How to Get Featured in Fancy Publications

Allison Carter of Allison Carter Celebrates has been described as “Martha Stewart meets Chelsea Handler”, which I couldn’t agree with more. This girl knows her celebrations, but can dish about The Real Housewives of Potomac with me. Y’all… she’s seriously so fun! How could you not be when your job is literally to plan parties?

She’s a party planner who happens to have a knack for getting featured in some seriously big-name publications. Um hello… Martha? Oprah? Yeah, she’s legit. She’s spilling the beans on how to get your business featured in places that will earn you massive street cred.

Allison says that every occasion, big or small deserves to be celebrated. “What else are we doing with this life? We gotta make it fun somehow!” If you need ideas about how to celebrate, her website is SO FULL of fun stuff, from teaching your kids about generosity, to dinner parties, to organizing, Halloween, Christmas, recipes, and even the tooth fairy!

Here’s a lil’ bit of the origin story behind Allison Carter Celebrates before we get to the tips getting published in all the coolest places. She gives her mom the credit for planting the seed of all things party planning. Allison calls her the OG when it comes to all things celebration. She says her mom was just that “magical moment mom.” It made everything special, and it gave her joy.

Fast forward to when one of Allison’s girlfriends was super busy in her corporate job when her kid was turning one. She didn’t have the time or energy to throw him a party and she was feelin’ the ever-so-prevalent “mom guilt.” Sound familiar? Well, Allison offered to plan her party for her. She mapped out the entire plan in Google Slides and that was her very first party plan. She creates digital outlines of parties that are all interactive and clickable. She chooses a few invite ideas, you choose your own adventure, click it, and it goes to your Etsy cart. Easy peasy!

She helps moms with the burden of party planning in the age of Instagram. She does the work, and moms get the credit.

Let’s talk about getting featured…

Get scrappy and put yourself out there

Allison comes from a place of “It’s always gonna be a no, until it’s a yes.” So she says just give it a try! Your life won’t change that drastically if you’re featured or if you’re not. Allison does mention that you have to have thick skin. If it’s a no, who cares!

But, you never know what’s going to happen and what kind of door will open because you have some fancy name behind you.

You’re not pitching to Martha herself

You’re not pitching to [insert your dream influencer here.] Odds are, you’re just pitching to someone who works for them. Just a real person, like you and me. So that can take some of the fear and intimidation away.

Raise your hand for any and all opportunities that come your way

Allison got featured in Forbes Magazine 6 months into her business from replying to a Facebook post! She looked at it as an opportunity to practice her pitching skills. She figured when they said no, maybe she could ask for some feedback on her pitch. A couple weeks later, she heard back that she was gonna be featured!

Massively Overdeliver

Basically write their article for them. When she pitches she gets very specific and outlines out all of her ideas in narrative form. It makes the editor’s job very easy and it makes it an easy yes for them. Write down every idea you have, and write it in narrative. If you make their job easy, they’ll come back for more, and they tell their other editor friends. You’ll become a trusted source for them to come to when they need more content.

Say no to the money

I know, this one seems cray cray! But hear us out. You can totally be a contributor and get paid. The problem with that is they don’t link back to your site, or mention your business. They’re paying you to represent them. But, you can say no to the money, and say yes to the backlinks and the business promos. Those can end up being more valuable in the long run. That can be magic for your Google rankings and SEO.

haro.com (help a reporter out)

You get emails of all links. Any writer (from big to small) can post what they need. You can go to the section that applies to you, lifestyle, business, etc. and see what people need. That’s how she got her first Martha!

A lot of times you will never hear back. It’s such a massive platform, so make sure you really grab them with that subject line! Sometimes Allison will screenshot the editor’s name so she can contact them and follow up. But she says only do that for the ones you really really want to follow up on, and if you really feel like you nailed your pitch.

Reach out to blogs and contributor platforms first

Today Parent’s, Business Insider, or just Google it and see what you find! There are tons available. Type up a blog post or article and upload it and it lives on their site. A lot of times they comb through their uploads and feature it on their home page or social media. It’s a guarantee because you just upload it. It hones your story and figure out what you want to say.

Benefits of being featured…

Increased visibility usually means more sales.
Automatically gives you massive street cred.
You get in front of other people’s audiences.
Other people take you a little bit more seriously and it can open doors.

Your next step:

Take Allison’s advice and go find some blogs and contributor platforms that you can submit to. Try to make a list of three that you want to reach out to.

The thing I really want you to remember is to not sit around waiting for these people to write you back! Don’t keep refreshing your inbox, or let that negative self-talk sneak in if you don’t get a response.

I know, I know…putting yourself out there is scary, but maybe you could re-frame that and just call it exciting? Just toss your name in the hat, you never know who’s fancy lil logo might end up on your website giving you that dose of massive street cred!

More from Allison Carter…

We also talk party etiquette around the subject of drankin’ at parties, we do a pretty deep dive into the Monique vs. Candiace saga on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Potomac. And you’ll get a great suggestion for an easy holiday cocktail I cannot WAIT to try. So push play on the episode above to get the full scoop. And don’t forget to check out more from Allison!
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