Product publicity is usually about trying to secure a product review, a place in a gift guide feature, or a case study about a person or a business that has benefited from using your product.

To do your own PR successfully you will need to:

Create a media kit. This includes a well written press release with an attention-grabbing headline, a short company biography, photography, and a product fact sheet. Make sure this includes the launch date, price, availability, colours, retailers, sizes and so forth and what makes your product unique to the market.

Invest in professional product photography. Good quality images can help spark media interest. Get a few options from vertical, horizontal, and with different backgrounds. But avoid sending high resolution files to the media unless they are requested. Instead, cut and paste low resolution versions into the body of your email.

Target specific media. Sending your press release in a mass mail-out to hundreds of journalists is not the way to get your product in the news. Instead, pick a handful of journalists that may be interested in your product, get familiar with their publication or program, and tailor story ideas or product review opportunities to them, personally. Make sure you have an interesting heading and a tightly written opening paragraph summarising your story idea or product review request.

Plan your PR efforts well in advance. Be mindful of the different deadlines and lead-times journalists work to. For instance if you’re targeting a magazine that is produced two or three issues in advance, you will need to ensure your news won’t be stale by the time of publication. The sooner you start planning your PR campaign, the better.