-Former United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Rummy may not have made much sense in this 2002 quote, but this is what we do know: no matter how good your business is, if your potential B2B customers don’t know, then it doesn’t matter.

You’re in business because you found a niche—a service no one else was offering, a product no else makes, or a better way of doing things. You know you’re special. You know how hard you’ve worked. But do your company’s potential customers know that? Are you an unknown?

If you don’t know the answer to that, you probably are. But you don’t have to be. An article in the trade website or journal that your customers read can make all the difference. When potential customers read your opinions, insights and ideas in the forums and venues they seek out for advice, you’ve become more than just another company—you’ve become a thought leader.

If you’re an unknown quantity, call or e-mail us at Trade Press Services today. We can get you in print or online—guaranteed. And your company will go from being one of Rummy’s “unknown unknowns” to the industry leader that everyone knows.

I’ve blogged before about press releases and how important it is to find not only the right contacts within various media outlets, but also the right media for your message. It’s not uncommon for business owners, managers and even public relations professionals to have unrealistic perceptions about the media. (Media, by the way, is plural for medium, and should always take a plural verb form: The media are biased, but television is a vibrant medium.) Some may have no idea where to start when it comes to identifying the proper media to receive their message or assume they have no story to tell, while others may assume that any media outlet, from CNN to the Peoria Journal Star, is interested in what they have to say. The truth lies somewhere in-between.

To start finding answers, look to customers for guidance. Gather data. Find out who is the market for your product or service? Who buys your products? Who do you want to buy your products? And most importantly, where do they get their information? You don’t have to guess. Call your customers and ask, or work with a professional who can identify what your target audience is reading, surfing, watching or listening to.

Once you know the answer to these questions, the next step is to determine the best media outlets to target. In the case of most B2B (business to business) companies, the mass media are not going to be a wise choice. Not only is news time or news space scarce on television, radio, and mass-market magazines, it’s simply too broad an audience. Unless you’re IBM pushing very generic IT consulting services to hundreds of thousands of businesses across the country, you’re going to be lost in the crowd.

For this reason, trade publications are a viable option. They make sense for companies that really want to get the word out about their products, services and solutions. Think of trade publications (both print and online versions) as precision laser guided missiles, as opposed to a clumsy 10-ton mass media bombs. These are the publications that zero in on your audience—the folks who want and need your skills and expertise. By getting bylined editorial coverage (articles with your name on them) in these outlets, you can establish yourself as an industry expert, marketplace leader, and the first place your potential customers will look when they need something.

Trade publications—use them to increase visibility, credibility and name recognition in your industry. Trade publication coverage—editorial content that gets your message across. That’s what Trade Press Services does best. Call or e-mail us today.

A press kit is a package of promotional materials that a business owner can hand to a reporter, magazine editor, or potential client that explains what the business is all about in a clear, concise fashion. It’s the answer to the questions, “Who are you?” and “What do you do?” Every business, large or small, should have a press kit ready to go. Your press kits should travel with you to meetings and on business trips so that wherever you may be, you have information about your company at hand.

Much has been written about press kits and what goes in them—letters of introduction, company bios, press releases, positive media coverage, newsletters, a business card—all assembled in a neat package with an attractive, company-branded folder. This method of assembling a press kit is tried and true, but may not make your company stand out from the competition. Fortunately, technology is changing the way we work and promote ourselves. Consider the following ideas to make your company’s press kit stand out:

• Go paperless and portable. Put your entire press kit in digital format, perhaps in Adobe.pdf format on a USB flash drive that has your company’s branding on it. These make great handouts at trade shows and don’t require your clients to carry around a bulky folder along with all of the other paper they pick up.

• Get Flashy. Or, take things a step further and put your press kit in Adobe Flash format. One click of the mouse, and potential clients and the media can enjoy your press kit with sound and video. Be sure to include key materials in .pdf format as well to make it easy for reporters to cut-and-paste bios and mission statements.

• Go online. Even better, put your press kit on the Internet, and make sure it’s compatible for viewing with mobile phones like the iPhone and the Blackberry. No paper, no USB drive, and the info is available anywhere—at the reporter’s desk, in the airport or on the production floor. Print up cardstock bookmarks to remind your contacts to bookmark your website on their web browsers.

Above all, remember that first impressions count. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Rely on a professional to help you design, assemble and update your press kit regularly. Contact Trade Press Services today for more information.

The secret is, there is no secret. That’s right. If you have great content like we discussed in part I, then you’re 90 percent of the way to writing a great press release. The rest is basically just common sense. If you Google the subject, you’ll find that everyone has an opinion on the correct format, and it comes down to personal preference. Much like a resume, you want to avoid typos, and be sure to make it easy for the news editor or reporter to find the information they’re looking for. You’ve come this far…don’t blow it with careless mistakes.

Pretend you’re writing the press release just as you’d like it to appear in the newspaper. (Like I said in part I, with small publications that have limited resources, you might be doing just that. They often run whole press releases with few or no changes.) At the top of the page, put your contact info: name, company, phone, e-mail and website. Then, add a headline, factual but captivating, and not in all caps: “Mid-Town Mufflers Silences the Competition, Wins Golden Tailpipe Award for Sales Excellence.”

