7 Hacks For Product PR – 10 Yetis Insight

I’ve dabbled with product PR a lot over the years, but currently have a few clients where this route is key to their campaigns, therefore wanted to share some hacks I believe can help strengthen a product PR campaigns.

Whether, like me, you’re currently running product PR campaigns for a premium range of motorcycle cleaning products, an athleisurewear collection, false eyelashes or something else entirely, the below hacks are ones I use on a regular basis across my campaigns that not only work well but aren’t specific to just one type of product…

Introduce your product to journalists

You can choose to send a press release to journalists to make them aware of your client and their latest product, or you can choose to phone them individually if it’s something you believe they might be interested in. Either way, you need to make journalists aware that this product is on the market, the benefits to this product and why people should choose your clients product over the competitors’ products.

Ensure you’re only targeting journalists with an interest in your product, whether they may have written about something similar before or you know from conversations that it may be something they’re willing to explore.

Offer journalists and influencers the chance to review the products

One of the best ways to get your clients product out there is to offer review opportunities to journalists and influencers; people who readers and subsequently followers can trust to give them an honest opinion of a product. It’s one thing for you and your client to rave about the product, but it’s another to hear and/or read honest reviews by third parties who have tried and tested them.

Be sure to discuss any potential budget allowance with your client when it comes to influencer outreach, especially if you’re planning to target well-established influencers. It may be that they’re happy to reach out to up and coming journalists instead who may be happy to work together on a contra deal.

Consider enlisting brand ambassadors

Calvin Klein is known for many things, including recently having Justin Bieber as a brand ambassador, and everyone knows that George Clooney is a brand ambassador for Nespresso (those adverts kill me!), so why shouldn’t your client have brand ambassadors?

Your client may not have the budget for an A List movie star, but their budget may be able to stretch to a model, a blogger or someone that fits well with their brand and their products. Someone with a loyal following who love to read or hear what they have to say, interact with their content and is considered influential.

Just recently, our athleisurewear client Sculptmode teamed up with Italian model, blogger and fashion designer, Mariano Di Vaio.

Look to get them included in gift guides

It’s coming up to Christmas and journalists love a good gift guide – there’s one for everything; men, women, children, technology, food, drink, fashion… you name it, there’s more than likely a gift guide for it. All it takes is a quick email or phone call to see if they might be interested in including your client’s products.

That being said, gift guides aren’t just a Christmas thing; journalists are on the lookout all throughout the year and there are constant product round ups (similar to gift guides) where you can look to get your clients product includes.

Offer alternative content

A hard sales pitch to a journalist isn’t likely going to generate a lot of coverage for your client, so look to offer alternative coverage; press releases, thought leadership pieces positioning your client as the expert, features, stats, comments… you want to talk about more than just what the product is and why peopleshould buy into it.

Don’t be afraid to teach people

Likewise, people love to learn, and with your client being the expert they’re the ideal candidate to teach. Whether that’s how-to videos on how to use the product or something more general on the market they’re in (just recently we did a few features for our client FalseEyelashes.co.uk on makeup hacks women need to know about and even what makeup to wear to compliment your face shape), people will read or watch because they want to know what information your client has to offer.

Utilise social media

Social media is key. Build a following, share interesting content and don’t just post solidly about the product (people will get bored and stop following the page). It’s also a great way to interact with existing and potential new customers and inject a bit of personality alongside the brand and product.

And in the words of Aaliyah, if it doesn't work first time...