"B to B" Print Media-Still the Prime Choice for Achieving Expansion Objectives

Savvy marketing executives learn to combine advertising and product publicity in core trade publications to reach targeted customer base. The goal of any marketing campaign is to communicate with ones audience. How else can you sell more products and services to grow your business?

"B to B" Print Media-Still the Prime Choice for
Achieving Expansion Objectives
Savvy marketing executives learn to combine advertising and product publicity in core trade publications to reach targeted customer base.

(PRWEB) July, 2003 -- The goal of any marketing campaign is to communicate with ones audience. How else can you sell more products and services to grow your business? Traditionally, the main avenue for business to business (B to B) marketing has been key trade magazines, newspapers, and newsletters-with overwhelming success that has stood the test of time.

For a while, the acceptance of the Internet and the World Wide Web as a marketing communication tool led many marketing managers to abandon the print media in favor of the faster, electronic-information super highway. Just as quickly, though, C-level marketing executives have discovered that the electronic highway has gotten a bit congested of late. Hence, a newly rekindled appreciation has emerged for the value of communicating through printed trade publications that continue to cater to the exact audience of customers that a business seeks to influence.

Trade publications-like the one you are now reading¾act as a nexus of communication for a specific industry. This provides the ideal resource for companies to keep up-to-date on news, learn about new technology, and keep tabs on the competition. Since, by

definition, communication is a two-way exchange, businesses also employ trade publications to reach out to a specific, dedicated readership. This has traditionally been accomplished via advertising, a formula that continues to work. Additionally, increasing numbers of mar/com professionals are also realizing the value of product publicity to provide information about a new product or technology. This helps the editorial staff provide leading-edge news to their readers-thus completing the two-way information channel.

While some people mistakenly view advertising and product publicity as an either/or" proposition, a well-managed balance of the two is proving far more successful for many companies across a wide spectrum of industries. This powerful combination pulls the leads that drive the sales that boost profits and expand organizations. Documented successes include a product-development firm that increased their gross income from $2 million to $15 million in only two years; an engineering firm that expanded from $10 million to $100 million in five years; and a gourmet food company that tripled their sales two years running.

Given such successes, the use of placing both advertising and product publicity in key trade publications deserves closer inspection by any company owner, executive officer, or marketing manager who wishes to rejuvenate their sales figures and jump ahead of their competition.

Advertising in trade publications-the traditional choice
According to the book, Marketing for Dummies, by Alexander Hiam, most marketing executives budget more for print advertising than any other type. For good reason, as the book goes on to state: If you are marketing services or products to other businesses, the thousands of specialized trade magazines and newsletters that target professionals and tradespeople are almost always the best first choice for advertising.

Those organizations that don't advertise risk losing market share, as their competition will not fail to capitalize on any lapses here.

"Many companies mistakenly subscribe to a concept best reflected by the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams: 'If you build it, they will come,'" says John Elliott, president and founder of Power PR in Torrance, California. Elliott brings over 36 years of public relations and marketing experience to the table. "In business, it's not enough to have a good product if nobody knows about it. You must get the word out."

In nearly every industry today there are niche publications that seek and reach carefully targeted readers. Much of the effort to discover the demographics of a given public has already been done by these publications and the credibility of the editorial focus has long been established. Therefore an article published in a prestigious trade publication carries enormous weight of validity. Advertising here virtually guarantees that your message will be received by prospective customers-at least once.

"In both advertising and product publicity, it's not enough to get the message out to a lot of prospects just one time¾it has to be repeated over and over again," adds Elliott.
"Studies have shown that prospects don't even register the message until it has been seen three times or more. Without repetition, you don't get qualified leads; at least not in the quantity you need or expect."

Product publicity-the latest marketing tool
Product publicity involves the use of what publishers refer to as "content"-articles such as new-product releases, case histories, how-to pieces, and educational white papers.

Product publicity harnesses the power of the media to tell customers about a company's product, system or service. Stories about product technology that address common problems and issues faced by an industry at large are especially sought by trade publications that seek informative content for their readers.

"As long as the story offers valuable lessons for readers, and the story is not overly self-promotional, then trade-magazine editors will likely consider carrying the news," cautions Elliott.

Effective product publicity usually comes about through three basic steps.

1. Write a story that demonstrates to prospective customer how the product delivers solutions. Several formats exist, but one popular type involves the documentation of problem solving within a case history.

2. Get the story published in as many key publications as possible. No matter how small a niche-industry a company may fall within, several adjacent industries may seek similar solutions which exponentially increases the number of available publications that can carry any given product message. Obviously, though, the best place to offer your product publicity stores is within those publications that carry your advertising in the first place. These readers have already been groomed to accept and believe your publicity message.

