Welcome to the Kleber & Associates blog! Here are the latest tips on pitching to trade publications:
What are your favorite trade pubs and media outlets to peruse each month – Architect, Remodeling, Custom Home, LBM Journal or Professional Deck Builder? More than just great reads, trade publications are one of the most important public relations tools for home and building products and professionals. They are the perfect vehicle to reach a very focused target audience. That’s why many of our media efforts involve working with trade publications relevant to our industry.
Trade publications and a vast array of other media outlets provide excellent opportunities for us to showcase the benefits and features of our clients’ products. Here are a few tips we follow that can help you secure coverage in trade publications:
1. Do your homework Even if it’s a trade publication in your industry, you need to do your research. You don’t want to pitch a commercial product to a publication that focuses on residential. Just because it’s a magazine about building products doesn’t mean yours necessarily fits. Pitching irrelevant information may cause your future pitches to go ignored.
2. Editorial calendars are your best friend Most publications publish a detailed editorial calendar of their story topics for the entire year. Review a publication’s editorial calendar and tailor your pitch to exactly what they’re looking for. If you have a new green product, that publication may be covering green products somewhere down the line. Perfect fit = coverage.
3. Is your news really newsworthy? Industry trends, innovative new products and new technology are all newsworthy information. Pitching a product as a desperate attempt to gain some form of coverage won’t make the cut. If it’s not news, no one cares.
4. Don’t send a mass pitch to hundreds of trades Media love exclusives, so offer them the chance to be the first outlet to cover your story. Trade publications don’t want the same news everyone else in their industry already covered.
5. Journalists need your pitch! Don’t forget it’s a two-way street. If framed properly, you’ll get that trade media coverage you’ve been hoping for, because journalists and editors are looking for content, images and new products to write about.
Kleber & Associates is an Atlanta-based integrated marketing communications agency serving the home and building products industry for 25 years. Visit the Kleber & Associates website for the latest news and information about marketing for home and building products for consumers, architects, builders, remodelers, designers and manufacturers. Through our marketing, advertising, public relations and digital marketing expertise — we build better brands that build a better home.
