I'm back in Oct. Everything you need to be holiday gift guide ready + a ton of source requests

Looking to speak to doctors, senior gift guides, women with inspiring stories of creating spaces for others, female-driven charities, and more!

Hi all.

Heading back to work in October from maternity leave (ahh that freelance life) and wanted to get the ball rolling on a few stories I’m working on.

HAPPY GIFT GUIDE PITCHING SEASON!

Yep, we’re fully into this mode now - pitching for gift guides and holiday stories, products, sources, and beyond!

Here’s everything you need to know to ROCK gift guide pitching this holiday season

A huge THANK YOU to those who attended the Top Tier Consulting (my joint venture with fellow writer Jill Schildhouse) Christmas in July Affiliate session and our recent Holiday Gift Guide session. We have received sooooo many positive notes on how helpful these have been to publicists, which makes me so very happy.

As a reminder, these two video sessions are still available for purchase to watch on your own time, along with our helpful checklists of what to include in a pitch. More info on each below:

During our Holiday Gift Guide Session, we talked about:

• HGG best practices pitching tips from 2 journalists who write holiday gift guides for top-tier publications all season long (and have for years!)

• Sample subject lines that were SO good, we opened those emails (and we receive 500-1,000 pitches a day)!

• A checklist of everything you should include in your HGG pitches

• Advice for how to make YOUR pitch stand out in a writer’s crowded inbox

• Tips for getting your SOURCES included in holiday gift guides (great for clients who don’t have products!)

• 6 examples of HGG pitches we’ve received that hit the mark — use these as your inspiration for format, content, etc. 

• Open Q&A session where we answered about a dozen questions

• And Nicole’s newborn made his debut :) 

In our Christmas in July Affiliate Marketing Workshop:

We left no stone unturned, answering ALL these questions and more:

• What commission % is most effective? Does it affect your likelihood of being included?

• Do we need to lead with “affiliate ready” in the subject line or intro?

• There are so many commerce writers, how do you identify who to pitch?

• How do you find the most popular gift guides and contact names to build your outreach media lists?

• Is it necessary to be on Skimlinks AND Amazon?

• Do certain subject lines perform best?

• Will publications only consider products with 500+ reviews?

• Are most affiliate writers assigned gift guides or do they pitch to editors?

• How do you maximize ShareASale? 

• Do you have any standards on measuring success on an affiliate platform like ShareASale?

• What are the essential points to include in our gift guide pitches from an affiliate perspective?

• Will Threads be the new way to easily pitch products for the holidays?

• Do affiliate commission rates change around the holiday season? What are best practices for rates during the holidays?

• What are the best tools for pitching expert clients?

• Are subscription boxes still popular for gift guide inclusion?

• What specific trends should we be aware of for the holiday season?

• How should we pitch high ticket items this Christmas?

• Is it critical to leverage your clients’ best SKU? How many SKUs should you include?

• Does every holiday have as long a lead time as Christmas?

• How important are coupon offerings for incentivizing potential affiliate partners?

• How do you make food/beverages appealing as a gift?

• What would make you want to try a product if it’s not something you’d typically be drawn to?

• What components make for a more compelling subject line?

• What are writers seeing trending for gift guides this year? Any particular areas of interest?

• Do we need to send samples of every product to have it included in a gift guide?

• How should we follow up on a sample that we sent to writers to try? 

• Can events or attractions make it into gift guides? What about food items or cooking classes?

• What are the hot affiliate platforms editors are interested in right now? And are there any you don’t recommend?

• And so much more!

Testimonials from a few who attended:

“Great session ladies! Thank you so much! You two always add so much value to every session. Much appreciated!” — Amy

“This session was SO good. Thank you both so much. Beyond helpful. Can't wait to send out my pitches.” — Sally

“When you have been in the PR industry for more than 15 years, you may think there's ‘nothing new’ to learn. As we publicists try to continue to work in partnership with journalists, I appreciated the advice that was shared by Jill & Nicole in their HGG Workshop where I did in fact learn many new things! Being able to hear best practices, share tactics, and ask questions in real time during the workshop was so valuable. A big thank you to them for taking the time out of their busy schedules to support our efforts, which in turn help our clients get more hits! — Nubia Get your copies today:

Rate: $49 Paid TTC Substack Subscribers; $99 Free TTC Subscribers
(upgrade for the discount AND it’ll give you access to our weekly paid posts and monthly Top Tier Talks, too)

Ready to purchase? Send an email to info@toptierconsulting.NET and we’ll collect payment and send you the link to the recording.

Now onto the stories coming up that I’m currently sourcing for

AARP (Cover Story)

• Looking for MDs (not associated with brands, institutions or books OK) to each tackle one of these questions:

• Should I be doing ice baths?

• Are gummies better than smoking a joint?

• Why is my arm trembling when I’m holding a frying pan?

• Should I do Ozempic if my blood sugar went up?

• For a few days in a row, when I blow my nose, there’s some blood. Should I see a doctor?

• This morning, I stumbled and bumped my head, but I feel fine now. Can I just ignore it? 

• Sex with my partner is hurting, what can I do about that?

WOMANS DAY (Print Feature)

Looking to feature some women with heartfelt stories about people/organizations who created spaces that helped people (or an individual) find comfort and joy and it must have a charity aspect. For example:

• An organization that built a women’s shelter for a community that needed one.

• An organization that transformed a playground to be more inclusive with adaptable features.

• An interior designer that that created a home office for a single working mother.

• An organization that built a recreation center for kids from a low-income community.

These can be everything from a bingo room in a senior’s center to a space for a passion project (like a pottery studio) that helped someone find joy after hardship.

When submitting, please send me the women’s full names, ages, location, and a photo. We’ll also need good photos of the spaces for the stories to be considered.

BROOKDALE (Largest senior housing center in North America with 700+ locations)

1. Senior Gift Guide: Looking for gifts for the foodie, gardener, active senior, travler, etc.

2. Gifts for Grandkids: What should today’s seniors be buying for the grandkiddos this holiday season?

3. Superfood soups: Rep a chef, blogger, or RD who has a great superfood soup recipe? Send it my way.

4. GenZ slang so you can understand your grand kids. Have an expert who can talk about this? LMK!

That’s it for now but will be back with more.

P.S. I can’t even believe how big this cutie is already! Motherhood is definitely the best!

Please email me potential sources to NCPajer@gmail.com with a subject line that helps me see which story you are submitting to. If you send an email, I will read it but can’t promise I can get back to everyone.

Thanks!

Nicole