ZMarket Scoop

How to Write Great Editorial Articles

A great editorial starts with research and lots of it. It's easy to come up with a story idea, but the greatest story will end up dead in the water if the story doesn't fit the editorial scope of the media outlets you are going after.

The trick to getting the widest scope of coverage (without being too general) is isolating the markets you want to go after for the story.

You always include your primary market—let's say you are a conveyor company. Materials Handling publications would be the primary focus and then you would decide on a secondary market.

There is much to consider when choosing the secondary market.

Maybe you make the most amount of money in the automotive market so choosing that as your secondary market would seem like a natural choice—more experience, a larger customer base to get customer interviews and perhaps more marketing materials to pull information from. However, sometimes companies want to diversify where their money is coming from so they are not tied to the financial woes of a single market.

Faster Sales or More Leads?

Something else to consider when choosing which market to go after first (assuming your public relations effort is based on an ongoing campaign) is the turn around time on sales and the number of publications in a market. Let's say a company also sells into the aerospace market as well as the plastics market.

The aerospace market has a greater number of publications to pitch the story and a larger readership often translates to a greater number of leads. However, if the plastics market, with a smaller number of publications, has a short turnaround time on sales, then going after the plastics market may be a better market to target first. Then, you can go after the aerospace market second while sales from the plastics market sustains the cost of the PR campaign. Because even if you do PR in-house, a successful campaign translates into man hours in terms of research, writing, phone time with editors, follow up, etc.

Once you decide on the market, deciding which story format will get the most amount of coverage the fastest is key. This involves researching the publications (a media list company is key in an effective PR campaign), their publication lead times, editorial calendars, etc.

Come back next week (and I promise next week) to find out how to choose the story format.

 

 

Secrets to Effective PR

When I first began this blog, I decided that I was going to write a free e-book about effective PR.

There is a friend of mine who is very diligent about asking me how my ebook is going and the truth is, although I started it, it's not "going" at all. So last night I asked myself why.

Bottom line: I don't want to put myself out of business. You see, if I tell you how I am so successful at it, then you will do it for yourself and not need me. At least, that is the irrational reason behind my reluctance.

Over the years, I have been very successful in training many people in the art of media relations and PR account management (2 very different sets of job duties by the way); and, have proudly watched them work their way from green media relations specialists to very effective managers and directors of PR. Of course, I've seen a great many more bomb at it, because just as in any profession, it's not for everyone.

Media relations and marketing publicity management is a skill that is developed over time and is 100% a full time job. So, for those who are determined to do it for themselves anyway, why not give them hints on how to be successful. I have become quite a regular at different sales and marketing blogs, like Copyblogger, to get better at the "sales" and blogging side of business, why not give back to those who need some guidance in PR?

With that said, I will twist my own arm and get "going" by starting with this blog—giving tips on how to determine what type of story to write that will get meaningful coverage, how to get in contact with editors and get them what they need to publish a story and how to straddle the line between promotional and editorial copy.

See you next week.

 

How to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Does all the hype about driving users to your website through pay per click ads, search engine marketing, social media, and blogs make you suspicious about which one really works best?

You are not alone. Since the inception of the World Wide Web, companies have been trying to figure out how to make money from it. After the dot bomb era, someone finally figured it out—make it a big advertising medium. The internet has been hailed as the new yellow pages--too bad yellow pages didn't jump in soon enough to become their own version of Google.

There is plenty of information out there that talks about how these tools affect consumer sales, but how do B2B and industrial marketers use them to increase web leads? Here is a quick overview of how B2B and industrial marketers can use these tools to effect web sales.

Pay Per Click: Probably the most promoted and used tool on the internet. Pay per click (PPC) ads are those entries usually on the right side of the natural search pages and/or ad highlighted at the top of the natural search results. PPC promises high ROI, click through rates and conversions; however, studies have shown that while 80% of B2B buyers research online before making a purchase, less than 20% click on PPC ads.

Search Engine Marketing: Search engine marketing or search engine optimization is about moving and keeping a company's web page to the top positions of an organic search. This is the holy grail of the web. Nearly 75% of B2B buyers searching the web click on organic links (those results in the middle of the page vs. the ads to the right and top), and the top four positions get over 50% of the click through.

Viral Marketing: Viral marketing is the most talked about topic among some internet marketers today. Viral marketing employs existing social networks to rapidly spread brand awareness through word of mouth. It is most talked about in terms of consumer products but talk of its effectiveness of its use is oozing into the B2B and industrial marketing arenas. Although there are still questions about its effectiveness, integration of blogs, industry tools and white papers into a company's website may be effective uses of this tool for industrial and B2B marketers.

Blogs: Although the next best thing since sliced bread, successful blogging demands a great deal of work to get them going. Successful blogging must supply something useful to the masses to get them there again and again, but if a company finds that special mix that pulls in the readers by providing content worthy of forwarding, a blog can be a tremendous source of leads.

