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✨A lifestyle marketing blog✨
THE LATEST
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MARKETING AND PR TRENDS
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THE LATEST ~ MARKETING AND PR TRENDS ~
3 Key Reasons Media Outreach During the Holidays is So Crucial.
We’re heading into the holidays, and the warm shades of Autumn will soon be replaced by vivid evergreens, twinkling lights and jewel tones. It’s a transformative period that offers heightened marketing opportunities for growth, customer engagement, and brand recognition not available most of the rest of the marketing year. Here are 3 reasons media outreach during the holiday and Winter months delivers an improved return on investment:
Seven Steps to Consider When Getting Your Website Ready for the Holiday Rush
Whether you’re actively recruiting press placements for your products or just want to make the most of your website, here are some simple elements you should consider.
Gift Guides 2024: Here are 5 Essential Elements to Make Sure Your Products are Front and Center
Gift Guides 2024: Here are 5 Essential Elements to Make Sure Your Products are Front and Center
Here are some interesting dates coming up to mark on your marketing calendar.
It’s the beginning of August and heatwaves and beach days are most likely your reality.
Here are some great internet holidays coming up to post about over the next few weeks:
August 8: International Cat Day
August 9: Book Lovers Day
August 15: 55th Anniversary of Woodstock
August 17: National Bee Day
August 17: National Thrift Shop Day
August 19: Full Moon (Sturgeon Moon) is a Blue Moon: occurs when there are four full moons in a single astronomical season, instead of the usual three. There will not be another Blue Moon until May 31, 2026
August 19: Coco Chanel’s Birthday
August 30: National Beach Day
The Second Half is Here! Here’s What’s Trending in June and Beyond.
Brand owners who sell wholesale know that June is the month that kicks off a frenzy of activity.
The big media players like Oprah, The New York Times, Glamour, Goop, Vogue ect are researching trends and investigating the popularity of specific brands for inclusion in their exhaustive holiday gift guides. They’ll roll out their recommendations to readers in late September through mid October, which means that if you have special designs, gift sets, price breaks or new products you’d like to sell a lot of at Christmastime, June is the month that you must start pitching.
The reason for this long lead time is the colossal importance of the season for media players who rely on the ad sales that these gift guides bring. Digital versions of these guides bring commissions earned from click throughs. Holiday gift guides also go a long way in the promotion of media brands - they can demonstrate their influence on the consumer product market by generating great sales, thereby attracting year round advertising revenue. Key editors from these guides appear on numerous morning shows and entertainment programs to promote their choices, further strengthening their brand and generating traffic and circulation to their pages.
Happy Spring! Here’s What’s Trending in the Weeks Ahead.
With or without big editorial boards, the world is moving ahead like a bullet train speeding through the fog. Here’s what’s on our radar:
As with trees leaf out, the world’s attention is being drawn to eco friendly ideas and stories of all kinds. Sustainability is a keyword that’s getting lots of searches on Google this year. Thrifting from charity shops and reselling on platforms like Ebay, The Real Real, and Vestiaire is gaining in popularity with influencers. They can sell their own clothing, and earn the same commissions on items listed on those sites as they would with other types of online stores.
Here are some of the cutest decorations for your Easter celebrations.
Hop hop goes the calendar and we’re already almost to the Spring Equinox. Daylight Saving Time starts in just 4 days. With that in mind I can’t help but be inspired by all the beautiful (and some downright tacky) Easter decorations that I see in the stores.
Here’s What’s Happening in March (that Lifestyle Brands Should Know About).
March spells the end of Winter and there’s a palpable sense of relief from frost weary souls throughout North America:
Create a sense of regeneration through social and blog posts and include your products that fit this vibe. For media outreach, editors are looking for products and ideas that evoke a sense of renewal.
Why you should be shooting products with natural light
Studio v. Natural Light in product photography: Shooting products with natural light offers a lot of advantages - especially to amateur photographers, and those who need to produce loads of material in a short amount of time.
