Press looks like luck from the outside. The founder of the food subscription box Mantry posted on r/ecommerce how he lands coverage on shows like Today and in Oprah's lists, and it reads more like a filing system. He says press has driven around $400K in sales.
How to find gift guide writers with a dated Google search
Start with Google, not a PR database. Search the roundup you want to be in, for example Father's Day gift guide, then use Tools to set a custom date range covering the month before that holiday last year. Every writer who covered it twelve months ago is now on one page. The News and Images tabs surface smaller blogs too.
Contact only those writers, by DM on Instagram or X or by guessing the outlet's email format. The pitch is one sentence: you saw their post last year, here is a tip for this year's guide, and if included your social accounts will reshare it. His favourite subject line is deliberately humble ("Mediocre Gift For Him" plus the occasion). No reply after three days? Send two words: following up.
Why it works
Writers produce the same guides every year and need new products. A dated search finds exactly the people holding that assignment, the short email respects their inbox, and the reshare offer gives them traffic. He says over half of his wins came on the follow up.
How to copy it
Block one day a quarter. Build the list from dated searches, send as many one line pitches as you can in ten hours, follow up once, then get back to work. Aim high: one national TV mention, he says, was worth $24K in a day.
Credit: u/ReggieMilligan on Reddit