Print – yes print! Print still has its place in drawing users to your website; and, next to word of mouth, is the biggest influencer in the purchase phase for B2B buyers. Printed articles about a company become a very powerful word of mouth tool in that it offers credibility through third party endorsement. Printed articles can also include carefully worded action statements that drive readers to the website when companies offer online tools such as troubleshooting guides, white papers and/or industry focused "calculators". Also as more and more trade magazines convert to digital content, a published article in a trade magazine becomes a lasting promotional tool on the Internet for years, if not decades, to come.

With the wealth of promotional activities that the internet offers, it is no wonder that more and more companies have been increasing their PR budgets the last 4 years.

Cashing in on Published Articles

Published articles about your product or company can stretch a marketing budget 10 fold.  Here are some of the ways you can cash in on marketing publicity:

Take the copy to your prospects to establish credibility.

Get reprints and send them as direct mail pieces.

Put links to the articles on your website.

Use them in monthly newsletters to your current clients and prospect list.

Create SEO articles from the original press release to increase page ranking on major search engines.

Frame them hang in the office to increase morale within your organization.

Keep a media book and present it at annual meetings.

Include a list of media placements to your annual reports.

Do You Make These Mistakes with Your Press Releases?

Press releases seem easy enough to write, but marketers often try to apply the same rules they use in marketing pieces in their press releases.

Here are three common mistakes that can kill a good press release:

1. Testimonial from clients instead of quotes.

   The difference between a quote from your client and testimonial is the tone and the subject. Quotes from your clients should address something specific about your product and how it offered a solution. Testimonials, more or less, are company focused and often address how "great" the company is. Would you rather own a car from a company that "never breaks down when you are on the road," or own a car from a company that has "outstanding customer service?"

2. Outrageous "First Ever" claims in your headline.

   Yes, if your company is an innovator, then you need to address that in your press release, but claims like "first ever" in the headline and lead paragraph are red flags for editors that a press release is self serving and quite frankly, they will challenge the claim—always. Editors are journalists and they are trained to question. They also have an uncanning knack for remembering obscure facts and will certainly remember some other product that was "like" yours and disbelieve the claim. It doesn't matter if you "truly" have the first car that can fly, there are other ways to say it that sound more newsworthy. Just think of the difference between how Newsweek would headline a UFO sighting and how a tabloid would report a UFO sighting.

3. Product focused vs. solution focused.

   Many press releases end up reading more like a spec sheet rather than a press release. Specs are fine in press releases, but they should include the benefits or give comparisons. For instance: Why is it important that a car has an 18 gallon gas tank? Compared to most vehicles that have 13 gallon gas tanks, the larger 18 gallon tank gives drivers 1/3 more driving time between fill ups. (That's not a real fact—just one I made up).

The thing to remember about press releases is that they are written for the press—you know—the media. The closer your press release is to a story that the media would write the better chance you have of getting the attention of editors and writers.

3 Easy Ways to Stand Out from your Competitors

Does it sometimes seem like you can't compete with your competitors full page ads in trade magazines?

Many of today's major brands, including The Body Shop, Starbucks, Wal–Mart, Red Bull, Oracle and Yahoo!, were built with virtually no advertising.

Feature articles in trade magazines can't be purchased, but the cost of having a feature article written and then pitched and placed in trade magazines is about one third of the cost of a full page ad.

Here are three ways to stand out from your competitors:

1. Write a feature article, or contract someone to write a feature article, about common pains in your industry and how solve those pains. Addressing specific problems in the industry will catch the attention of readers. Remember the last time an article specifically addressed a problem you were trying to solve?

1. Include quotes from one or two of your customers in the article. Getting your customers to talk about how your product solved their problem builds credibility in the readers mind. What others say about you is much more important than what you say about yourself.

1. Pitch the story to several publications in vertical markets to stretch your marketing budget and expand the reach of your message. If you are in the widget industry and your story includes quotes from an automotive company and a buzz saw manufacturer, pitch the story to widget magazines, automotive magazines and buzz saw magazines.

Standing out amongst your competitors doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. Sixty seven percent of readers take some type of action as a result of reading or looking into specific feature articles—even if it is just passing it along to another person.

Mass Emailing - How to Ensure Your Press Release Will go Unnoticed

While working in the field of media relations for past 7 years I have had the opportunity to speak with hundreds (if not thousands) of editors. And the one comment I am always guaranteed to get from at least one editor per day is, "I get hundreds of emails a day." They are not exaggerating.

Many companies know the power of editorial coverage and those who know, want it. In the pursuit of editorial coverage many companies write a press release (most often a very promotional press release) then mass email it to hundreds of editors hoping for some type of coverage. Or they place it on a news wire and hope that it will be noticed by a writer. It doesn't work.

It's an honest attempt to do what is suggested by so many "experts" out there. Once in a great while it may work, but that is the exception. Every now and again, I'll still try it in an attempt to boost a campaign for one of my clients who doesn't have the money to pay for additional pitching—a freebie so to speak "just in case" something has changed out there. Even with the best cover letter and dazzling subject line, it's a shot in the dark.

Media relations. Re·la·tion: a meaningful connection or association between two or more things, based, for example, on the similarity or relevance of one thing to another.

