Wait, what? Back-to-school s months away! We haven’t even finished this school year or graduated any seniors. HOW can the media be thinking about back-to-school already? It’s true! National publications close at least four months in advance. That means their stories are written, their advertising is sold, their cover is chosen. It makes it tricky to get in a magazine but by planning ahead you can make sure you’re a perfect fit. The first thing you need to do is research their editorial calendars. These are calendars actually designed to sell advertising in the publication because they can go to specific brands and say, “this month the magazine is covering [x topic]. Readers will be buying the magazine to learn about “X” so by. advertising your similar product/brand/service, you are attracting your ideal customers.
See what publications are covering back-to-school topics. Look at parent/family friendly magazines like: Family Circle, Parenting, Womens World, and even magazines specifically geared to men and women like Men’s Health and O The Oprah Magazine.
Learn more about editorial calendars in the video below:
How to Use Editorial Calendars
Another thing you can do is look at past issues and see who covered back-to-school topics last year. They are very likely to cover it again this year.
What Should You Pitch the Media?
Not sure what to pitch for back-to-school? Look at those past issues and see the types of stories that particular publication likes to cover. Do they follow themes? Q&A? Specific topics? Then see what a competitor might have covered in prior years and pitch a similar story. Here’s a video I did talking about doing that. It’s an easy way to give them what you know they already like but tweak it. Also, if one media outlet used it, it’s likely another one will like it to. Just don’t pitch the exact same story. Make sure you make it relevant to this year. For example, last year’s back-to-school stories were likely about home schooling. This year’s will be about going back and hybrid learning. See what they covered and make some tweaks and pitch away.
PR FOR ANYONE
Anyone can get publicity! It really is PR for ANYONE. Together with my clients we have over 1 billion views and over $100 million in sales. The system works! It’s time for you to start implementing. If you want to chat about your PR and visibility or the event, click on the box below or use this link >> Let’s Chat NOW is your time to by seen as THE go-to expert, an A-Lister in your industry! It’s going to be someone, so let’s have it be you and not your competitor. I’d love to connect.: Also, get your free Blueprint to learn how to do this >> HERE
Watch this week’s PR tip here and/or read the transcript below:
Transcript
Hi everybody. It’s Christina Daves with this week’s Free Publicity Friday PR Tip. This week I want to give you some ideas of what you need to be pitching right now and it’s going to seem so far off.
But right now national publications are looking at back-to-school. What can you talk about about kids going back to school? This is going to be a really big year. Most kids have had the entire year off.
Some kids are going back hybrid, some are going full-time What expertise do you have that you can talk about back-to-school. And then I want you to research editorial calendars and see what national publications are going to be addressing back-to-school, and I bet it’s most of them. The parenting magazines, women’s and men’s magazines, anybody who might have kids who this has relevant things for their magazine.
So check that out. Prepare your back-to-school pitches for national publications and start getting them out now. So that is this week’s tip. If you haven’t heard about it yet, please check out our live event
this summer. It’s CaptivateandCashInLive.com. We only have a few in-person seats left where we’re going to take you to Dallas, Texas and we’re going to interview you Oprah style and are guaranteeing
you press interviews. It’s going to be incredible! And then we also have a virtual component which is two days in August where it’s new technology. You’re going to feel like you’re really there. It’s going to be absolutely amazing and we’re going to get everything done at the event. No going home with a notebook or a folder. You’re going to pitch the media. You’re going to write video scripts. You’re going to write social media posts. You’re going to actually do them. You’re going to connect with influencers. It is going to be amazing. So check it out, CaptivateandCashInLive.com, and hopefully, I’ll see you in August.