Post by KozCan't forget as you have me pondering. *Is* there such a thing as cheap
consulting relative to getting "press releases" actually printed in
trade journals? On on hand it appears to need a shotgun approach of
throwing way too much and seeing what sticks, yet I've heard editors
hate this and it can actually make you less likely to get the results
you are shooting for.
These are all good questions, and not easy ones to answer. As for getting
your new-product releases published, you shouldn't need much consulting.
Just somebody who knows how it works and how to do it.
The rates for this vary a lot for first-time clients. I actually was one of
the lower-priced ones, because I didn't waste any time. I stuck to
metalworking and I usually knew exactly what I was looking at. So I'd get
right down to work. My price for writing one was flat-rated the last few
years I did it ($225, which was an average of the charges made by Bob Bly
and the other well-known publicity writers). In all modesty, my clients got
a real bargain.
But I rarely did publicity alone. I'd write collateral (brochures, sales
sheets, etc.), display ads (regular magazine ads) and other things. My rate
was $125/hour, and that was the basis for figuring the flat-rated things,
like press releases. That rate, too, was middle-of-the-road. A publicity
article would cost between $2,500 and $4,000 ($1,000 for one of those brief,
back-of-the-book "case history" articles), but I did the photography, too,
which was part of it. (Incidentally, that was a small fraction of just the
*space* cost, alone, for one page of paid advertising.) If I wrote that same
article directly for a magazine, BTW, I'd be paid $1,000 - $2,000 for the
same thing. That's why I hated seeing my byline when I was freelance. It
meant I shafted myself. <g> One magazine in the field paid me a great deal
more, but I used to work for them, so I was a known quantity there. Outside
of the metalworking field I was able to charge more.
About getting press releases published: Write them the way the magazine
publishes them, write them well, do everything you can to make it easy for
the editor (give them an electronic version; don't put your company name in
there every second sentence; capitalize properly and use good grammar;
etc.). There are many subtleties to it but you don't need subtleties if you
have an interesting product that a lot of readers may be interested in.
Go to your local library or call; find out from the reference librarian
where they have a copy of the SRDS Rates and Data for business publications
(here, it's the county library); look for the metalworking manufacturing
magazines; write down their addresses and phone numbers. That's your list.
Address your release to the "New Products Editor." Maybe 15 publications,
more if you seek out the regional ones.
Include good photo(s). Also, an electronic one -- high-quality color JPEG
preferred, 300 dpi, at least 4 x 5 inches. TIFF is the only other choice but
there really is no justification for it today. Make it a standard one if you
use TIFF. Put it all on a CD.
Consulting comes in when you're trying to get more out of your publicity. A
good PR person in this field knows the magazines, what they want, and how to
get articles published. There are several kinds of coverage your product or
company may fit into. There aren't many people around who are really good at
this in metalworking. I am. <g> Rates vary, but, if I were doing it for a
living again, I'd pick up where I left off -- $125/hr. or maybe a bit more.
Post by KozSame goes for effective advertising. Everyone needs bang for the buck
if we advertise but "help" in doing it right can initiallymcost more
than the ads themselves. And there's no guarantee that the hired help
actually knows squat.
If you find cheap, expert advertising, it's by pure luck. There is cheap
advertising, and there is expert advertising. A good, 4-color, full-page ad
in business-to-business publications averages somewhere around $3,000 -
$5,000 in production costs. Then there is space: $5,000/insertion and up.
Then there is getting to the first good ad: $5,000 - $10,000 in fees. It's
best to plan a campaign of several ads for the long haul. Doing them one at
a time, starting from scratch each time, can be murderously expensive.
There are products and situations for which inexpensive, fractional-page ads
work very well. There is no easy formula to tell you when this is so. It
requires experience and knowledge to make that judgment.
It's not for the faint of heart. Publicity, beginning with new-product
releases, is the way to start. It's the best deal in the business, for you,
by a factor of at least 5.
Post by KozAlso seems like one of those areas where most consultants charge
waaaaaay too much for waaaay too little...the old "enough to make you
feel good" until you realize that there is little substance to the
information. How does one find the RIGHT help on such things?
Here's the underlying fact: In any "hot" business field, you can take all of
those prices and fees I listed above and double or triple them. Metalworking
manufacturing is at the low end of the low-buck side of the advertising
business. That's why I'm not getting back into it. So you don't find a lot
of really good ad people in the business anymore. They were there, 30 years
ago. They're mostly gone.
But some good ones remain, mostly old-timers who just like the business.
I've lost touch with who is who these days; I know of one in NJ and one in
Ohio. The people who know are the ad salesmen from the magazines, and the
top editors there. But both are wary of making recommendations. Space
salesmen don't want to offend their agency clients, and editors don't want
to offend anybody. However, space salesmen *will* make recommendations, if
you're a little patient with them. Modern Machine Shop, American Machinist,
Manufacturing Engineering, and Tooling & Production are the most likely to
be knowledgable about agencies in your area.
Post by KozAny good
texts available focusing on industrial advertising/press rather than
focusing on selling consumer products?
There probably are, but I don't read them, 'haven't for many years, and so I
can't make any recommendations.
Post by KozFor a couple of years we placed ads in trade directories...multi-page
things that had *some* result. Basically they paid for themselves but
never generated any real profits.
That's typical. It depends on the product or service you're selling.
Post by KozKoz (who's only worked the the ad sales guys and is not impressed with
the advice given)
Probably, rightly so. <g>
--
Ed Huntress