You can add things like “PRESS RELEASE” or “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE,” but that’s redundant. Editors already know it’s a press release. Some PR professionals or company contacts also add the date they want the item run in the paper. That is presumptuous. Instead, just be thankful that the news outlet is running your piece.

Then, write the story, in third person. First tell the most important information. For example, “Mid-Town Mufflers has won the Golden Tailpipe Award.” Next, add a bit about the award, and why Mid-Town Muffler won it. Is this Mid-Town’s first win? Then, include a quote from the manager, or maybe the Muffler Association of Greater Akron, which sponsored the award.

Conclude with some general info about the company—your mission, how long you’ve been in business, and so on. Include a phone number and website if the reader would like more information. At the very end of the release, put something that indicates the release is over. Symbols like “###,” “,” or just “end” are commonly used.

Where do you send the release? That depends. What do your customers read? Find out who the editors are at those publications. Make a few phone calls and see who the best contact is to receive your information. Be careful about sending the release to multiple contacts in the same company unless they say it is okay; and if you do, “cc” everyone in the same e-mail so the publication staff knows with whom you’ve spoken.

E-mail? Yep, e-mail. Fax and snail mail are out. Even the lowliest monthly rag on revolutionary war-era candle-making has an e-mail address, so use it. After all, it’s the 21st century.

A word about photos: by all means, include them as attachments to the e-mail if, I say, IF, they are a) good photos (good composition, proper exposure, etc.), b) relevant to the story, and c) of sufficient resolution. That 39kb jpeg you pulled off your website won’t cut it—you need photos that are 3 or 4 megabytes in size at minimum to work for commercial printing. Just be sure to include a photo caption and who took the photo. Again, a smaller publication will run the pictures you send, but a larger one is going to send a staff photographer over.

And that’s about it. After a few days, if you don’t see your release in the paper, or just want to make certain that the e-mail arrived, initiate a polite follow-up phone call. Feel free to ask if they have any questions. If you’ve put a good story into an easy-to-read, legible format, you’ll probably see yourself in print soon.

###

For an assignment in my news writing class in college, we were asked to attend a local “happening” and write a basic news story on it. Simple enough…but I couldn’t leave it at that. Somehow I managed to convince the professor to let me write a press release instead of a hard news story. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for the lowly press release. Spurned by big newsrooms, welcomed by small weeklies with two-person staffs, the press release can be an effective tool for getting your message out.

A press release is not an advertisement or a way to drive people to your website. It is, however, a way to inform the media about the aspects of your product, service or company that may be newsworthy. News editor consider something to be newsworthy if it’s new, timely, controversial, unique, humorous, interesting or different.

First off, know this: news editors could care less about helping you promote your product or service. That’s left to the folks in the advertising sales department, and the two groups are like oil and water. From an editor’s perspective, advertising sales is a necessary evil. Of course, without paid ads, there would be no magazine or newspaper.

What editors do care about is news. That’s why your press release can’t focus on business as usual. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes—what can you share with them that their readers want to know? What is new at your company? What interesting stories can you tell? Do you have an employee who is an Iraq war vet? What does your business do that no one else does? What has your business helped a client do well? What is time sensitive that needs to get published now?

News editors are literally bombarded with press releases from all over the country, and even the world. What separates your message from the rest of the pack? Even if your release is about the latest trend in communication devices, an offering of affordable health insurance, or a personal injury lawyer who can get you money for your injury, you still have to have a “hook.” Ninety-nine percent of press release content is focused on what the writer wants to say and not focused on what the customer—the news editor—wants to read. News people call PR folks “flaks,” a derogatory term that refers to the annoying anti-aircraft fire that World War II bombers had to fly through on the way to the target. Is your story “flak” material, or news?

Every company should keep a supply of story ideas on hand that will make for great press releases (and great newspaper articles) when business is slow or when there’s a slow news day. If you build a reputation as a great source of legitimate news stories, you’ll have editors and reporters calling you for ideas. Remember, small newspapers and magazines are always desperate for content and short on people to generate it. As a result, sometimes they will often publish your entire press release verbatim!

Now that you know what to put in a press release, we’ll focus on how to structure and write in it part II.

We get you in the news by writing bylined feature articles and other forms of editorial content and arranging for publication of your material in trade magazines read by your prospects and customers. To ensure success, we perform both steps – writing and guaranteed placements – a winning combination.

Trade Press Services provides a full range of publishing services, including:

• Research and identification of the publications that reach your target markets
• Development of story ideas and news “angles” to present to editors
• On-going contact and coordination with trade publication editors
• Writing and editing of feature stories and other forms of editorial content
• Article submission and tracking until publication
• Reprint coordination

Trade Press Services also has the resources to research and write books, white papers, regular columns, corporate profiles, client success stories, newsletters and most other forms of corporate communications that will accelerate your business’ growth.

Contact us to learn more about how Trade Press Services can benefit your company.

Trade Press Services
2854 Sapra St.
Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
(805) 496-8850 Phone
(805) 374-9167 Fax
Gerri Knilans – President
gerri@tradepressservices.com