I’ve blogged on Trade Secrets about finding the right media outlets for your company’s press releases. It’s no secret that the trade press offers tremendous value by allowing you to precisely target your message to an audience and establish yourself as a subject matter expert and thought leader.

Odds are, there are multiple publications to which your company can submit press releases and story ideas. These may be trade publications specific to your niche or more general business or management publications, as well as websites. One thing is certain—every one of them has a specific set of rules or editorial requirements that spell out what kinds of writing they’ll accept, story lengths, deadlines and other important details. And unless the publication or website is new, they’ll have a history of stories they’ve already run, contained in their previous issues or archives.

A sure way to turn off an editor and sink any hopes of getting your story into their publication is to not do your homework. Offering to write an opinion piece on trends in LED light bulbs for home applications will not fly in a publication that prints only hard news on commercial and industrial lighting—especially since they devoted an entire issue to LED lighting back in June.

First, download a copy of the publication’s editorial guidelines from its website—and if you don’t see them there, call. Read them carefully and make sure you understand what types of writing the publication accepts. Then, study the publication’s archives and editorial calendars. Find out what topics they’ve covered and how recently as well as what interests them for the future. With a little time and patience, you can identify several publications that will be very interested in what you have to say, and you may even pick up a few new ideas yourself.

Trade Press Services excels at matching compelling, timely, innovative story ideas for businesses with the highly targeted content trade publications seek. To get started, just call Trade Press Services today.

However, smart marketers can use this situation to their advantage. Magazines put together what’s called an editorial calendar, generally on an annual basis. The calendar specifies the type of content that will go in each issue of the publication. For example, pieces on fighting the winter blahs in January, gardening tips in May and autumn crafts in October.

Why publish this information? First, it allows advertisers to see the content topics in advance so that they can plan their ad buys (boat companies may place ads in the June boating special issue, for example). Also, it allows the publication’s editors to assign stories to reporters in advance. This is where you come in: you can craft your press releases or article pitches to the editor to tie in with the content for specific months.

September’s theme is fall getaways? Pitch a piece on how your travel company has packaged affordable weekend trips for recession-weary consumers. April’s theme is personal finance? How about a piece on your wealth management company’s most overlooked deductions for taxpayers?

You get the point. By crafting a pitch that ties in to what the publication is doing, you not only give your story idea a better chance of making it to print, but you build a bond with an editor who may be looking for new, fresh ideas. You’re helping them be successful!

Editorial calendars are commonly found linked in the small print on publication websites. Barring that, feel free to contact the publication to ask for a copy. If the publication doesn’t have a formal editorial calendar, ask the editor what topics he/she is most interested in. In most cases, they’ll be happy to share the information with you. Or, just contact us at Trade Press Services. We specialize in making editorial contacts and crafting bylined stories for all types of companies and publications.

You may know what “editorial” means (that’s on the opinion page in the newspaper, right?), and you probably know what advertising is (the annoying stuff that interrupts my TV show!) But what the heck is “advertorial”? And why do you care?

Advertorial content is the Frankenstein monster of journalism. Part news, part opinion, and part advertising, it’s a section of a publication that looks like a story, but it isn’t. It may contain some news, but it doesn’t quite look right. The type style is just a little different than the previous page. The people in the photos seem a bit too…happy. And the author sure seems enthusiastic about a certain brand of products.

Usually, advertorial pieces in reputable publications are labeled “Special Advertising Sections” or “Special Advertisement,” but not always. This is especially true of online publications, where an advertorial section may be labeled “Info Site” or contain no warning at all that this is advertising and not unbiased reporting.

Why do companies pay for advertorial content? First, there are always those people who won’t see the warnings and who will assume that it’s another story—and gosh, Company Y sure must make great products if Publication Z is so crazy about them. Others may recognize the advertorial content as an ad, but they’ll read it anyway—for the same reason that people read long, multi-page letters from charities raising money at the holidays.

Editorial content on the other hand is different. It comes in the form of opinion pieces, news, by-lined articles, case studies, research results, roundtable discussions, etc. It positions the author as an expert and the company as a leader in its marketplace. There’s no pay to play involved.

Advertising is space within the publication that is sold, usually to companies but sometimes to individuals, for the purposes of promoting a good or a service. Content can be completely self-serving. While advertising content increases visibility in the marketplace, editorial content has more credibility. Generally, advertising, along with subscriptions and single copy sales, is how publications make their money.

At most publications, there is a firm line drawn between the newsroom and the sales department. In other words, it’s important to the editors of the publication that their advertisers don’t influence the stories on which they report or their opinions, in order to protect their journalistic integrity. Likewise, they don’t want to write heavily about certain topics or promote certain opinions hoping to lure in certain advertisers.

Bottom line: nothing promotes your company as well as good old fashioned editorial content. You can’t pay for a front-page article in the paper. Really, you can’t. They don’t sell that. You have to make the news on your own merit.

Lucky for you, Trade Press Services is expert at getting your name into the publications that you want to be in. We help you assemble first-rate editorial content and place it in the finest industry publications, where your customers, potential customers or strategic alliance partners will recognize you as the subject matter expert.

Don’t fool around with Frankenstein. Contact Trade Press Services today.