Mass Mailings. Mass: a body of matter that forms a whole but has no definable shape.

Making a story stand out above hundreds of others requires special skills that develop that meaningful connection between an editor and the person pitching the story. Knowing how to talk to editors, respecting their time, how their editorial process works, the types of stories they publish and a very succinct pitch that will allow them to decide in that 30 seconds whether or not it is a story that interests them is key.

When an editor is anticipating your story, it has a much better chance of being read than one that gets buried among the hundreds of unsolicited press releases.

Back-to-School Marketing for Industrial Manufacturing

I just skimmed the newest batch of marketing, search and online newsletters I get in my inbox everyday. It was filled with back-to-school marketing news and I realized that for the next few months there will not be much of value in those newsletters for me.

I subscribe to them because it keeps me up to date on the marketing arena as a whole and every once in a while there is a little pearl of wisdom I can transfer to the B2B, and more importantly, the industrial manufacturing arena. Those newsletters also give me ideas of what to write about in my own blog. Understand, I am not poo pooing them, I just haven't found a really meaty industrial manufacturing newsletter or publication that focuses on marketing.

Then I had a flash! Why not start my own Industrial Manufacturing Marketing Newsletter?! One that is truly helpful to marketers whom focus on trade magazines. Next project. I think I'll start it off in the form of a blog and accept content submissions. We'll see what happens.

I'll let you know when I get it up and running.

Industrial PR – It Isn’t About the Contacts, It’s About the Story

Often I see PR companies touting their "media contacts." But having "media contacts" doesn't amount to a hill of beans if the story isn't right for the publication.

There are several elements that can make or break a public relations strategy. First and foremost, the story must be right!

A story must match the tone of the industry. That may seem simple enough, but it takes a good amount of research to make sure the story you will be writing meets the needs of the publications in the industry. Without research into media calendars and into the pages of the magazines themselves, you may end up writing a story that just doesn't fit their editorial style or choosing a angle that has recently been covered; and, now you have a dead story.

The type of story is also important: case history, tips article, application, technology, issue. If you've decided to write a case history and that isn't what the publications are printing these days, you end up with a "filler" story that will gather dust waiting for empty pages which almost never come.

After discovering which story is best for magazine coverage, the story must be carefully crafted to engage the reader through the end while still positioning the client's product or service as a solution without being overly promotional. Overly promotional articles almost never make it to the magazines pages and if they do, readers end up not disbelieving the content anyway.

The closer a story is to a publication's journalistic style, the better chance it has of getting published.

You Got ‘Em, Now What?

Okay, so you've gotten comfortable making your calls, your pitch is pushed to the side, your thinking about what you're going to do over the weekend as you dial the numbers like a drone and suddenly someone actually answers their phone.

Oh Crap! You nearly knock over your coffee cup as you reach for your pitch and attempt to launch into your introduction as your eyes try to catch up to where you are in your script. You frantically attempt to get your pitch out before they hang up on you.

Wrong.

Calling people is not about the pitch and it's not about the numbers. It is about communication. The following tips are so basic, it almost seems silly to write them, but because it is so easy to get caught up in the actions of selling (whether it's "selling" an editor on why they should run your story or selling your product or service) we all need to be reminded of the basics.

• Greet the person on the other end of the line
  • Always start the conversation with a simple introduction (name and company) and ask them how they are doing. The truth is, they are not really listening to you anyway at this point. Most of the time you'll just have to repeat yourself anyway. They'll most likely say, "fine" and wait for you to tell them why you are calling, but now they are waiting and listening.
• Listen to your prospect
  • If they say anything but good or fine, respond to it. If they say, "not so good," or anything else, take it up. You say something like, "rough day, huh?" You'd be amazed at what they might tell you. They might say their computer just crashed or their email is wigging out. Relate to it. "I hate when that happens." Remember, your job is to communicate with them not at them.
• Briefly state the reason why you are calling and ask if this is a good time.
  • Propose an either/or question. When I call editors I tell them I have a story I want to run by them and ask if they have a moment or are they on a deadline. They are always on deadline but now they know that I care about their time (and I really do). If they are busy, don't try to shove the pitch down their throat, ask to call back (give them specific days—again either/or). Most likely they'll let you talk or they'll take your call at a later date.
  • Be real about how much time you'll need from them and get their agreement. If you say a couple minutes and keep them for ten, it will irritate them and they won't be listening anyway.
• Continue to listen to them.
  • If they sound distracted or you can hear them typing as your trying to pitch them, say something. "You sound like you're really busy right now, is there a better time for me to call?" Most people will stop and give you their attention. For those who don't, finish your pitch (without speeding through it).
• Thank them for their time.
  • Seems simple enough, but it is so important.
• Ignore the bad calls.
  • Sometimes you get someone on a bad day and they are not very pleasant. That doesn't mean they'll be the same way next time you call. Resist typing "jerk" or "don't call" in your database. If you need to follow up with them, call them first next time. It's better to get those calls out of the way first rather than thinking about avoiding the call all day. Most often, you'll be pleasantly surprised at how well the call goes.

Good luck! Now that I preached at you, I must go practice.