Many magazines are suffering from a dip in circulation, but there’s no doubt about it, being featured in a magazine is ‘nice’. It’s good for the ego, it can be good for business, and some people feel that being featured in printed media has much greater clout than online. I can understand this thought process (although I don’t really subscribe to this idea myself – as in – both have value and there are a lot of variables to consider). But that aside, there are many ways to get featured in magazines. Or, at least, to put yourself in the best position to get featured in magazines. If that’s what you want. I’m going to break this into a few different blogs to allow us to explore each theme fully. So this is part one. How to get featured in magazines – part 1.

How to get featured in magazines – part 1

Features list

If you have a product, this one is for you. Actually, it’s how I have achieved a lot of media coverage over the years for my clients. Each year I receive a media pack from each magazine. This includes a rate card, testimonials, facts, figures… and often a features list. Now, features lists aren’t set in stone and they can and do change, but particularly for monthly titles it gives you a good idea of what themes they’re following. Some features lists highlight buyers’ guides and product features, others show broad themes. And now it’s down to you. You need to put in the legwork.

What do I do now?

You need to speak to the magazines with relevant features and do all you can to make it as EASY as possible for them to pick your product to feature. What does this mean? This means that, when you’ve spoken to the right person at that magazines (the products editor, editorial assistant, features editor – whoever is responsible at that publication, and this varies depending on the size of the publication) you need to do all you can to make their life easy. Concise emails. Correct info in the correct format. High res images. Meeting deadlines. That kind of thing. There are no guarantees that your product will be chosen, but the best chance you have is by providing the right person with everything they need, in the right format, before/when then need it.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it is in some ways. However, what also needs to happen is the ground work – so that’s establishing connections with these magazines, it’s being able to write and provide the copy in the correct format, it’s having the high res images, it’s being on hand to help the magazine staff when they need it, to help them achieve their goals. And be a nice person. Please. Magazine staff are under a lot of pressure – deadlines, a million (I don’t know the figures!!) emails a day from PR and the like, editors, subeditors, picture editors – there’s a lot of stuff going on and, sadly, you’re not going to be their number one priority. And it won’t make you popular if you to act like you are. It’ll just (quite rightly!) annoy them. And you don’t really want to annoy people that you’re trying to form long lasting connections with, do you? That’s a pretty poor policy!

This is part one of the how to get featured in magazines series, but you can also read part 2, part 3 and part 4 by clicking on the links.

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