Fashion PR - PR Couture

Every month,  PR Couture holds a fashion marketing question and answer session for emerging fashion brands.

For January, Show Me The Pretty featured Los Angeles fashion brand Merrit Charles.

Merrit Charles’s founder, Lacey Horning, asked fashion PR and marketing professionals her top five questions for successfully growing and expanding her brand.

Here are Merrit Charles’s questions and our responses.

When sending press releases out to newspapers and magazines what are good ways to get their attention?

You don’t want to blindly send out press releases, do your homework first. Create your Top 10 list for publications you wish to see your brand in and ask yourself why you want want to see your brand in these magazines. Is it for the cache? Because it fits your target audience? Make the list diverse, don’t just list Lucky, Instyle and Vogue. Every designer wants those.

Using indie publications such as Bust or regional focused publication can lead to quicker, and even more quality coverage. When working with several of my jewelry clients, they had better success (in terms of online orders) with more niche publications. PR is investment; don’t you want it to make money for your brand as you pay your PR rep?

Once you’ve created the list, then take the time to find out who would be interested in your line. It doesn’t hurt to get the magazine editorial calendar (there are over 400,000 editorial calendars available on EdCals.com) so that you can tailor your pitches to stories they have planned. You’re more likely to be receive coverage if you do some homework for the writer.

Do you have any tips for getting picked up on a fashion blog? What do you think are the best ways of contacting the writers?

Cultivate relationships with blog writers/owners that will yield consistent and mutually-beneficial relationships designed for your long term benefit.  Be direct with them and be honest with what you want them to write about.

I work as the West Coast Editor for LadyLux. When a West Coast based brand or designer emails personally, includes photos and all the necessary information I’d need to do a write up on their brand, I usually do. I know that emerging brands have limited resources and often do all their work themselves. I have respect for them, catering their pitches and a personal note goes a long way with me as writer, just make sure the product line you’re asking me to cover fits with my content.

What are three must-do public relations steps for a new clothing line?

My recommendations are more marketing based. The Merritt Charles site is very nicely designed, but our first recommendation is not related to PR, it’s to the web accessibility. We’d removed the flash intro and go directly to the page with all the navigation below it. A writer or potential customer doesn’t want the flash page when they go to your domain to review you.

They want to see your product line and what you’re about. Give that to them. The imagery is striking and will automatically make them go deeper. As I mentioned in question #2, do your homework, know what publications you want your product to appear in and why. Cater your pitches to those writers and make sure you provide all the information anyone could need.

Also, under your “members” section, have your webmaster create a mailing list instead of the user having to email you to be added. You’re missing valuable sales leads and even press coverage not having one.

You can read the in-depth fashion PR article on PR Couture.