hey welcome to the creative hive quick win video in this video we'll cover how to best contact stores and press first I have to say I absolutely love pitching products to press to bloggers and influencers it's been the number one thing that made my business successful so if you're already thinking about doing it yourself that's great news so here are the different ways you can reach out to stores and press most stores and editors have phone numbers so it's one way to reach out but it's also the least favorite way for these people if you
can imagine being a highly sought-after brick-and-mortar store or a national print magazine they get pitched to hundreds of times every single day if they took all their pitches by the phone they're just gonna spend all day on there and it's just not very efficient for them so even if you have their phone number save it for using it after you've established a relationship with the person not before depending on where you're located you might also be able to walk into a store or front desk of a magazine publishing house but this is probably worse than
calling in by phone like I said these people are extremely busy and they work on really tight deadlines they don't have time to stop and say hello and talk to you unless you've made an appointment so don't do it unless it's to find out who to contact or to set up an appointment for some stores and magazines you might also find a simple and really generic looking contact form the problem with contact forms is you have no idea who's receiving your message so it's likely to go to the wrong person or get lost in thousands
of other messages so avoid using contact forms at all costs unless you absolutely have no choice you can also email stores and press this is the preferred and best way to reach out to them because it's not intrusive and these people can take their time getting back to you this way you also have the benefit of having the time to write a really great email pitch so like if you to call someone or show up in person at their office most people generally feel really shy about it or they don't know how to act or
they don't know what to say so there's a lot of stress and pressure with calling or reaching out in person email is the best way for every party involved plus there's a history of your conversation which really helps everyone out - so what do you do after reaching out to a store or magazine editor as I mentioned before these people are super busy so give them time to catch up and read their emails and once they read their emails you need to give them time to respond to those emails most people have trouble managing their
emails they have a really hard time with it especially when you're dealing with hundreds of pitches every day so give them time and space to get back to you wait for about one week your success with getting into a store or magazine lies and the follow up emails the magic of this entire outreach process is in the follow up most people don't follow up because they don't want to bother the store or the editor but don't look at it that way if you've done your homework and you know that you are a really really good
fit if you know you're a perfect fit for the store or magazine then you know they'll benefit or even make some money from your products so it's in their interest to work with you do them a favor and follow up you're going to dramatically increase the number of features and stores that carry your work just by doing this simple thing so set a reminder in your calendar to send them a follow-up let's wrap up this video with a recap you learned about the different options you have for reaching out to stores and press and you
also learned the best way to contact anyone at all is by email we talked about what you need to do after you send them your initial pitch which is to wait a week and then send them a follow-up email if you enjoyed this quick win video be sure to check out all the other great training available in the creative high of Colonie @ww creative high of cocom ford / colony thanks for watching and i'll talk to you again soon
