O’Reilly DePalma POV
- May
- 16
Posted on May 16, 2012 by Nora DePalma
For an industry with a generally long purchase cycle and an incredibly complex route-to-market system, we collectively do a really terrible job of nurturing prospects when they raise their hands. Does this sound like your marketing department?
- You collect leads at trade shows and mail every one the same generic “information” package after the show. You have no idea if anyone ever closed that sales loop
- You have no idea that you get leads from certain publishers related to your advertising and media relations investment. Or you have no idea who handles them in your department, if anyone.
- You have no idea why or how many people have registered at your website, nor if anyone has closed the sales loop. Nonetheless, you feel compelled to send them all the same enewsletter of things you think they should know about you.
- You supply every lead to channel customers and field offices and they never do anything with them.
- Your channel customers and field offices say they never do anything with your leads because they’re lame.
Marketers across all industries are stepping up their game to better capitalize on and manage sales leads, according to a survey conducted by marketing automation service provider Eloqua. Of responding marketing executives across a variety of industries, 88% reported increased their lead analytics activity, with almost three-quarters forming a better understanding of conversion rates.
Two-thirds are digging deeper into the funnel in search of shorter sales cycles and improved sales intelligence.
The biggest hurdle reported—perhaps answering the question in the headline of this article—is a lack of processes.
Yet with the changing the shape and nature of the sales funnel driven by the increase in social media, content marketing and mobile, is it a process you can afford to put off much longer?
- Apr
- 26
Posted on April 26, 2012 by Joel Williams
Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos dedicated a new water utility center today in Aurora, Ill., that will serve the North American municipal waste water market. Pictured (left to right): Tom Weisner, Mayor of Aurora, Illinois; Dan Seals, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; Pia Olsen Dyhr, Denmark’s Minister for Trade and Investment; and Jes Munk Hansen, president and CEO of Grundfos North America.
Executives from Denmark and the state of Illinois were on hand Wednesday as Denmark-based Grundfos debuted a new business development center devoted exclusively to the municipal waste water market in Aurora, Illinois.
Nearly 100 guests joined Grundfos personnel for a ribbon-cutting ceremony inaugurating the new Water Utility Center, led by Pia Olsen Dyhr, Denmark’s Minister for Trade and Investment; and Dan Seals, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner.
More than 100 guests were on hand as Grundfos dedicated a new water utility center “competency center,” that will serve the North American municipal waste water market.
Speaking at today’s ceremony, Grundfos North America CEO and president Jes Munk Hansen said: “This center is pivotal to Grundfos becoming a leader in the North American municipal waste water business. We have big ambitions for the next five years, as we strive to double—if not triple—our sales in that key segment, with commensurate growth in our product offering.”
Grundfos has invested more than $50 million in municipal water-related activities in the United States during the past few years, including acquisitions, increased production and infrastructure, information systems, product launches and the hiring of key people. Over the next half-decade, the company expects to invest an equal amount in its North American operations.
“These investments are part of a global strategy that aim to capture 10 percent of the worldwide municipal market and generate roughly $1.3 billion in export sales,” said Hansen.
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn commended the company for its area investment and centralized location.
Dan Seals, assistant director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, helps dedicate a new water utility center for Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos
“Illinois is one of the best places to do business in the world,” Governor Pat Quinn said. “We are pleased Grundfos has chosen to expand its operations in Illinois and build a new business development center, which will create more jobs and boost economic growth in our state.”
Grundfos expects to use the Aurora Water Utility Center as a platform for launching increasingly sophisticated, energy-saving pump technologies in the coming years, all targeting the waste water market. While the segment has been slow to adopt these more advanced—and therefore more costly—technologies because of a slumping economy and local-government budget shortfalls, Hansen is confident that the current brake on infrastructure spending will not last much longer.
“That is why our focus at Grundfos is on developing more energy-efficient pumping products, and why we look at the market in terms of the next two decades, instead of the next two quarters,” says Hansen. “As a privately held organization, we can afford to have a long-term perspective with regard to our investments and business strategy. Our dedication to the municipal water market in North America is a long-term strategy.”