The differences between natural daylight and artificial light for a photographer lie mostly in the spectrum of the light as it falls on your subject.
Here's Why We Love Using Lightroom Presets For All Our Client's Social Media and Brand Photos
I’m a big fan of Lightroom from Adobe for lots of reasons. I’ve been using it to create scroll stopping images for my clients for years.
SEO-powered storytelling is key for product placement PR in 2024. Here’s how to do it.
Major publications are under intense pressure to keep traffic flowing to their sites. They can’t do this if they write about subjects that aren’t hugely interesting, which is why there’s so much focus on celebrity news in pop culture media.
Years ago when I ran a commercial blog of my own, anytime I’d write about a celebrity, especially Kim Kardashian, traffic to my site would quadruple. And this is the effect that major publications live for … literally.
Don’t miss these unique editorial opportunities coming up for lifestyle brands.
Special Days in February and March You’ll Want to Pitch Your Products and Suggestions For
The Thing With Pink!
Pink is a color that often evokes feelings of sweetness, playfulness, and tenderness. It is traditionally associated with historically feminine traits such as innocence, nurturing, and compassion.
How to Make the Most of Q5
Q5, or the “fifth quarter” of the marketing year, also known as the post-year-end period, is an extension of time that comes after the completion of the traditional four quarters. Interestingly, Q5 is such a novel term to many brands that it’s defined differently depending on who is discussing it.
How to Easily Find Trending Audio on Instagram
If you enjoy those hilarious audio grabs you see in other’s feeds or want to give your Instagram account an up-to-the-minute feel, incorporate trending audio into your feeds. The beauty of trending audio is that you can pop almost any video underneath some of the more colorful audio clips and enjoy the benefits of it. Of course, because they’re trending, they can change by the minute. For this reason, it’s important to be able to easily find great trending audio - and we’re in luck! Because it is.
Last Minute Holiday Marketing Tricks For You to Do Right Now
I get it, you’re probably maxed out on Christmas marketing strategies. All those wild discounts and intense promotions big box stores wield like customer swiping machetes can be hard to compete with for a smaller, independent brand.
Big brands have giant marketing budgets that churn out deals that are hard to imagine competing with - but herein lies your power as a small seller. You can quickly bob and weave with the trends in a way that big Titanic level corporations just can’t.
Brands: Support Retailers Through Local Media Outreach
We so often hear the phrase “shop local” and “shop small” but many times brands aren’t sure how to support smaller regional retailers who carry their lines.
One method that truly helps support both your retail customers, and promote sales, is outreach to smaller regional magazines.
Virtually every demographic has a good number of geographically focused magazines and media, usually named after the city or state where they are published. There are media companies that specialize in producing beautiful glossy publications for specific demographics throughout North America. Their magazine products are often truly polished and stunning.
5 Essential Elements for Gift Guide Inclusion in 2023
Product focused businesses can benefit from gift guides in a way that is unique to the business world.
Holiday gift guides can be a valuable marketing tool for beauty and decor businesses, helping to increase brand visibility and drive sales during the festive season. As a business looking to get featured in holiday gift guides for 2023, here are some tips to increase your chances of inclusion.
Use This Strategy to Build Your Audience on Instagram and TikTok
Your current customers (for brands this would mainly be retailers that carry your products) have a vested interest in your success, as you do in theirs. For brands that are carried in dozens or even hundreds of stores you have a built-in network of micro-influencers who can help drive your social account to major success.
Encouraging your current customers to post about your brand on their platform of choice not only helps to increase visibility but also fosters a sense of authenticity and trust.
Here are some tried-and-true strategies to inspire customers to share their experiences and promote your business on Instagram and TikTok:
Why Autumn and Holiday are So Crucial for Lifestyle Brands.
As the leaves turn vibrant shades of red, orange, and yellow, and a crispness fills the air, autumn heralds not only the arrival of a new season but also a crucial marketing season for small lifestyle brands. This transformative period offers unique opportunities for growth, customer engagement, and brand recognition that should not be overlooked.