While we’ve been advising you on how to expertly pitch your product for holiday gift guides, we’ve also been actively pitching gift guides for Aloka, the soft goods company Amy co-founded in 2020! In doing so, we’ve employed a few tricks that make this effort easier, more organized and effective.
Tip #1 — Include the price of the product
Always include the price of your product, but if your product is under $50, $75 or $100, be sure to include this in the subject line. For example: New product under $50 // gift guide pitch.
Tip #2 — Use an email template
Creating an email template can save you time when sending out multiple pitches. In Gmail, go to Settings > Advanced > Templates > Enable > Save Changes. After composing your pitch email, select More Options > Templates > Save draft as template > Save as new template. When you’re ready to send the next one, navigate back to your templates and insert your pitch!
Tip #3 — Schedule your pitch emails
Send pitches first thing in the morning, preferably on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Gmail also allows you to schedule emails in advance. More send options > Schedule send, then select a time during business hours on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. If you need to edit your pitch after scheduling, select it from the Scheduled tab and Cancel send.
Tip #4 — Follow up
Follow up your pitch 7-10 days after sending and do so in the same email thread that you pitched, so that they can reference back. Use the same subject as you pitched with but insert Followup // in front of the subject content.
Tip #5 — Stay Organized
Keep your pitch efforts organized in a simple spreadsheet on Google Drive, creating columns for who you pitched, the publication, the date pitched, followup date and notes for editors’ responses. This becomes your Roadmap for future pitching as well.
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