- Mar
- 19
Posted on March 19, 2012 by Nora DePalma
People who think Twitter is nothing more than giant time suck probably don’t know about Twitter chats.
Stacy Garcia, on the other hand, knows that using Twitter chats is a good way to build community and awareness.
Stacy has been hosting KBTribeChat on Twitter since April 2011, bringing together designers, architects, brands and media people for a fast-paced one-hour online chat every Wed. at 2 pm ET/11 am PT.
Although a sales rep recently called her a “pioneer in social media,” the Garcia Cabinetmakers co-owner said she spent nearly a year on Twitter just meeting new people and learning the ropes. “I liked it a lot, so I just kept wondering, ‘How do I make this useful?’”
She was inspired to start the chat after former Hafele social media manager Rob Ainbinder suggested it and told her she should “just do it!”
“At first, it was crickets,” Garcia laughed. “It took a lot of time to get going. The only ones talking were the companies: Hafele, Formica and some of the appliance people.”
Stacy and Michael Garcia of Garcia Cabinetmakers, Huntington Beach, CA. Stacy runs KBTribeChat on Twitter. Michael says he isn’t sure about social media, but after 33 years of marriage, he’ll admit he’s been wrong before.
More recently, KBTribeChat has averaged 35 to 40 participants per week on topics such as The Vision House at Epcot, Lighting Styles and Strategies for Kitchens & Baths, Kitchen Islands, and my own turn at hosting on Steamy Shower Thoughts last week, sponsored by Mr. Steam.
A Return on Relationships AND A Return on Investment
Garcia says of social media, “Sure, it’s mostly about relationships. But you have to think about the bottom line. I think we’re all there to sell something. You put your personality out there and you hope there would be some sales.”
So has Garcia Cabinetmakers landed business from social media?
“Yes, today!” Garcia replied. A custom cabinet contract signed, sealed and delivered from someone who found the Huntington Beach, CA, firm from Stacy’s online activities, which include:
• Garcia Cabinetmakers website with a photo gallery of their custom cabinetry craftsmanship.
• Garcia Cabinetmakers on Twitter
• Stacy_Garcia on Twitter
• The Garcia Cabinetmakers Facebook page
• The KBTribeChat blog
• The KBTribeChat Facebook page
Garcia’s husband and business partner Michael admits he isn’t quite so sure about the whole social media thing.
“To me, business is one-to-one. It’s a handshake. This is…well, I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head.
“But isn’t social media like a digital handshake?” I asked “A one-to-many way to network efficiently?
“Besides,” I added. “Your wife just said you got business from it.”
“OK, so I’m wrong! I’ve been married for 33 years. It’s happened before,” Michael said.
The March 21, 2011, kbtribechat will be hosted by blogger, builder and social media specialist Todd Vendituoli talking about Blogging for Business. Not sure where to start? Learn how to join a Twitter chat on Stacy’s blog.
- Mar
- 4
Posted on March 4, 2012 by Nora DePalma
What’s a nice girl from the building products industry doing at an e-commerce conference?
Simply put: any phenom that brings together everyone from big boxes to independents in a collective shudder is something I need to better understand. I’ll be sharing what I learned discovered at eTail 2012 in posts over the next few weeks, but here are the 10 most amazing things I learned:
1. Conversion measurement is getting harder to track. How do you know if someone scanned your email headline and then went back to your website later to take action? Or if someone has been a quiet fan of your Facebook page, enjoying conversations from afar enough that when it came time to buy, she went to a showroom and chose your brand?
2. By 2017, CMOs will spend more on tech than CIOs. (Gartner Group data via a Bain Ventures presenter). Which means marketers better get over their fear of tech PDQ.
