How to Pitch Women's Magazines: Insider Advice From a 20-Year Magazine Editor

If you have ever dreamed of seeing your product in the pages of a women's magazine, this one is for you.

I recently sat down with Ali Izzo on my podcast, and you would be hard pressed to name a women's lifestyle title she has not worked on. Ali started her career in the fashion cupboard at Cleo, became fashion editor at Dolly, jumped into digital early at Popsugar Australia, and has since worked across Elle, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and Body+Soul. She is now head of digital strategy at Are Media, home to iconic mastheads like The Australian Women's Weekly, Marie Claire, Gourmet Traveller, Home Beautiful and Who.

In other words, she is exactly the person opening (or deleting) your pitch. Here is what she wants you to know.

Start with the masthead page

Most business owners have no idea how much contact information is sitting inside the magazine they want to be featured in.

Ali's advice: get forensic. Open the magazine and read the masthead page, the credits, the fine print. You will find the names of the people putting together the exact pages where your product could sit. You will usually find an office location and an email address. Email it, be polite, explain what you are after, and your message will be passed to the right person.

Even the office junior who opens that inbox can tell the difference between a real, researched pitch and a generic blast. Use names. Use titles. Refer to the actual pages or sections where you think your product fits. That alone puts you 20 steps ahead.

Ask permission before you pitch on social media

It has never been easier to find a journalist. You can look them up on Instagram or LinkedIn in seconds. But how you approach them matters.

Do not launch into your pitch in their DMs. That is their personal space. Instead, send a short, polite message: who you are, a genuine reference to their work, and a simple question. "I'd love to pitch to you. Could I please get your work email?"

Most journalists will say yes. As Ali put it, you are pitching to someone whose entire job is knowing about new things. If your product is right for their audience, you are actually helping them.

Pick 10 dream titles, not 1,000 email addresses

When Ali was working across digital titles, she regularly received up to 300 emails a day. Responding to all of them was not humanly possible.

So do not spam every outlet in the country. Pick around 10 titles that would genuinely suit your brand, then tailor every single pitch. Read their recent articles, scroll their Instagram, look at their homepage. You can get a feel for what a title publishes, and what it never would, in a few minutes online.

Journalists can tell instantly when you have read their work. They can also tell when you have not, and that pitch gets deleted in the first pass.

Write your subject line like their next headline

This is one of the smartest pieces of pitching advice I have ever heard.

If you can distil your pitch into a subject line that could sit as a headline on that magazine's website, you have done half the journalist's job for them. Instead of reading a press release and wondering "how do I turn this into a story?", they can immediately see it on their page.

Write your subject line as if you were writing the story for their masthead. They do not have to use it, but it proves you understand their title, their tone and their audience.

Stop thinking like a founder

According to Ali, the number one mistake brand owners make is pitching what excites them instead of what interests the audience.

Her example: you changed your packaging from pink to blue. That is a huge deal for you. It is not a news story. Nobody outside your business cares, and pitching it shows the journalist you cannot think about their readers. You have wasted your shot.

Journalists serve their audience first, always. So before you pitch, ask: what does my brand do for the people who read this magazine? That is the story. Not your internal milestones.

Know the difference between PR and marketing

"We're an amazing brand with a great backstory, put us on the cover" is not a pitch. It is a brand message, and brand messages belong in advertising or on your own channels.

PR is different. PR is making your brand relevant to someone else's audience. If your pitch only serves you, it is marketing. If it serves their readers, it is editorial. Learn to tell the difference and you will save yourself a lot of deleted emails.

You are more than your founder story

Everyone wants their origin story told. But on a digital title where journalists have multiple deadlines a day and traffic targets to hit, a founder story often does not perform, so it does not get published.

That does not mean you are out of options. Ali says brand founders often have more assets at their disposal than they realise:

• Expert commentary. Health and wellness titles in particular rely heavily on qualified experts. If you can speak with authority in your field, offer expert quotes for larger stories.
• Sales and consumer data. Journalists need a news hook, and retail trends are often exactly that. If demand for a product or ingredient has spiked, your sales data can anchor a trend story.
• Being part of a trend. You might not be the whole story, but a trend piece featuring your brand alongside others still gets you featured. Journalists love trends, so pitch yourself into one.

And if a founder story really is your angle, pitch it to the right home. Business verticals and mainstream news sites love an inspiring founder feature. A beauty editor at a lifestyle title does not.

Same product, different pitch

A good pitch is a good pitch, whatever the masthead. What changes is the angle.

Ali's example: a beautiful body moisturiser could suit both a mass health and wellness title and a luxury fashion magazine. For one, you might pitch a holistic body care angle. For the other, luxury essentials or a celebrity endorsement. Same product, tailored framing, because the audiences are completely different.

And keep the pitch itself simple. Who you are, where you are based, what it costs, the news angle, where readers can get it, a small image, and links to your website and Instagram. Concise wins. Nobody is reading 3,000 words.

Follow up, but do not stalk

No reply? You are not dead in the water. Journalists are buried, and your email may simply be four pages down the inbox.

Follow up after three or four days by resending your original email with a quick "just bringing this to the top of your inbox". If there is still nothing after a week or two, pitch a different angle. Tenacity is a good thing, and no journalist will hold a polite follow-up against you.

What will burn the relationship: finding their mobile number and calling every day. Do not be that person.

The takeaway

You do not need a PR agency to get featured in a women's magazine. Journalists are curious by nature, and they will happily hear from the founder directly. Sometimes it makes for a more authentic story than going through a PR firm.

What you do need is research, empathy for the audience, a tailored angle and a tight, human pitch. Do the small amount of homework most people skip, and you will separate yourself from the hundreds of pitches getting deleted every day.

Liz Nable is a former TV news journalist and the founder of Media Masters Academy, where she teaches small business owners how to land free media coverage and build their reputation as industry experts. This post is based on an episode of her podcast. Listen to the full conversation with Ali Izzo for even more pitching gold.