Wolf Craft - Your PR questions answered - edition #3

Welcome to the third edition of PR Questions with Nora.

This new monthly newsletter feature was inspired by you! If you've attended one of our recent PR workshops, you likely noticed there were A LOT of great questions during the Q&A's. We've collated all the questions and once a month we'll send you two in-depth answers to your most common PR questions.

Read past editions here.

Q: I am wondering about lead time and timing. How much time do you have to give editors?

A: There isn’t a silver bullet answer, but there are general guidelines.

Print national publications -- the publications that you're going to see in any airport newsstand -- it’s about three to four months lead time.

Print regional magazines -- like Atlanta Homes and Gardens or California Style -- it’s generally two to three months, sometimes even shorter.

Trade publications are also usually two to three months.

Dailies -- your newspapers -- are usually one to two months.

Blogs, influencers, and podcasts -- digital media -- are all wildly different because they have no physical constraints, they don't have to ship anything, and they don't have to print anything.

If you have something really topical you can sometimes pitch them like a day before. But I would say, don't do that, give them at least a week.

One major timeline difference is for Holiday Gift Guides, both print and digital. For print national, we start pitching about six months in advance. This is because gift guides are such a big lift for publications. Each piece includes three to four times the amount of products per page, so there are a lot more opportunities for you, and also a lot more work for editors.

The last thing I'll say about timing is plug into your industry. If you have two trade shows a year that are really common in your industry take note of those dates, even if you aren’t showing. Editors go to these events and the publications base their editorial coverage on them. So if you're releasing products you don't necessarily have to be at the trade show but reach out to those editors right around the same time.

Q: When do I have enough to get started? I want to start reaching out to publications, but it feels unrealistic to wait until I've got it all together.

A: I love this question, it's such a common question for small shops and young businesses.

Short answer, you can start with just one thing.

Caveat-- your one thing has to be photographed really well and useful to an audience.

If you have one widget that you're selling, get all the information organized and make sure your website is optimized to talk about that widget.

Find the publications that will write about this type of widget, and publications that have written about similar products.

You may find this surprising but more than a few design companies have gotten wide press coverage with just one or two products.

What's their secret??? Again it's excellent photography that really fits the point of view of the publications they pitched.

If you're launching one piece of furniture, for example, and you want placements in higher-tier design publications you'll need to have images of it in a beautiful space with great styling. I know of a company that launched with one high-end stool. They had dozens of pictures of it in different colors. The photos were really thought out. What they did not do was slap it in the spare room in their home with dog hair on the floor. They made the investment and it paid off.

A few useful tools to help you get started:

Our Pinterest Account! We’ve created dozens of industry-specific boards with best-in-show examples of media quality photography.

Photography for Media Outreach Guides.

9 PR Tips from WIRED Magazine’s Pitching Guide.

Thanks for giving us some time in your inbox! If you have any PR questions be sure to send them our way. We'll always respond and you may even see the answer in our newsletter!

Cheers,
Nora & Kirsten

PS - If you liked the newsletter, we’d be so happy if you shared it with others who might find it useful. Anyone new can subscribe here.

Wolf Craft - Your PR questions answered - edition #3

Q: I am wondering about lead time and timing. How much time do you have to give editors?

Q: When do I have enough to get started? I want to start reaching out to publications, but it feels unrealistic to wait until I've got it all together.

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