What are the benefits of PR Mailers?

 By Melissa A Vitale 

If you're a CPG brand, one of the first questions out of your publicists mouth is going to about available samples to press. 

With any level of marketing, product sampling are a huge staple of public relations. Unlike gifting products to consumers or store reps, gifting to press can result in your brand being included in outlets like Glamour, Fast Company, GQ and Vogue. 

PR mailers can be done in a number of ways:

• General PR sampling: This comes from a publicist, the branding of the packaging matches that of the PR firm. The cards are signed from the publicist. Depending on how long you've been with the brand, your product may be included among the publicist's other clients. Which is great! It means you only have to spend the cost of one product for a journalist to be spoiled with a whole range of complimentary products. Publicists won't send two of the same product. So if your brand creates a face oil, it may be in a package with a mask and a topical balm. Journalists and editors love to be spoiled so a package with a variety of goodies will always go farther than a small package with a single product. 
• Brand Introduction sampling: If you just started with a publicist, they'll want to meaningfully introduce the brand to their contacts. As press is not decided in advance (aka when we sign, I don't always know what specific stories Marie Claire is working on) its good to give key editors a range of products to consider. One editor can write about face products, wellness products and fitness products so you'll want to make sure they know about every product in a brand that is relevant. 
• Themed Mailers: For brands in the cannabis space, 4/20 mailers are popular in March to keep brands up to date with all the latest products for 4/20. Vibrator brands have done champagne and flowers for international women's day. CBD brands have done Self Care Kits with robes and sleep masks. These can make a meaningful impact on an editor and open up the product to be included in stories like "Best products to empower your selfcare" that they would not have been included in before. 

You don't need to gift the entire line to every editor. Typically they just want to make sure the brand is a good brand and if they need to try out a specific product for a story they will request it. 

When a product is in the hands of an editor it does more than my pitches can ever do. First, while I've made a reputation as a reliable source, every publicist needs to be taken with a drop of salt. Of course we're going to say great things about our clients. MAVPR only works with brands we love and are proud to support but every publicist needs to pay bills. Editors know this and need to test products themselves before featuring. 

Not only does a sample sell an editor on a product, but it also keeps it at the front of their focus. You know the phrase "out of sight out of mind"? Very true for brands and samples. Once I emailed an editor about 8+ gift guide pitches but it was only after using a client's product that AM did she remember to include it in her gift guide. Editors get so many pitches that just stories and words won't always do it. Sometimes you need to get the product in their hands. 

MAVPR maximizes samples and budgets to make PR attainable to vice startups. 

To learn more about becoming a MAVPR client and our services, please visit: melissaavitale.com/services.html