Everything you know about gift guides (and 7 brands who want to work with you on them)

Gift guide season is now under way! If you are not sure what they are or how things work, then this blog is here to help! 

Gift guides have long been part of mainstream media but it’s only recently that bloggers have done them. They involve curating lists of ‘gift’ reccomendations, whether by age, gender or interests.

What’s the benefit for the blogger?

• Often, the blogger is gifted items that they feature.
• A way to ‘roundup’ lots of items. Many bloggers are gifted items at Christmas events and it would take ages to feature them all. So gift guide provides a solution.
•  Bloggers can also use affiliate links to products they feature.
• Great for traffic!

What’s the benefit for brands?

• Blogger gift guides are often produced much later than traditional media, so it’s great if brands have a last minute product.
• With traditional media, there’s little guarantee over if or when a product will be featured. Often writers are dealing with a huge number of products and changes can be made by the editor.
• Whilst bloggers might not always provide the same audience figures, they have ownership over the process so can offer brands more information on the publication date, stats on their readership and brands can often track click through or ROI more closely
• If you’re a brand reading this, make sure you join my brand newsletter here .

How to find Gift Guide opportunities as a blogger

Of course, not all items in a gift guide need to be ‘gifted’. Bloggers often recommend products they’ve purchased themselves and loved. However, if you are a blogger, using Response Source (more in this blog post) can be a great way to source items.

Read my guide to using Response Source here.

Another way is to of course get in touch with brands directly. However, like any blog post, make sure your gift guide has a strong focus to appeal to brands. You’ll be much more successful if you can prove the products your pitching for match your readership and you can offer something a bit different. My interview with Fran from Prezzybox goes over what she looks for in a gift guide pitch.

Each week in my blogging newsletter, I share info on brands looking for bloggers. 

7 Small Business looking for bloggers 

As promised, I thought I’d finish by sharing some info of brands looking to work with bloggers on gift guides. I’ll be doing another update post of this later in the week!

1. Gift Guides for Her~Handbag brand Katherena Bags is looking for bloggers working on female gift guides. Email Katie@katherena.com.

2. Gift Guides for mental health and self-care~ Etsy shop C Sheehan looking for bloggers to feature her self-care products. Email claire@csheehanart.com

3. Gift guides for ethical, eco-friendly or creative lifestyle/parent bloggers to feature a range of vegan friendly/creative/ stationary items . Email hello@hedgeandhogprints.com.

4.Gift Guides for female fashion or bloggers. Anonymous jewellery email info@anonymousjewellery.co.uk

5. Lifestyle bloggers looking to feature Peachy Packages; a stationary subscription box. Email: hello@peachypackages.co.uk

6.Engraved gift items out of oak. www.hugosworkshop.co.uk   and email: rebecca@hugosworkshop.co.uk

7.Food/lifestyle/parent gift guides. Hand decorated sugar cookies from The Funky Cookie Company  Email: contact@thefunkycookiecompany.co.uk

I’ll be sharing an update post later in the week with more opportunities, so keep your eyes peeled!