Looking for an excellent, low-cost way to promote your products, intellectual property and company to thousands of people in your key markets worldwide? Consider writing case studies and technical articles for publication as editorial content in industry trade magazines.
Why should you?
For one thing, magazine editors are always seeking well-written and informative profiles of companies and products, how-to technical information and cases that will attract and inform readers.
Memorable case studies are in high demand, and editors are often willing to devote valuable editorial space to good articles at no charge to you.
Second, they’re cheap to prepare. Typically based on information that R&D, engineering and sales and marketing staff have already gathered, they give you a chance to capitalize on your existing knowledge.
What’s more, such articles can serve multiple purposes in today’s web-based world. They can be published on your own or on industry websites or emailed to potential customers as PDFs.
In times of advertising overload and marketing noise, case studies and project profiles offer more value than ever in getting the market to pay attention to your company.
Here are some of the top dos and don’ts.
The article must be well written and engaging. You must first attract the editor’s attention. The less work needed to edit the article and make it print-ready, the better the chance it will run ahead of someone else’s.
Make the context clear. Why should this topic be so important to this magazine or newspaper’s readership? The article must give the editor a compelling reason for its publication and the reader a compelling reason to take time out of a busy day to peruse it.
Minimize technical content. Experts immersed in their own technologies often don’t know when to stop writing. Overwhelm the editor, and your article won’t make it to print. Perform triage by deciding what’s really essential and cutting the rest.
Offer key content. To get an article published, you must present new knowledge and innovative concepts. Some companies are understandably concerned about protecting their IP and know-how, but you have to give up something valuable to satisfy the editor’s need to provide useful editorial content to readers. The upside: an opportunity to educate the audience to follow your path in the market.
Don’t be self-serving. Keep corporate mentions and comments on products to a minimum. Don’t over-quote your company president. Instead, quote customers and third parties who can independently vouch for your product. Quotations from independent utilities or other governmental agencies are invaluable.
Get visual. Quality photography or graphics go a long way toward moving your case study to the top of the editor’s inbox. A compelling photo can even become a cover shot.
For companies on limited budgets for advertising, public relations in the form of case studies, articles, white papers, speaking at trade shows and conferences, news releases, new-product announcements and the like can increase corporate credibility during tough economic times.
After all, a quiet read might be just the thing to get the attention of potential customers fatigued by excessive marketing noise.