EnTrends

Effective trade media relations
should be both an element of your
overall marketing communications
plan and an important business
relationship.

As an element of your overall
marketing communications plan, your
Public Relations /Media Relations
activities with the trade magazines in
your industry should function in
coordination with other essential
elements including advertising, trade
shows, collateral materials and web
site to promote your company's
objectives. The materials you
originate will include those messages
that your management wants
presented to your customers and the
rest of the industry. How the
message is presented is critical to its
successful use. If no trade magazine
prints it, the industry never sees it.

A two-way street

Even more than other forms of
communications, your media
relations must be a two-way street if
it is to be successful.

You will be submitting information,
photos and graphics about your
company for consideration by the
trade magazines with the
understanding that the materials
must be of value to the magazine's
readers before the publications can
be expected to print them.

At the same time, the trade
magazines will regularly require
prompt and accurate input from your
company on the various segments of
the industry they cover and on
industry events such as trade shows
and conferences. You can increase
your effectiveness to your company
and your helpfulness to the
magazines by studying their editorial
calendars and being prepared well in
advance for those topics on which
you can make a legitimate
contribution. Participation in
industry forums not only improves
personal contacts, but also increases
the opportunity for media coverage.

As a successful relationship is
developed you can expect media
calls requesting your company's
input for technical and industry
round-up features, special editions,
to answer topical questions on
industry news, and the occasional
tough question on your company or
products. It should not be surprising
that those companies which are the
most responsive to magazine editors
and reporters on a year-round basis
are usually the most successful. Not
only do their executives get quoted
more often in feature stories, but
their company news releases are
favorably received and have a good
chance of being published.

It's not advertising

When a trade magazine runs a news
release or interviews an executive
from your company it is because the
information and graphics presented
are considered newsworthy by the
editor for his or her readership. You
do not pay for the editorial space
you receive and the editor has the
right to edit the material prior to
publication or to eliminate it
altogether. The editor has only
limited space to deal with and must
give priority to the most newsworthy
material.

So while space in the news and
feature sections of the trade
magazine is "free" to your company,
it must also be understood that you
trade off absolute control of the
material for this high level of
visibility and credibility. If you or
your management requires absolute
control of content, you should put
the information in ad format and pay
for the space.

See it from the editor's perspective

Keep in mind that when the magazine
prints your publicity materials in its
editorial pages they must written
from the editor's perspective -
providing readers with balanced,
accurate news about one company in
the industry. No editor in his or her
right mind, for

example, will knowingly favor one
company over another. For the same
reason they will not use releases that
state a product or service is "the best
in the industry." Editors do not do
endorsements. Your "hard sell"
messages should be reserved for
your paid ads, your web site and
your brochures.

What is news?

Good subject matter for news
releases that make it into print --
rather than into the editor's
wastebasket -- includes genuine
technical advances in the industry,
significant orders, mergers,
acquisitions, new products and
services and significant personnel
moves at your company.

Use good judgment and be selective
in what you send to an editor or you
risk being seen as a purveyor of
"fluff." If you get a reputation for
sending out "fluff" then when you
do submit an important story it may
be ignored. The fact that you
continue to be in business at the
same location selling the same
products is not news, no matter how
much happiness it gives your CEO.

The news release

The primary means of conveying
information from your company to
the trade publications is the news
release. To be truly effective it
should be professionally written by
someone with a solid background in
journalism. It is a news story written
exactly as the publication would
write it so that the editor can include
it with a minimum of changes if
selected. It is done in the classic
"inverted pyramid" style with the
critical information up front and
detail added lower in the story so
that it will remain understandable
even if several lower priority
paragraphs are cut for lack of space.

The release should contain just the
relevant facts and information with
no hype -- unless it is in the form of a
quote from someone in your