3. E-commerce is by no means an easy, low-cost venture compared to traditional retailing. Spending on search and keyword advertising is easily five figures a month for considered purchases such as building products. It’s also at least as labor-intensive as a storefront. A presenter from Vintagetub.com noted that 58% of their sales are by phone.
4. Low engagement on emails—low rates on opens and click thrus—can reduce your email deliverability. If no one ever responds to your emails, Internet service providers (ISPs) are increasingly seeing that as a sign of spam. Email service providers such as Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and Bronto will reject your lists. Make sure your emails have the right message targeting the right people. Even unsubscribes are better than apathy.
5. Our industry is not only way behind the curve on managing and converting leads, but also behind the curve in valuing leads. How many brands follow up with trade show leads with any more than a letter and a brochure mailing? A solid CRM system is the necessary starting point, but even then, what’s the comeback to “our sales reps and/or showrooms never really follow up on the leads?”
6. Email is getting people to Facebook, but Facebook isn’t getting people to opt in for email. And virtually no one is experiencing direct sales from Facebook. Over and over at eTail, presenters said it was a waste to put your product catalog on Facebook.
7. Friends, fans and likes on social media are not great metrics, but they are they are the best we have right now. (See #1) Still nearly impossible to plot a direct causal link, other than what we’ve known since commerce first began: we buy from people we like.
8. Related: happy people sell product. The most overlooked sales people are your own employees. “No one ever bought anything from an un-enchanted employee,” said day-three keynoter Guy Kawasaki.
9. Everyone underestimates the time it takes to get things done for online engineering. Getting two to three major initiatives done per year on your website and customer relationship management is actually a pretty reasonable pace.
10. The slickest CRM and retargeting technology can’t overcome bad copy, cheap images and boring videos. Content rules.
My favorite quote from eTail? “WTF stands for website, Twitter and Facebook.”
A near perfect metaphor for today’s marketer, IMHO. Want to learn more? eTail Boston is scheduled for Boston in August.
- Feb
- 7
Posted on February 7, 2012 by John OReilly
If you are actively involved in the HVAC business—whether wet heat, forced air or some creative combination of the two—and chose not to attend AHR Expo 2012 in Chicago last month, you owe yourself a heart-felt apology. You really should have made the scene—no excuses, please (if you didn’t, there’s always AHR Expo 2013 in Dallas).
The beleaguered construction market of recent years has taken a terrible toll on everyone’s marketing budget, and trade shows have been a particularly conspicuous target of sharp spending cuts. More and more decision-makers, potential exhibitors and attendees, are opting to hang onto their cash and stay home with scant regret, convinced there is precious little ROI to be gained spending another four or five days living out of a suitcase in Las Vegas, Orlando, or Wherever.
But while it may be a bitter season for most exhibitions, the annual AHR Expo continues to flourish. You’d think the prospect of spending three days in Chicago in mid-January would be reason enough for all interested parties to just say “no,” but you’d be wrong. In fact, this year’s event broke all the records any trade show covets. According to the AHR Expo’s website, the 2012 event saw…
- Record visitor attendance: over 39,000 contractors, engineers, distributors, facility managers, manufacturers, reps and other HVACR professionals.
- Record total attendance: over 58,000 visitors and exhibitor personnel.
- Record exhibit floor: more than 428,000 net square feet of booth space in two halls at McCormick Place.
Much of the credit for this success goes to ASHRAE, its staff and membership for all the hard work that goes into making a successful exposition of this magnitude year after year after year. But I don’t think it’s especially radical to suggest there’s an even larger, more critical reality at play here, given the enthusiastic crowds at the AHR Expo in recent times.
National phenomenon: It comes down to two words: energy efficiency, and the galvanizing impact this movement is having despite the economy, or perhaps because of it. This impact affects not only on the people who attend the Expo, but also—and more importantly—American society as a whole. After all, absent a vibrant market for energy-efficient products, the number of exhibitors and attendees at the AHR Expo would be far fewer, no matter how hard show organizers worked.
