Promoting Your Business or Franchise During the Holidays

The holidays are once again upon us and with that in mind you and your franchise are probably gearing up to heavily promote your business or franchise's services and products.  A big part of franchise PR is preparation for the holiday season.  Whether your franchise or business is promoting a service or product, the holidays make for great opportunities to grab press attention.   Grabbing headlines during the holiday months can be a little more difficult, but keep the following tips in mind to get some great recognition for your franchise or company:  

1- Holiday news cycle: Before you try to take the holiday angle when promoting your business or franchise's service or products, make sure you know the holiday news cycle.  The holiday news cycle gives loads of opportunities for all organizations and whatever product or service they sell.  Publications everywhere are filled with special features on all sorts of topics ranging from holiday outfits on a budget to finding the perfect gift for $50 or under.  If you are looking to target a weekly or monthly publication you need to begin pitching in advance to secure your spot in your desired publications.  

2- Deck out your press releases during the holidays:  Press releases sent out during the holidays, whether your company does them in house or is working with a franchise public relations firm, need to have that holiday slant.  The holidays provide a great time to start creative campaigns which could include an online contest or video creation contest.  Whatever you choose to do, it needs to be fun, exciting and needs to snag some holiday headlines.  Press releases that surround your holiday PR tactics should be as fun and exciting as the holiday contests you are running.  The point is you have to have your press releases truly stand out during the holiday season in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd also trying to grab headlines during the holiday season.  The goal is to make your press releases the ones journalists want to feature.  

3- Getting some visibility:  As we said before, getting some attention from the media during the holiday season can prove to be quite difficult, so in order to be seen and get some visibility you must be willing to think outside of the box.  That is the nature of public relations.  To get some visibility consider gaining additional exposure by creating a feature news release.  A feature news release is typically written like a news article and are used by various media outlets as source material.  Newswires have feature news calendars that cover a variety topics, which includes holiday themes.  The themes correspond with publication dates.  Distributing your feature news release to the appropriate editors in advance of the deadline is a great way to increase your business or franchise's visibility during the holiday season.

As a franchise PR firm we know that getting great press can be difficult during the holiday season.  If you are looking for more tips and tricks on promoting your business or franchise during the holiday season feel free to comment below or contact us.