Your brand is being featured in a seasonal gift guide in top-tier media. Congratulations! That’s great news! The impact this kind of coverage will have on your brand can’t be overstated. And if you play these cards right, it will last long after the gift guide has gone out of season.

These types of third-party recommendations from trusted and popular media outlets like Today.com, Parade, Readers Digest, AARP and many others give your brand visibility, credibility and can produce a huge boost in sales. Spoiler alert: Your retail partners will love it. So will your bottom line.

As we highlighted in our recent blog, Spring and Summer Gift Guides: How to Get Your Product Featured, securing that placement is no easy task. It takes planning, timing, specific targeting and a killer pitch. When you get that coveted “yes” and have delivered your info and images to the publication that’s running the guide, you may think your work is done. It isn’t.

When that guide runs, it’s time to amplify the coverage. Shout it from the rooftops! Don’t let the exposure go to waste.

Here are five ways to get the most out of your gift guide placement.

1. Share media coverage on social channels

No, you can’t make your posts go viral. But you can do everything possible to amplify your coverage and pave the way for that magic to happen. Here’s how:

• Create a series of social posts showcasing and linking to the coverage. Make sure all of your followers know it’s out there. Encourage them to share!
• Tag journalists and media outlets. On those social posts, be sure to tag relevant journalists or media outlets in a friendly, non-intrusive way to increase the chance of them taking notice.
• Use relevant hashtags. Trending seasonal or gift-guide-related hashtags will enhance the visibility of your posts. #FathersDay #GiftsforDad. This will help your content reach a broader audience, including those who are searching for the latest gift ideas.

• Thank journalists. In your post, always thank the journalist or the outlet. Sharing the spotlight with the journalist builds positive, long-term relationships that can lead to more opportunities down the line.

2. Include media coverage in your brand newsletters

Your stakeholders are always excited to see your company’s products featured in media coverage. Share your successes in your employee newsletter as well as in external consumer-facing communiques. Be sure to include a link to the story along with a simple image of the media outlet’s logo and impression numbers to showcase the importance of the audience reach.

3. Share coverage with your sales and broker teams.

Don’t forget to include your sales team and brokers in distribution of stories that feature your products. Encourage them to share the coverage in their sales decks and other presentations with retailers and key customers. What better endorsement than having respected local and national media outlets telling readers your product is the one they selected for their gift guide? Any time you share the coverage make sure to provide appropriate credit to avoid copywrite infringement. Live links are always the best.

4. Don’t forget SEO

Media stories that include your brand and product’s key words are certain to strengthen your SEO. Make sure to work with your SEO team to alert them to when stories are coming out along with information about what kind of reach the story enjoyed. In the past, we have successfully moved brands from the second or third page on Google search to the number one spot through a steady stream of favorable media coverage across trade and lifestyle outlets.

5. Get it on your website, pronto

Finally, make sure you prominently display media stories on your website. Listing them on your website’s news page is just one step. Consider featuring links to prominent stories on your home page so that visitors can easily access coverage about your brand in top-tier outlets. If you are successful in generating a large volume of media gift guide coverage, consider setting up a rotating carousel on your home page that moves through the various stories, further amplifying the reach and engagement such coverage can generate for your brand.

If you’ve been considering gift guides as part of your marketing strategy but don’t know where to begin, our expert team is ready to handle the heavy lifting. Ask us about the importance of affiliate programs to the success of your program.

With over 30 years of experience working with gift guide media, we’ve helped our clients generate billions of impressions and drive sales success with them.  We’ll help you amplify the media coverage beyond the impressions the story itself provides.

Book a free 30-minute consultation call here: 👉 Calendly