Apr 3, 2011
I guess we have all been interested in understanding how useful print media is these days – now that “bingo cards ” are effectively gone and so much seems to focus around the internet media and website traffic. Certainly I have been interested to understand this in terms of developing the effectiveness of our press release programs and of our advice to clients regarding their advertising. So I thought you may be interested in the following note which I made for myself, based on recent conversations with respected industrial publishers:
“Interaction between printed and web based media i.e. where a publisher runs both a printed and an online publication with the same title – a “twinned” publication , is a much neglected but very important area, although with little in the way of quantitative evidence. However recent anecdotal information based on publishers reported statistics suggest that in this situation the issue of the printed journal can give rise to as much as a third of the web traffic to it’s twin online site and so by extension, for a third of the enquiries. This is an important consideration since it suggests that a “twinned” printed journal can be as successful at generating interest as it’s twin website alone, ( if one allows for direct phone calls and website visits together with the 1/3rd traffic generated through the publishers sister site).”I am encouraged therefore to believe that our efforts in printed media continue to be as worthwhile as they are in the internet media and am pleased to have found some external evidence to throw light on the real world process involved.
Apr 2, 2011
Interesting to hear over several years from a number of the media guys that their enquiry rates are maintained through the holiday periods (December, July, August etc.) – and to see that this is supported by client’s own monthly web traffic stats. In-fact web-stats seem to confirm apocryphal stories of hard pressed engineers taking work home and searching online over the weekends. As for holiday periods – is it that these are really quiet times when customers can plan ahead and do some product research – or is it that with colleagues away on holiday those left are more pressured to find what they need? Whatever the explanation, it seems we do not have a holiday period in PR these days and that readership interest levels are not a mirror of business levels. Obviously they are linked, but they do not track each other directly and why should they – the drivers are different and the timing is different.
Apr 1, 2011
The creation of easily digested information regarding products and services. By presenting genuine information in a quickly assimilated way we are helping engineers to stay up-to date with developments and trends so that they can quickly solve problems in design or production. This presents a wider profile of possibilities and helps optimise the innovation cycle.
Dissemination to enable it to be easily found – build a better mousetrap and people will NOT beat a path to your door – unless they actually need a mousetrap and know about yours! This is a genuine need – by putting our information where it can easily be found we are serving that need. People sometimes need to be told that a) mousetraps exist, b) some mousetraps are different/better/cheaper than others and which is which. A whole range of media publications have grown up to serve this need on a wider basis from the national press to Google, to a plethora of very small but very targeted publications.
Mar 28, 2011
Trade/Tech PR is often confused with Public Relations and the attendant spin and hype of the tabloid press. Nonetheless PR as Press Relations is still a valid term – we also relate our clients to the press – whether they are printed or electronic publications and provide for free what they need to attract an audience, it is a symbiotic relationship. In order to survive and make a profit, publications need to attract readers – in the trade/tech case by giving them valuable information which we provide – these readers then constitute an audience that can also be presented with advertisements for which the publishers can charge money.
Mar 21, 2011
I read somewhere the other day that Manufacturing industry in the UK had it’s best month for 16 years in April 2010 – and all my clients tell me they have had very good months (even record months ) since Christmas. (and we are still the 6th largest manufacturing sector on the planet.) So is now the start of a new growth phase? Well we won’t know for sure until it is too late to really take advantage of it – but a little effort now could reap huge rewards later – and actually not much later either – I am thinking weeks to months here.
So potentially, a small promotional investment now could see increased business in the next few months and leverage growth into next year. An ongoing commitment to a promotional program could help pick up business released by the companies that did not survive and build market share over the next cycle.
ID-Marketing has already offered our clients some very special pricing to help them take advantage of this opportunity – we and others in the market can help promote your way back to prosperity – so “strike while the iron is hot!”
