It’s the time of year to start thinking about marketing your product ahead of the festive period. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the last Friday before Christmas are the busiest days in the shopping calendar, largely down to panic buying, but also down to the search for a good deal. So how can gift guides fit in to your digital marketing plan?

Prior to these events, consumers like to research the products that they want to buy for their loved ones, which often means reading through a lot of gift guides. The top 10 gifts for a golf obsessed dad, 30 skincare products to liven up your skin in winter, 20 tech gadgets hitting the shelves in time for Christmas. No matter who you’re shopping for or what you’re looking for, there will be a gift guide to cover it.

What are gift guides?

Gift guides are where PR meets digital marketing. They have existed long before the internet, but having the ability to directly link to a product has made them such a popular feature of all PR and digital marketing campaigns, especially in the festive period.

A gift guide is one of the most powerful tools during the Festive shopping season, allowing you to showcase you product to shoppers in need of inspiration. Gift guides can most commonly be found published in media outlets, but more recently, brands will put together their own gift guides of their own products and products that they stock.

Why should you get your products in a gift guide?

A gift guide acts as a big wish list for a well-established reviewer journalist. Someone who has been product testing throughout their career has developed the ultimate list of the year to give the best suggestions of products in their expert field. Having your product on the list is like being the star on top of the tree.

Gift guides are the main event when it comes to product PR; they’re a sophisticated way to showcase all the features of your product through the eye of an avid user. Most well-established publications will have gift guides covering the trends for that time of year. They’ll always be easy to find, be it through search engines or directly through their website, the gift guide will be met by a lot of eyes.

Who reads gift guides?

Even outside of the festive period, we all find ourselves searching through gift guides, even when shopping for ourselves. It would be a very snap-purchase decision to buy a vacuum cleaner without clicking on at least one ‘Top 7 vacuum cleaners of 2023’ article, and the same for most appliances that we inevitably purchase throughout the year. This is what makes gift guides such an integral part of the customer journey, giving consumers the all-important word of mouth review that allows them to visually test the product before purchasing. The gift guide then eases the customer journey along by including a link to the product, maybe even with a discount code to encourage the user to complete the purchase based on their recommendation.

Gift guides are not just long form content articles that dive in to detail on products, they can also be in the form of product reviews on social media. Consumers tend to watch product reviews for tech, clothing, food and drink, beauty, and home appliances to help them further understand a product. Those aged 18-24 are the most likely to watch reviews of products, followed by 25-34 year olds.

How to get your product in a gift guide

To get your product in a gift guide, you first must know your audience and how to reach them. Simply finding a tech focused journalist to feature your smart fitness product is good for reaching a wider audience, but the more focused the topic, the better. Having a good understanding of where to find these contacts is essential. Some journalist requests will go out over social media platforms, others will be through subscribed email lists, but it’s the speed of replying that could get you ahead of your competitors and secure your space in the coveted gift guide. It has taken years for us to build up a strong list of contacts and establish a strong relationship with each journalist, so we know what it takes to pitch a product. From when, to where, to who, we have the know how to get your gift in front of an eager audience of shoppers.

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