Fashion PR: 5 Ways to Get Your Fashion Product Featured in the Press

Getting your product featured in the press can boost your brand awareness and credibility, increase your website traffic and ultimately attract new customers. While it might seem intimidating at first, it is possible to take control of your own fashion PR successfully. After all, who knows your brand better than you? Here are 5 useful fashion PR tips to help you get started:

Have Your Assets Ready

Having your assets ready before pitching to the press is essential. Key assets include high res product and lifestyle imagery, look books, line sheets, a beautiful website and a strong social media presence.

High res imagery is vital for your brand to be featured in publications. It’s important to have both cut-out imagery and lifestyle images of your products. Cut-out images on a white background are used in shopping features, while lifestyle imagery is most often used for pages with longer product and brand write-ups.

A seamless website which is easy to navigate is crucial as it will allow editors to be able to find what they are looking for straight away. It is also important that your social media reflect your brand and looks visually appealing.

Do Your Research

Before emailing an editor, you should familiarize yourself with the type of stories they normally write and the products they tend to feature. Some editors only compile regular shopping pages, while others might do a mix of shopping edits, editorials and longer features.

We also recommend following the editors on social media and interacting with them when it feels natural. This will allow you to connect with them on a more personal level, build relationships and show personality.

Keeping the editorial calendar and the time of the year in mind when pitching your products will allow your pitch to be more specific and relevant. This also gives you more angles to play on. With press, it’s often all about timing. That’s why you might suddenly hear back in August about a product you pitched in February as it’s relevant for a story they’re working on now.

It is also important to be aware of the lead times for different publications. Long lead publications (monthly) typically compile features between 3 and 6 months in advance. Short lead and online publications are published weekly or daily.

While it may be your dream to get featured in certain publications, it is probably not going to happen if your price point or your product is not right for the magazine you’re pitching to. Being aware of your core customers and what publications they read will allow you to focus on the publications that are right for you and your market.

While it may seem obvious, avoid sending the same, generic email to each publication you contact. A well-thought-out, personalized and tailored email is key. This approach takes a bit more time but truly increases the chances of editors getting back to you.

Also, don’t forget about the subject line: it should be attention-grabbing or something clearly targeted at a specific feature that the editor normally compile. Editors receive hundreds of emails so keep your email short and concise with all the key details about the product you’re pitching. We recommend focusing on 1-2 products maximum so that you don’t overwhelm the editor with suggestions.

Persistence is Key

We understand that it’s disheartening when you don’t hear back from editors, especially when you put in a lot of time and effort with your press outreach. PR takes time and gaining coverage rarely happens instantly when you’re a new brand. This is just the nature of press. However, fret not- being persistent with your fashion PR will pay off and eventfully lead to results.

If you don’t hear back from an editor, we always recommend sending a short follow-up email a week or two after your initial email. If you still don’t hear back, leave it for a little while and email the editor with a different product suggestion or change the angle of your pitch.

Keeping a document with the editors and publications you’ve pitched to and on what date will help you become more efficient with your fashion PR. This also helps prevent bombarding the same editor with the same emails and product suggestions.

PR your PR

You’ve been featured? Congratulations and well done! Nothing beats the buzz of a great piece of press so make sure you shout about it from the rooftops. Your fashion PR coverage will only last as long as that issue of the magazine or newspaper is on the shelves so make sure you make the most of it.

Share your coverage across your social media channels. Remember to tag the publication and the editor or writer who featured your product. This will help them remember your brand name, which can, in turn, lead to future coverage.

Aside from acknowledging the editor on social media, you should also send a personal ‘thank you’ email to show that you appreciate their support. This will help build your relationship with the editor. They will remember your professionalism and be more inclined to feature you again in the future.

Finally, include your key pieces of press in your newsletter for your database of customers to see. This little bit of news about your brand being featured can be the one thing that persuades your subscribers to make that all-important purchase.

Guest post: Charline Catteeuw is the Marketing & Sales Coordinator at PR Dispatch, the UK’s first PR subscription business dedicated to supporting brands with their press outreach at an affordable cost each month. PR Dispatch is the sister business of the multi-award-winning agency LFA, whose team feed real-time information to a log-in for smaller brands. Regularly updated contacts, feature information, DIY PR advice and community support has enabled hundreds of brands with great products to maximize their chances of achieving press resulting in coverage in Stylist, Cosmopolitan, Elle, InStyle and many more.