Industrial Public Relations Pitch

Things happen on a regular basis in your company that would be of interest to your customers and magazine editors and Internet journalists that write about industry news, trends and innovations. They want to know what your company is doing and why you are doing it. When you send out regular press releases and technical articles, you keep your company’s name at the forefront of your prospects’ minds. It’s the most cost-effective thing you can do to build awareness and credibility for your company.

What's newsworthy in your company?

• A new or improved product
• Promotions, or new staff (who, what title, and why)
• Retaining new outside services (distributors, manufacturers’ reps, advertising/marketing company)
• Introduction of a new or improved service (faster delivery, custom software, online services)
• Changing the company or product image
• Company growth (new division)
• New or improved facilities (new office, relocation, plant expansion, construction)
• New markets (prospecting, entering, expanding, and entering new markets)
• Conducted research or testing (plans and findings)
• Start or finish of a significant project
• Annual shareholder's meetings
• Financial statements (mergers/acquisitions, financing)
• Sales and earnings
• Stock information (going public, price updates)
• Meetings (sales and annual company meetings)
• Anniversaries (company, product)
• Special events (open house, plant tours, “lunch and learns”)
• Records (being the 1st, having the most, booking large orders)
• Awards (employee, company, community service)
• Employee activities (organizations)

What are great topics for technical articles?

Magazines need articles written by advertisers and leading companies in their industry to fill their pages. However, an advertorial that blatantly promotes only one product or company is not what they’re looking for. The article has to be more or less unbiased, without reference to trade names or specific brands. Here are a few ideas for articles that have real merit.

Whatever product you manufacture or sell, write an article that compares your product to competitive products. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? In what specific applications would each commonly be used? Of course you can make your product stand out; however, you have to do it subtly and let the reader come to his own conclusion by reading the facts.

Is there a certain application where your product has outperformed most competitive products? Write an article about all the various products used in that application, and of course highlight your own. Give specifics on each product’s performance or lack of.

Did your product help a customer save money, decrease downtime, improve safety, or in any other way do business more efficiently? Write a case history that includes more than just “who, what, where, when and how.” Include test data and other statistics that support your claim.

What are some of the practical engineering basics that are of interest to your potential customers? For instance, if you are selling column internals to refineries or gas processing plants, what is the basic process and issues to be considered when designing a new separation column?

Now that you have some inspiration for a good press release or article, contact Kerry O’Malley at Marketects. We’ll walk you through the process and help you write your story. More importantly, we’ll make sure your industrial marketing projects get printed in the right publications.

© 2009 Marketects, Inc. – www.marketectsinc.com