How to Get Featured in Magazines: A Consumer PR Cheat

If your consumer brand is at a point in its journey where you’re wondering how to get featured in magazines, then it’s time to consider consumer PR. Many consumer brands have been successfully created through marketing and advertising, but the evolution from an ambitious challenger brand to a category leader is only possible with the power of PR.

So, you’ve gotten as far as wondering how to get your product featured in magazines, but you haven’t gotten as far as figuring out exactly how to start getting there. That’s where the Avaans consumer PR cheat sheet comes in.

In addition to outlining what you can expect from engaging an experienced consumer PR agency for your consumer brand, this article supplies a PR dos and don’ts list to help first-timers understand how to begin their PR journey.

The significance of PR in consumer brand authority

While paid advertising and other marketing techniques are the triggers that push consumers to buy your product, PR is the thing that gives people confidence in your brand. Here’s a fictional example to explain the critical difference.

People are bombarded by digital ads every few seconds. Let’s say your product is a magnesium supplement for muscle recovery and restful sleep. Your innovative branding, packaging, and even the product itself are deserving of headlines. You know that – but your prospective customer doesn’t. They’re going to Google magnesium supplements and, for the next four days, will be buried under a slew of online ads for every magnesium-based pill, powder, and potion under the sun.

But, here’s the difference that PR makes – after people see your ad and research your product, they’ll see that it’s been published in trusted publications. Now, the next time they see an ad, they’re that much more likely to purchase your product instead of a competitor’s.

That’s because PR creates authority, authority inspires trust, and trust builds customer loyalty. It’s like a burr effect – PR makes sure that the seed of your brand sticks in a prospect’s mind until they see an ad for your product, which acts as the trigger to purchase. PR gets you to the table, and marketing closes the deal. You need them both, but PR is the thing that will create the burr effect.

The power of media coverage for brand awareness

While PR is by no means limited to print and digital media, it would be unwise to discount the importance of a well-placed media feature in a publication that aligns with your brand identity and your target audience. A media feature is an evergreen asset that works just as hard as a backlink to your site as it does on a pitch deck for prospective investors, for much longer than the average marketing asset at that.

Plus, the tagline “as featured on [insert brand-matched publication]” becomes a coveted endorsement that fortifies the trustworthiness of your brand, differentiating and often elevating it above the competition. Finally, getting your product featured in magazines is a smart way to increase brand awareness in market verticals that aren’t currently being targeted by your current marketing strategy.

The dos and don’ts of consumer product PR: how to get featured in magazines

So, you want to know how to get your product featured in magazines? This PR cheat sheet will give you a brief overview of dos and don’t that media relations experts consider essential.

Do be prepared to send out product samples (for free)

If you want journalists to write about your product, you have to show them how it works. Sending samples is a standard practice of exposing the press to your product so that they can write about it in their publication.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a quid pro quo exchange. Sending a sample is not a guarantee that the journalist will feature your product in the next issue, though it certainly helps with brand stickiness (remember the burr effect?). Journalists don’t work for you; but, they can help your PR work very hard for you. What is guaranteed is without sending a sample, your product will not get featured in a magazine.

Getting Featured in a Magazine: Don’t treat the press like the enemy

Unless you’re dealing with hyper-specific circumstances in which an investigative journalist is doing their job, the press is not angling for a “gotcha!” moment – they’re angling for a story that their readers want to read. You can drop your guard. Respect your interviewer’s time, come to the interview prepared, and approach the exchange with the same degree of professionalism that you would in a meeting with an investor or a dream client.

Do manage your own expectations and timelines with fluidity

PR is a powerful tool, but it’s not magic. An accomplished boutique PR agency will have the capacity and expertise to shoot for the moon with audacity and accuracy in equal parts, but first-timers should make peace with the idea of landing among the stars. Either way, PR is designed to take your brand to new heights.

It’s also useful to bear in mind that, because your PR team works quite closely and fluidly with a vast network of fast-moving journalists, you might need to make quick decisions about your availability for interviews and product features.

Don’t sign up for a long-term commitment if you don’t need to

Committing to the high ROI of PR efforts shouldn’t have to mean committing to high-intensity, long-term plans. For consumer product brands who want to develop a punchy product pitch, or simply want to sample the power of PR without taking the plunge, a micro PR contract could be the answer and a way to get featured in a magazine.

Enter the race with an Avaans PR sprint

PR can be a sprint, not a marathon. Avaans Media offers seasonal micro PR sprints for consumer product brands who are new to PR, want to launch a new product, or want to reduce their PR budget by up to 80%. Get in touch today.