Americans continue to regard the green movement in general with a skeptical eye. But when it comes to saving money on their fuel bills, a critical mass of homeowners are “all in.” A recent article by John K. McIlwain in Urban Land, the online publication of the Urban Land Institute, summed up the trend by quoting an unnamed developer to the effect that energy efficiency has become the “new granite countertop.”
“After all, no one asks what the payback period is for a countertop. Just as items that were once added to a new home or condo for an additional price are now standard, so too are energy-efficient equipment and design becoming standard features expected by the buyer or renter.” (Italics mine.)
The makers, designers, specifiers and installers of heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment understand this happy reality, and its beneficial resonance on their businesses and their careers. That’s why McCormick Place was humming with activity in late January—at least for the first two days of the AHR Expo—and why it will likely be humming again next January when the show moves to Dallas, and then in 2014 when it returns to New York, New York.
It’s also why if energy efficiency is the core rationale for how you earn your daily bread, you just might want to check out the AHR Expo, one of the very few trade shows these days that isn’t struggling to justify its existence.
- Jan
- 31
by Jessica Tolliver, Wendy Silverstein & Associates
Last week more than 500 design professionals gathered in Salt Lake City for the third annual Altitude Design Summit. Like many trade conferences, this one featured the usual panel presentations, keynote speakers, networking parties and roundtable discussions.
Packed conference room at Alt 2012
But Alt—as attendees affectionately call it—stands out from the usual fare in a number of ways. Talk in the hotel hallways revolved around things like trendy hairstyles and eyeglasses, gilt-edged business cards, and how cute the keynote speaker was. And more importantly: This new and relatively small conference generates a lot of buzz. Online chatter is still going strong one week after the conference ended, as both those who attended and those who wanted to but couldn’t—the conference has sold out the last two years—continue to share thoughts and ideas.
What is the Altitude Design Summit and what makes it unusual? Alt brings together design bloggers and the professionals (marketers, online services, traditional media…) who work with them. Simply put, a design blogger is somebody who blogs about design. But a design blog can cover all kinds of things, including fashion, interior design, event planning, photography, travel and more. And while some bloggers make a living from their blogs, others use them as a marketing tool for their “real” jobs, like product design, graphic design, interior design, event planning, wedding photography and more.
And these bloggers—most of whom are women—can be enormously influential, setting trends and building buzz. They fall in a newly established and evolving grey area somewhere between traditional media and celebrities. And they’re a lot like that cool girl in high school who found out about the “hot new thing” before anybody else did—and then told all her friends about it.
What can a presence at Alt do for your brand? Consider Pinterest, which the Wall Street Journal recently called “the hottest start-up of late in Silicon Valley.” Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann attended Alt three years ago to discuss his idea for a new social-networking site where users could “pin” images onto virtual bulletin boards. The next year he was gearing up to launch the site and invited Alt attendees to be among the first to try out the (still) invite-only site.
This year, Silbermann attended the conference as a keynote speaker. Pinterest launched in early 2011, grew by 40 percent in the last six months, and just won $27 million in VC funding. Plus, companies like West Elm, Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman and Real Simple are using Pinterest to market their own brands. (You should check it out, if you haven’t already.)
Plenty of big brands also consider Alt a worthwhile place to market their products and services. HP, Cottonelle, Sherwin-Williams, Method and HGTV are just a few examples of the large corporations that attended the conference to connect with bloggers this year. And growing and niche companies were there too.
Cottenelle influences the influencers
How to know if Alt is the right place to go to grow your brand? Follow that age-old marketing advice: Know your target. Do they turn to blogs for ideas, inspiration and recommendations? Is your product or service one that will interest a blogger? Does it feel like a genuinely good fit for her subject matter? If you answered yes, then Alt could be the place for you. Start planning your outfits now.
Mail Chimp at Alt 2012
- Jan
- 16
Posted on January 16, 2012 by Heather McCune
Does design translate into improved sales and profitability? Next time you venture into one of its fast-food eateries, be prepared for a very different McDonald’s—a redesign that may just inspire you to rethink your order and your own approach to business.
