For most brands, Q4 is the most important sales season of the year whether you’re a product or service-based business. Many brands tend to save their biggest releases or best offers for the end of the year, increase their ad spends, update their social strategies, roll out discounts, partner with influencers, bump up their investment in SEO, and dial in their public relations efforts to focus heavily on increasing visibility.

To illustrate the last two points (SEO + PR, it’s like PB+J), stop what you’re doing now and Google “Best Gifts for Beauty Lovers” or “Best Gifts for Hostess Gifts.” The first results that come up are not products but news stories.

Above: Google Search results for “best hostess gifts”

“The function of marketing and communications is to generate brand awareness so that when a consumer is ready to purchase, they know you exist (marketing) and they know you’re among the best options (PR).”

Obviously, this is a huge opportunity for brands – to be featured in a top-ranking media story as a “best” is valuable as it is (the ad value alone is several thousand dollars), and ranking in a top Google Search is something that businesses would pay a lot of money for (and do pay a lot of money for). Wonderfully, we know that earned media coverage is the most convincing type of media for consumers according to research from Nielsen.

Awareness is everything when you have a product or service to sell; after all, the function of marketing and communications overall is to generate brand awareness so that when a consumer is ready to purchase, they know you exist (marketing) and they know you’re among the best options (PR). When it comes to the holiday season, specifically, most businesses are faced with a lot of competition in the marketplace.

We hear it all the time from brands. The holiday season comes with a lot of rewards but costs associated with competing for their Meta ad spend to reach as many people during the months of October-December with the same budget; competing for prime real estate and high-traffic shelf space at retailers; competing for interest from media; competing with themselves on Amazon; competing with competitors that are able to better afford free shipping or deeper discounts that attract the same customers, and so on.

Sigh. That is a lot. But there are a few ways that we can work smarter and not harder, particularly as it pertains to garnering interest from the media, and converting that interest into placements and ultimately sales.

Here are 10 ways to land more gift guide coverage and leverage that coverage for sales this holiday season:

Make sure what you are selling is legitimately giftable.
A lonely spatula is not really a gift. But a grilling set with a spatula, tongs, and an apron that is boxed together is definitely a gift. Editors are going to prioritize these items over one-off items because, well, they sell! And not just during the holiday season. If gift sets on your website are not a year-round thing, please do consider it as there are many other seasons besides the holidays that yearn for giftable items. (By the way, did I mention we start pitching Valentine’s Day in November? For another newsletter!)
Have your photography in order.
Schedule that photoshoot now if you haven’t yet! Be sure your brand has high-quality photography for your best-selling and/or new products or services. This includes products on transparent or white backgrounds – these are the priority – as well as lifestyle photography. Journalists will need these assets upfront when considering you for holiday gift guides.
Once you have your photography in order, update your website and start posting on social media.
Does your website still reflect copy and imagery for the summer season? It’s time to update it to reflect the fall and holiday seasons ahead. Go the extra mile and focus on SEO. Start drafting blog posts to publish from now through the end of the year according to what your customer is looking for. Gifts for mom? Write a blog post about that. Skincare solutions for dry, winter feet? Make sure to put those terms in your product copy. This is the time to make your site as searchable and convertible as possible, both for consumers and for journalists.