Everything to Know About Holiday Gift Guides (2024)
With the holiday season fast approaching, more and more editorial teams, bloggers, and influencers are sharing great gift ideas with their audiences. This time of the year, so many people are searching for the perfect present for their family, friends, coworkers, employees, and more. With the rise of affiliate marketing, gift guides are seemingly more popular than ever. And if you’re a small business, that can mean big opportunities for you. Being featured in a holiday gift guide can be a real game-changer for your business, especially if you’re able to reach people who wouldn’t already know how great your products are. For both brands and media, gift guides can be big business, and understanding how to up your chances of being considered for one can make all the difference.
Here, we’re sharing why gift guides matter, how you can get noticed, and more, so you’re ready to make the most of the holiday season (and relationships with journalists year-round).
Why Are Holiday Gift Guides Important?
Although it might seem like holiday gift guides aren’t that big of a deal—how can a simple article or blog post matter that much?—but because readers and followers trust these outlets, bloggers, and influencers, they can actually make a really big difference by saving people time (and sometimes money) with curated gift guides, while also suggesting some of the best gifts that recipients will actually like. In that way, gift guides can function similarly to influencer marketing. Writers, editors, bloggers, and influencers you trust are telling you that these items make a great gift, and as a result, you’re able to get ideas you maybe didn’t have before from a trusted source telling you your gift will be a hit (and that you can stop searching).
These guides can help drive sales, build brand awareness, and help your business grow all year round—not just at the holidays. Here’s a little bit of what getting included in a gift guide can do for you:
Target Specific Audience: Because a lot of gift guides are organized for niche groups, like “Best Stocking Stuffer Ideas," "Hostess Gifts,” "Gifts for New Moms," "Best Candles," and “Best Tech Gifts,” being included in one can help you reach people who would be a great fit for your products and may be more ready to make a purchase.
Build SEO: Being featured in online gift guides (or other web articles) can help boost your SEO rankings because you’ll get backlinks from reputable websites right to your own site, which tells the search algorithms that you’re a good source for these products and kinds of information.
Build Credibility: Landing gift guide placements can help potential customers see you as more legit. Plus, since the website or influencer is backing you, it can help convince shoppers to trust you and your expertise.
Boost Sales: Because so many people love to quickly and easily shop gift guides in search of the perfect gift, if you’re included in a few great guides, you can see your sales spike during the holiday shopping season.
How to Get Noticed by Writers, Editors, and Influencers
While you can get lucky and get included in a gift guide without doing much of anything specific, especially if you offer unique gifts, most gift guide placements require a lot of strategic planning, thoughtful outreach, and time to build relationships (and brand recognition). Here’s what you need to know:
The earlier you start, the better: Don’t wait until the holiday season starts to begin reaching out to reporters and bloggers. These relationships can be cultivated all year long, especially with commerce writers and editors, bloggers, and influencers. Laying the groundwork can help keep you top-of-mind when it comes time to put together gift guides full of the best gift ideas. Additionally, big publications start gift guide work much earlier than you’d probably think. Start putting out feelers months in advance (September or even August is not too early!) to help avoid getting overlooked in all the chaos later on.
Do your research: Just compiling a list and sending them emails isn’t the most effective or efficient way to do PR. Make sure you look into who the right publications, writers, editors, bloggers, and influencers might be. Check out what they’ve covered or shared in the past, who their audience is, and more, to make sure you’re maximizing your efforts.
Write your pitch: Whether you’re doing formal PR outreach on behalf of your brand or you’re just an over-stretched business owner trying to see what kinds of connections you can make, you’re going to need a pitch. Try to make your pitches personal if you can, and make sure to highlight important or unique features of your brand or products including sustainable practices, company values, retailers, affiliate networks you’re on, upcoming holiday launches or sales, and more. Planning on offering early Black Friday deals? Make sure to call it out! Anything you can include to make yourself stand out can help!
Send (or offer) high-quality photos: Most writers need to prioritize brands and products with gorgeous, hi-res photography because that makes those products more exciting for shoppers.
Consider offering samples: If you can, try to offer writers and editors samples of your product so they can experience it for themselves. A first-hand experience can help make it more likely that you’ll be included in a gift guide or other articles because they won’t have just heard about your product, they’ll have seen how great it is themselves.
Put influencers to work for you: If you haven’t dipped your toes into influencer marketing just yet, consider reaching out to some who create holiday gift guides. These kinds of inclusions can mean big things for your brand because their audiences are often highly engaged.
Keep track of deadlines and make sure to follow up: Journalists are busy people juggling lots of different deadlines. Do your best to follow up with them (make sure to give them a little time before following up) and send them anything they need by the deadline, if you know it. You may not hear back the first time you reach out, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost! Keep at it!
A Rough Holiday Gift Guide Timeline
Holiday gift guides can mean a whole dedicated PR strategy. While it isn’t officially too late to be included in a round-up of the best holiday gifts until the holiday is over, following this rough timeline can help you maximize your opportunities and hopefully garner you the attention your brand deserves:
August-September: Start doing your research. Make a list of target outlets, writers, editors, bloggers, and influencers. Brainstorm potential pitch angles. Finalize your holiday offerings. Make sure you have product images ready to go and that you’re able to offer samples (and how many you’re able to offer, if necessary, so you can prioritize).
September-October: Finalize your initial pitch and your first outreach list. Start reaching out to your target outlets and writers. Make sure you’re sending over the pitch, photos (or an offer of them), and an offer to sample (if applicable). It might seem a bit early to talk holiday gifts, but this is exactly the write time for those working on an editorial schedule.
October-November: Continue to reach out to writers, editors, bloggers, and influencers. Follow up with your initial list and consider expanding to reach out to more people. If you have any leads, make sure to continue the conversation. Make sure your website and product pages are ready for when gift guides go live.
November-December: Continue with your outreach and follow-ups. Monitor press coverage to see if you’ve been included in any gift guides or other articles. If so, make sure to share them on social media, add them to your website, share with your email list, and consider creating targeted social ads featuring the placements. Make all of your hard work work for you!
Holiday gift guides can be huge for your brand. You can reach shoppers looking for thoughtful gifts during a busy, stressful time of the year, which can lead to boosted sales, more brand recognition, and more all year round. So plan your holiday gift guide strategy, gather your photos, finalize your pitch list, and get going on your outreach! You never know what might come of it.