According to USA Today, an ambitious $1 billion redesign is occurring under the Golden Arches. Gone are the garish red roofs, primary colors, plastic benches and tables, and the “get-in/get-out” feel of the country’s biggest fast-food franchise. In their place are wooden tables and chairs, comfortable faux-leather seating a la a certain coffee-shop chain with an outlet on every corner, and a color palette with much subtler hues. Outside, the makeover features an exterior heavy on earth tones and glass. Even the famed arches take on a more subtle shape.
The overall effect is a more modern look that the company hopes will appeal to more than just the moms and kids who currently fill most outlets.
Why invest in the environment? The redesigned test stores in Tampa recorded a double-digit sales increase. Moreover, the product mix ordered by customers changed as well, as they were more likely to try new menu items in the new venue.
Newer players in the fast-food business means McDonald’s must compete for discretionary dollars with more than just Burger King or Wendy’s. Outlets such as Panera Bread and Chipotle Mexican Grill target the same clientele while offering dining environments strikingly different from the old Micky D’s.
What type of environment influences who buys your products? When was the last time you walked the places that show and sell your wares? In today’s competitive marketplace, paying attention to “place” can do a lot to change what is sold. It also is time to rethink “place.” For McDonald’s, place is bricks and mortar buildings, but today the place where buyers view your product is just as likely to be a web site or a Facebook page. Wherever that intersection is for your product and your potential customer, it’s time to pay attention to that place.
Heather McCune was long-time editorial director and editor-in-chief of Professional Builder, Professional Remodeler, Custom Builder, Housing Giants, and HousingZone.com, and previously served as editor of Supply House Times and Plumbing & Mechanical.
- Jan
- 9
Posted on January 9, 2012 by Nora DePalma
The New York Times reports that the monster Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is no longer the dominant launch pad for the hottest new gadgets.
In our industry, neither IBS, nor KBIS are the big launch pads for new products as they once were.
So do we even need trade shows? Our answer is yes, because trade shows bring people together. But does the model need to change in order to support this new raison d’etre for trade shows? We report, you decide:
A really bad trade show.
Comments from designers in a private Facebook group:
Designer #1: I remember having this discussion at IBS last year with somebody from (a major building brand). She commented as we were walking the show floor that the median age at that show was 50 and she was right. Shows that do well recruit younger people and students and offer programming geared to the younger set. Some of the more traditional (and fading) shows just don’t do that and are content to be the equivalent of spring break for middle-aged people.
Designer #2: The last few times I have been to KBIS, I was not impressed really. It was just the same ole same ole stuff. I have continued to attend these traditional shows in hopes of being impressed and continue to be disappointed. I want to be inspired and educated about products in a way that I get a personal connection. With those experiences it allows me to share my inspiration with my clients in a much more meaningful and informed way…I know in my business I feel like I need to be continually changing and evolving to keep current and to take my business to the next level. Needs to be some changes in the traditional trade show, for sure
Designer #3: I think a lot of American shows are still slow moving behemoths. Its a culture that has been around and working for 50 years….People want an experience – an adventure to remember. Pop up events. cross pollination. Imagination fire and ice. Energy that draws down deep and evokes our collective memories from the past that have a certain meaning.
“The show visitor/buyer used to be the ‘audience” based on the ‘if you show something cool, they will come,’” noted Veronika Miller of Modenus, founder of BlogTour, an innovative new model for brands to bring customers together. She continues:
“Trade shows are still important but organizers and exhibitors need to understand that what once was captive audience that was easily wowed…has likely seen the product prior to the show, thanks to something we like to call the “Internet” and may even have some brand/product knowledge already. This means the show has to transition from presentation to interaction and from demonstration to conversation.”
Does this sound like the death of trade shows? Hardly. This same Facebook group notes the power of European trade shows, echoing our POV after attending ISH last March.
