For B2B companies, a regular news release program to trade publications is a great way to generate leads and keep in front of prospects. Customers are often influenced more positively by editorial and new product information that shows up in publications as a result of press releases than they are by advertising, because they know the publicity is not paid for. And if you monitor the direct responses, you’ll find that these press releases generate a jump in interest in your company and products every time you send one out.

Your company may runs ads in the trade publications in your industry, but because of the expense, your ad schedule may not be as consistent as you’d like it to be. Ad costs for design, photography, production, and media placement can vary greatly depending on the ad content and publication, and you know these numbers can add up pretty quickly. If you’re like most companies, you probably set a trade advertising schedule at the beginning of the year and begin chopping away at it sometime after (or during!) the first quarter. Press releases, on the other hand, contain no media fees, and agency costs are typically much less than the costs of producing print ads, so you can afford to do many more of them.

The program
1. Based on what’s going on with product managers or company public relations, write press releases (or have your agency do it) to send electronically to trade publication editors. Include a shortened version of the information at the end of the release for editors to cut and paste into their new products or news sections — editors love this, as they don’t have to do any rewriting. Embed a photo if appropriate, but don’t attach the photo. Some editors can’t or don’t want to receive attachments, so include a link to downloadable photos. Be sure to add your company website link and a direct link to the new product page or news page, if available. Add literature fulfillment toll-free phone numbers and a web link for product literature downloads.

2. Then email a copy of the release to company executives and sales reps to notify them of the press release, letting them know the date it went out, so they can look for information in the trade pubs about what was in the release. This keeps them in the loop, and they can show the pubs and coverage to prospective customers.

3. Some trade publications track leads and will notify you of the calls/bounce cards/emails they get resulting from the mentions they publish, which you should forward to the appropriate people for follow up. All publications handle this differently, so you’ll have to inquire about this up front.

4. Track your clippings with a clipping service, so you’ll have a record of all the mentions you get, what they picked up on, and how many pubs picked up the news.

5. Compile a monthly statistics report containing the number of mentions each of the press releases got, as well as the number of photo downloads used by the pubs. This report should also include the number of 800 number calls generated, the number of new product literature downloads, and the number of visits to the specific area of your site dedicated to tracking leads.

Most B2B companies can institute a program like this with minimum expense. Releases could be distributed electronically on a regular basis covering issues such as:
• new products
• new systems and technologies
• customer savings case stories
• seminars and training opportunities
• company executive and experts’ opinions on product and industry trends
• company news
• etc.

Editors are often looking for short blurbs to fill holes and will publish little bits of news, especially from an industry leader. We’ve found that the more press releases we issue for our clients, the more the pubs use them — they get used to hearing from us, and it builds credibility as well as awareness. Our 800 calls and leads from the magazines always jump after we send out a press release.

A consistent press release program to trade publications can be an excellent way to keep your company’s name in front of customers on a consistent basis for a relatively small investment, which may help to even out sales from month to month. Offering opinions on trends or specific product types helps add credibility and awareness to your company’s expertise as the premier choice for that product. Seeing your company mentioned often in editorial helps customers connect with the stability of the company as a leader in the industry. And if you set up tracking and measurement processes to monitor the effect of your releases, this simple program can bring steady results to your bottom line.

[tags]PR, news release, press release, trade publication publicity[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under PR and Publicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.