Now, more than ever, a robust publicity plan is crucial for lifestyle brands. We all know that to thrive companies need to stand out from a plethora of competitors. One way to do that is through a sparkling publicity campaign. But far too often, while the heart is willing, the head just cannot seem to work out how to secure those dazzling, must-have press placements. Let’s decode.

Often the media’s willingness to feature one brand over another has more to do with logistics than anything else. Brilliant brands fall by the wayside while companies offering similar products and designs seem to enjoy press mentions in Vogue, Allure, and Refinery 29 over and over. The reasons have to do as much with timing, organization, and available media materials as the actual products themselves.

Below are 4 of the most common PR mistakes that seem to befall beauty, décor and fashion brands.

PR Mistake #1: Failing To Plan Ahead For Holiday And Shopping Seasons

This is the most common error lifestyle brands make and it’s a real headscratcher.

Time and again the one thing that loses relevant press placements is an unwillingness to plan product strategy in advance of important shopping seasons. For example, if you’re a brand that offers giftable or party-oriented products, Holiday 2022 should have been in the works on your desktop back in June. This will be a make or break season for so many of us and getting your ideas to press asap is crucial. Whether it’s lack of bandwidth, or paranoia about releasing proprietary design ideas too early, this is a giant PR stumbling block for brands. So many companies get to the end of October and realize Christmas is on their doorstep and then PANIC! Don’t let this be you.

“We routinely are on the receiving end of gift guide pitches and submissions at the beginning of December,” says Nell* a market editor for a big national women’s magazine. “By that time we’re working on our Summer style issue and our holiday issue has been on the stands for two weeks already.”

The Cure: While holiday gift guides are already being released you can get traction in last minute guides with specially priced gift sets, or items that capture current events.

Chances are your seasonal collections include items you already have in your catalog. Blend these together with new rollouts or limited edition offerings and make a rough draft of descriptions and photos. If you don’t have product in hand, make mockups and use Canva to put a presentation together so you have a concept to share with editors. Then prioritize press you’d like to pitch beginning with long lead and figure the number of press samples you’ll need. After you’ve worked out your Holiday collection, work ahead to New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, ect. That way you’ll have press materials ready for short, medium and long lead press.

PR Mistake #2: Forgetting To Connect A Pitch To Current Events

This is mistake #1’s little sister but is a procedural error that happens time and again. While shopping seasons are evergreen, economic conditions, trends and current events are always changing. The shift that many brands fail to make is to connect the dots of their pre-planned collections to what is happening on the ground at the moment.

Writers and editors are creative, but they also thrive on getting good ideas offered to them by brands with fresh ideas. In addition to pitching a product, you can include customer or employee stories about why they love your brand.

“We get pitches from brands that don’t seem to read the news,” says Shira a lifestyle editor at a renown website. “But we always take a look at products and companies that are doing something closely related to current events or have a solution to a universal problem.”

The Cure: When pitching to short or medium lead media, make sure you connect what you have in mind with trends, pop culture and news events. With the economy paramount in everyone’s mind at the moment, exclusive pricing and limited edition products might be the perfect pitch.

PR Mistake #3: Pitching The Wrong Media With The Wrong Product

This seems obvious but it’s the biggest complaint that writers and editors express when it comes to receiving communications directly from brands. In addition to product type, it’s important to consider the tone of the media you’re reaching out to. Upscale brands like Vogue are interested in luxury, cutting edge trends, and celebrity use of a product or service. Brands like Country Living have a distinctive vintage vibe that they rarely deviate from.

“I can’t tell you how many pitches I get for children’s gear or clothing,” says Kiersten, a beauty writer. “It makes weeding through emails really difficult when there are so many generic pitches that have nothing to do with my beat.”

It’s also important to note that when researching editors and writers, job descriptions alone don’t always give a good point of reference for what that particular person is tuned into writing about. For example, a lifestyle editor at a women’s magazine may solely write about décor rather than cosmetics and will be put off if you approach her with ideas about your makeup line that she has no interest in.

The Cure: Read through the work of the person you’re pitching and see if there’s a fit. If you’re trying to get into a particular website or magazine, look at articles an outlet seems to publish most often and work backwards from there. Mention an article the writer has written recently so they know you understand their vibe. This is one of the parts of PR that is copiously time consuming but in the long run will be more productive than blasting generic pitches to clusters of names through a media service.

PR Mistake #4: Failing To Supply Great Images Of Their Products In The Right Resolutions.

Some of the big magazines still shoot their own images - this was the practice at every media outlet for eons. However, with budget cuts and pressure to constantly push out content, most media rely on “hand out art” to populate their pages. And while you may have some usable shots that can be lifted from your website, it probably isn’t in the right format for an art director to use.

“We pass on brands everyday that don’t have the image format that we need,” says Julie an art director for an international newspaper. “I hate to say it, but our deadlines are so tight that just having a file that I can access at 2am is a make or break strategy often times.”

The Cure: Invest in photography and create images that are clean, well lit and demonstrate style. Products should be shown on both white background (silo’d) and in a lifestyle setting. The more images the better so work on this aspect of your media strategy constantly. Make sure that images are in a JPG and PNG format, and at a resolution that’s at least 3000px wide or larger so that print media can easily use it in their magazine layouts. A good rule of thumb is to create images optimally sized for both digital use, which is smaller, and print use. It’ll save you lots of time in the long run, and the results will be more press placements. It’s a good idea to make these materials available at all times to editors and art directors by placing them in a Dropbox file that they can access and scroll through to choose shots that work best for them. Don’t require a giant download of hundreds of photos as this will just cost your editor precious time and bandwidth they probably don’t have.

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