free, but it just takes a lot of time. So the difference between what you’re talking about versus Harrow is that the people are fixed.

48:58
and you know what they’re writing about. So you’re just emailing the same people over again. Whereas Harrow, it’s different every day. Yeah, and you know, right, Harrow is different every day. And I actually got the idea to do media leads because of Harrow, because I was like, you know, imagine if there was a company like Harrow, but they only did products, right? Because Harrow is all over the place. They do experts, authors, everyone.

49:26
Um, so was like, I wonder if there’s a place that can do what Harold does, but only for products. And there wasn’t, um, at least not at the time. think now there are a few others, but, um, you know, Yeah, I was like, there has to be like an easier way. So here was great, but they’re just so inundated with like responses. And I’ve actually put up a bunch of requests on Harrow for my own business and like,

49:52
I get hundreds. If it’s something more general, I will get hundreds of pitches. And I’m like, I’ll look at maybe the first 20. And I’m like, I can’t look at the rest. It’s just too much. So yeah. Well, let’s talk about media leads. So would you say it’s like the harrow of e-commerce products? I would say so. How does it work? The main difference is that we charge a monthly fee and Harrow doesn’t. And I think they’re, I don’t know if they still do advertising or not.

50:22
as the way to get revenue. But yeah, I would say we’re very similar to Harrow in that reporters come to us or we also go to them, but we’re just focused on e-commerce products. So we have like lifestyle products and food and baby and kids products and fashion and accessories. So you can search by category. like, let’s say you have a jewelry brand, you can look at the lifestyle or the jewelry list and you know who to contact.

50:51
and what they’re working on. yeah, I would say those are some of the differences. you help write the pitch at all? is it? We don’t, we give sample pitches for gift guides and for, different things and follow up pitches. We don’t write it, but we, can review it. So oftentimes people will say, you know, Hey, I wrote my pitch. Can you take a look at it let me know what do you think about it? So we’ll like give suggestions and review it, but we don’t write it for you. Okay.

51:21
Well, where can people find your service and where are you located online? Online, we are at launchgrowjoy.com and you can go there and see a link to media leads and it explains how to sign up, shares success stories and all of the different benefits that you get and features that you get when you sign up. Cool. I know that when we got featured on the Today Show, we got 7x our orders per day for like

51:49
three days and then there was a second wave because it got syndicated somewhere. And then we got all these backlinks from that also. So yeah, all it takes is a couple of of hits and it can really boost your SEO. Totally. Yeah. And you’re so right. It’s like so many of those shows re-air, you know, and then you get a second boost and it’s like, oh, where did that come from? I didn’t do anything today. So so yeah, it’s I definitely recommend going for like

52:16
the big guys, you know, because that’s where you really see the big sales. But I think having the balance and pursuing all types of media outlets is really well-rounded because you don’t want to put, you know, all of your eggs in just one basket. Well, Andrea, was great having you back on the show. Maybe next time we won’t wait like six years. Yeah. I know. Thanks so much for having me on. I’m super excited to talk about this and it’s been fun to chat with you again. So thanks.

52:48
Hope you enjoyed that episode. Now if you’re willing to do the legwork, you can get free press without spending any money at all using the strategies that Andrea taught us today. For more information about this episode, go to mywebquaterjob.com slash episode 414. And once again, I want to thank Klaviyo, which is my email marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. You can easily put together automated flows like an abandoned card sequence, a post purchase flow, a win back campaign, basically all these sequences that will make you money on autopilot.

53:14
So head on over to mywifequitterjob.com slash KLA v IYO. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash KLA v IYO. I also want to thank Postscript, which is my SMS marketing platform of choice for e-commerce merchants. With a few clicks of a button, you can easily segment and send targeted text messages to your client base. SMS is the next big own marketing platform, and you can sign up for free over at postscript.io slash Steve. That’s P-O-S-T-S-E-R-I-P-T dot I-O slash Steve.

53:42
Now I talk about how I these tools on my blog and if you are interested in starting your own ecommerce store, head on over to MyWifeQuarterJob.com and sign up for my free 6 day mini course. Just type in your email and I’ll send you the course right away. Thanks for listening.