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Moving communication campaigns into action |
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Making the most of editorial space in a membership or trade magazine Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. This week the latest issue of a magazine from a local business membership organisation came through the post. It's typical of many such publications in that it gives members an opportunity to submit an article. One common feature of publications like this - and many trade magazines - is that they are often under-staffed, especially when it comes to editorial staff. As a result, they will often print word-for-word the articles you send them. They just don't have enough time to improve them. You can see it in some of the articles they publish. In the membership magazine mentioned above there's one article in particular that I want to mention. It's obviously been supplied by a member company but it doesn't really say what the company does. And although it urges readers to contact them to register for information about a seminar, the contact details are missing. It's a shame that companies like this are not getting the most from the publication. They go to a lot of trouble to write articles, but often they are simply wasting their time. So here are my top five tips on writing an article to be published in a membership, trade or similar publication. I'm not really talking about press releases here (although some of the tips will apply). What I mean is the situation when you know that the publication will probably print what you send them, word-for-word. 1. Assume the readers know nothing about you. Unless you are very well known, you have to explain what your company does in a clear simple way. Doing this fairly early on in the article is probably a good idea. 2. Have an interesting angle. An article with a theme such as 'XYZ Company has won a new order' isn't likely to get readers interested. But a theme like 'XYZ has found a new way for manufacturing companies to reduce their premises overheads' is probably going to get people hooked. 3. Have a 'call to action'. It is usually possible to come up with at least one positive call to action; something that readers can do after reading the article. One of the simplest is to offer a free report on a subject that readers (especially potential customers) will find interesting. It's a good way to increase your credibility and gather new contact names for future direct marketing campaigns - but always get their permission to send them future mailings. 4. Include contact details. Sounds obvious, but often it's forgotten. The simplest way is to mention your web site address. It might be best to give people a positive reason to visit your web site. So instead of writing 'for more information visit our web site' you might say 'visit our web site for five simple ways to reduce your premises overheads'. 5. Write for the readers. Unlike when you write directly to your own customers, you might not know much about the readers of an external publication. If in doubt, ask the editor to tell you something about them. Then you can target your article accordingly. 6. Write for the publication. Write in such a way that your article will work well in the context of the publication. For example, if the publication you are writing for never uses subheadings then don't use them in your article as the chances are they will be cut or, worse still, printed as normal body text. Look also at things like the typical length of articles and paragraphs. 7. Have a great headline Spend lots of time writing your headline. Think about the way it will be competing for attention among half a dozen or more on each two-page spread. Try writing 20 headlines and choose the best one. And or course, make sure the headline has a "what's in it for me" factor to attract readers. Also, avoid any specialist jargon or abbreviations unless it's for a very specialist publication where 99 per cent of readers will understand it. 8. Supply great pictures. Check with the publication - the chance is that they will welcome one or more pictures. But make sure they are top quality; no photo booth mug shots or sub-standard snaps taken on a low quality camera. If your article has great pictures and the others on the same page have poor pictures or none at all then yours will stand out. 9. Supply great captions. People often read captions before any other part of an article. So write captions that have an impact. Here's what I mean: * Poor caption: "Joan Smith, MD of XYZ Company." * Better caption: "According to Joan Smith, most industrial companies are throwing good money after bad when it comes to premises costs - and it's easy to stop the rot." 10. Edit, edit, edit. Never try to get an article to a publication when the deadline is just a few hours away. Give yourself time to write a few drafts, asking colleagues and (ideally) some customers to give you feedback. Schedule a couple of weeks to fine-tune your article into something really special. Put all of these tips together and you will get a lot more from your opportunity to get published. Copyright 2005 Richard Groom |