3. Deliver the message with repetition. Just as advertising requires repetition, so does product publicity.

"Some companies dabble in PR¾sending out one press release and then waiting to see what happens," notes Elliott. "This on-again, off-again approach kills any momentum that has been established. You won't always get instant results. Just like for advertising, the greatest success stories spring from those businesses that have made product publicity part of their ongoing corporate marketing culture."

Why both tools are required
Advertising still ranks as the prime necessity, as pointed out by branding authority Jack Trout in his 1996 book, The New Positioning. He explains that: PR plants the seed. Advertising harvests the crop. One can't live without the other.

Advertising identifies a company, positions it, and clearly announces to the world that your product offers solutions.

Publicity mainly differs in the source of the product claims.

"The power of publicity comes from the fact that an independent third party provides the endorsement," observes Elliott. "The endorsements come from either current users, industry leaders, or researchers, who are interviewed in the article. Prospective customers perceive such sources as authoritative. As a result, publicity usually generates high-quality leads."

Successful advertising and product publicity in practice
¾Gusmer Corp.
Founded 1961, Lakewood, New Jersey-based Gusmer Corporation has long been the world's leading supplier of plural-component proportioning equipment for spraying polyurethane foam and elastomeric coatings. The company's mobile spray equipment and its line of polyurea spray guns rank first among many contractors. Yet, hanging onto that position in the face of shrinking budgets partly rests on the success of the company's advertising and product publicity moves.

"Many years ago we had the resources to run a good sized marketing department, but recently, we've had some downsizing," recounts Doug Commette, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Gusmer's parent company, the Gusmer Machinery Group. "I suddenly found myself without a lot of resources, and wondering how I'm going to do this right."

"Being a marketing person myself, I believe in the value of advertising and PR," continues Commette. "We determined, strategically, that we could and should out-source the writing of articles, so we contracted with Power PR to do product publicity.

"With the amount of product publicity that has already been generated to date [86 published articles], we've been able to extensively leverage our advertising dollars," calculates Commette. "In addition, we've enjoyed the credibility boost of having a magazine tell everybody about how effective our products are."

Commette estimates that his company has experienced an upturn in leads approaching 30%¾a finding corroborated by Pete Rushing, a member of the Gusmer technical staff who also performs double duty in marketing.

"I handle all the leads from magazine reader service cards, the Internet, and some phone calls," explains Rushing. "Without a doubt, there's been a formidable increase in leads. Additionally, our advertising has now been a lot stronger than it has been in years gone by, so I believe that the publicity supports the advertising that we still do."

¾Lightening Eliminators
Centered in Boulder, Colorado, Lightning Eliminators and Consultants, Inc. (LEC) provides lightning and surge-protection systems to many Fortune 500 firms.

"Our technology is not fully understood or instantly obvious," begins Jerry Kerr, LEC's Director of Marketing and Web Development. "Our clients continually tell us that they have experienced up to an 85% reduction in electrical and electronic maintenance, but we needed to get this word out to others."

Faced with the challenge of selling a new technology to new industries, management at LEC initially scrambled to find a synergistic element to their existing advertising efforts.

"We wrote and issued news releases from our own office here, but this proved far more difficult than originally envisioned," Kerr recalls. "We attempted a direct mail campaign as well, but ended up with iffy results. I can't really attribute any sales to those efforts at all."

"But when we were approached by the folks at Power PR and learned about product publicity, I said to myself, 'Now here's a way we can really tell our story,'" continues Kerr. "Their staff interviewed our engineers to learn the intricacies of our technology and then talked with some of our customers. They wrote the stories and then got them into the trade magazines, some of which we also advertised in."

Almost from the start, LEC's new strategy yielded impressive results.

"Web site hits are 20% higher, but I can add that the quality of our leads has improved tremendously," says Kerr. "We've also received excellent feedback from our sales force. They just drop down a copy of an article in front of the customer and let it do the talking. When you can show a customer that you can save them a considerable amount of money and headaches, and prove to them that somebody else has done it in the same industry, then this has a very high impact."

Along with advertising in key trade magazines, the effectiveness of placing 143 articles and news briefs about its products has made a significant contribution to LEC's bottom line.

"Our sales were definitely on an upswing until 9/11," says Kerr. "Since then, sales are holding steady, but that's more than I can say for a lot of others in our industry. Even now, we're being considered for a couple of large new multi-million dollar projects. I would highly recommend product publicity in conjunction with advertising to other companies who wish to expand. I feel that these marketing steps are the best investment that we can make at this time."

Teamwork for the future: advertising and publicity
Just as it has already proven for a large number of companies, the potent combination of advertising and product publicity holds promise as an increasingly vital element of any

marketing plan. Look for it to gain increasing acceptance as the millennium's newest tool to help any organization expand its business to meet the expectations of its mission statement.

For more information about publicizing your products contact Power PR at 3711 Lomita Blvd., 2nd Floor, Torrance, CA 90505; call (800) 757-3715; fax (310) 787-1970; email debbieh@powerpr.com; or visit their website www.powerpr.com.

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