Pitching seasonal stories is a great way of getting regular media exposure.
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Seasonal stories are events that are celebrated, often worldwide, every year such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Black Friday, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Chinese New Year, Halloween, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Seasonal stories also include the 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn/fall, and winter.
Pitching seasonal stories is a great way of getting regular media exposure and as the event happens at the same time every year, as a business owner, you can prepare for them in advance and use the same or similar angle year after year.
How to link your business to a seasonal event and create a seasonal story
Journalists love story ideas that are current which makes seasonal stories very attractive to them and the good news is linking your business to a seasonal event and coming up with a seasonal story can be easy. Let’s take Christmas as an example, a dentist could come up with a story idea such as, ‘All I want for Christmas is bright, white teeth – 3 Christmas drinks you must avoid.’ Or a carpet cleaning company story idea could be, ‘How to Remove the 5 Top Christmas Carpet Stains.’ If you’re a nutritional weight loss expert, a possible idea could be ‘7 Easy to Avoid Foods That Cause Bloating at Christmas.’ All of these story ideas would be interesting to the right journalists around Christmas time as it would be educational content for them to share with their audience.
Let’s look at another seasonal event, Valentine’s Day. Let’s say that you’re a florist. You could come up with a story idea, such as ‘Startling Statistics on How Many Roses are Sent Out on Valentine’s Day’. Let the TV channels know when you’re having a big delivery and invite them to come and take footage and run a story. TV love stories that are visual, so this really lends itself to be a great opportunity to get national TV exposure, but equally, this story idea would be attractive to local media and publications and radio stations too.
Let’s look at another example. Let’s say you’re a relationship expert you could come up with a story idea such as ‘How to Know if Your Partner is the One Before Proposing This Valentine’s Day.’ Or a jeweler could come up with a story idea such as ‘A Man’s Guide to Buying the Right Engagement Ring This Valentine’s Day Without Breaking the Bank’.
It also works for the less obvious businesses too
Let’s look at how a less obvious business can get media exposure for Valentine’s Day too, such as Estate Agents or Real Estate Agents. These people see house buyers fall in love with their dream homes all the time. They play cupid in matching the right people with the right home. Therefore, they could come up with a story idea such as ‘How to find the perfect home for you and your loved one this Valentine’s Day.’ Can you see how I’ve used the Valentine’s Day theme of love and romance and linked it to finding the perfect home?
Seasonal events
Let’s move on now to some seasonal event examples.
Let’s say you’re a cleaning company, a spring story idea could be ’10 Easy Spring-Cleaning Tips That Will Make Your House Sparkle Fast’. Or for an IT specialist, an example could be, ‘How to Spring-Clean a Computer That is Slow to Boot Up’.
For a dog trainer, a summer example could be, ‘How to Stop Dog Deaths This Summer’ or ‘Did You Know That Dogs Get Sunburn Too? Here’s What to do’.
A fall/autumn example for an image consultant could be, ‘5 Little Known Ways to Stand Out This Autumn’ or ‘How to Look Chic This Fall Without Spending a Fortune’.
If you’re a dermatologist a winter story idea could be, ‘7 Head to Toe Skin Care Tips That Will Give You a Radiant Glow This Winter’. Or for a health expert, ‘Get Ready for Winter: 5 Rare Herbs That Will Boost Your Immune System Instantly’.
Lead times
One thing to bear in mind when you’re pitching your story idea to either a publication or show is to consider their lead time. A lead time is the length of time a media channel works on story ideas prior to them being published or aired. Many media outlets begin planning their content at least a month in advance. A magazine lead time can be three to six months in advance, which means if you were pitching a Christmas story idea to a magazine that has a 3 month lead time, then you’ll need to pitch your Christmas story around August/September time in order for it to be timely to the publication.
So now it’s your turn…
What seasonal event is coming up that you could use as a hook to link your business to?
Once you’ve got one, contact a journalist who is interested in your topic and has an audience that is similar to yours and see what happens… you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain!