Designer #1: All of the larger booths at shows such as ISH, IMM, Cersaie, Salone, etc., have cafes in them. Those booths invite people in to linger, have a cocktail or a snack or what have you and in the process of lingering, the lingerers become a captive audience. They also enjoy themselves and equate fun with the brand that treated them to a sandwich and a glass of wine.
Full disclosure: I worked on the KBIS brand during my tenure at NKBA and it’s a personal passion for me to get this show going again.
In the meantime, I’m going to check out Coverings this year. Kitchen & bath designer and social media pro Paul Anater says to observe the mini villages set up by the Italian and Spanish trade consortia. The Italian pavilion is always set up around a large cafe and they serve breakfast and lunch. The Spanish pavilion is always set up around an amphitheater with seating for at least 50. Paul notes that the ROI of these niceties is selling Italian and Spanish tile by the container full.
I’d also love to see more folks experience BlogTour. Check out the ROI on that.
Let there be fun!
- Jan
- 6
Posted on January 6, 2012 by John OReilly
This entry is Part 2 of our look at the fundamentals of staging effective media tours. View Part 1 here. Below is a slideshow of images from a recent media tour for Uponor in Chicago.
Fundamental #2: Have something to show. Visual aids are a must and typically take the form of a PowerPoint presentation. I can hear you suppressing a yawn, but a slide show has solid practical value in holding the editors’ attention, while making what you say more concrete and therefore more memorable—especially if your slide show is part of your leave-behind. (More on that in a bit.)
In creating the PowerPoint or whatever tools you prefer, don’t shortchange the visual imagery. The editors may not read along as you move from slide to slide. But strong pictorial elements, especially of product components, cutaways, schematics, graphs, tables, flow charts and the like will help make your words resonate. And your audience won’t fail to appreciate the care you have taken in crafting your presentation.
The only communications aid better than an image or an illustration is the thing itself. If possible, bring actual products or components, so that the editors can see and touch that special new finish or unique functionality first-hand. The hands-on approach will generate more interest, more questions and more enthusiasm for whatever you are presenting.
On my most recent media tour, the client highlighted his company’s proprietary method for making pipe connections, which can seem a rather mundane affair when left solely to verbal descriptions. Step-by-step graphics are better, but how about actually making a connection right there in front of the editors? That’s what my client did, and his rather quick and simple demo made a solidly positive impression on each group of editors. When one asked to do a connection himself, it was easily one of the highlights of that session. What better way to persuade an editor of the value of your product or system?
Fundamental #3: Have something to leave behind. While building relationships is the primary benefit of a media tour, clients understandably expect a more tangible payoff in the form of actual publicity. The surest way to make that happen is to create a press kit dedicated solely to the meeting or media tour. Also, be sure to bring enough copies so that all attendees can have one if they wish.
This kit should contain press materials relating to your presentation, including news releases and photography of new and recently introduced products. But you might also want to include relevant case studies, white papers, product brochures, as well as your PowerPoint presentation and a corporate backgrounder that the editors can keep on file for future reference. Anything that adds to their understanding of your company and its mission is of potential interest.
That may sound like information overload, which is why I strongly recommend making the kit electronic: Editors will accept paper kits, but they love the easy portability and “file-ability” of a disc and, best of all, a flash drive. Do not miss this opportunity to impress the press. The fastest way to an editor’s heart—and to the pages of his or her publication—is to make the job of using your materials easier.
Fundamental #4: Find converging interests. Generating more publicity for the brand is at the top of the wish lists of most marketers, regardless of the state of the economy or the market. Meanwhile, editors find themselves constantly scrambling for information and ideas to meet the relentless content requirements of their proliferating communications outlets, print and online.
One of the best ways to discover where exactly your mutual interests converge is through a face-to-face dialogue with the editors. Trade shows and other venues offer numerous occasions for such meetings, but except for a tour of your own factory, none matches the effectiveness of a “deskside” get-together for building relationships and identifying ways to meet editor interests and needs.
- Jan
- 5
Posted on January 5, 2012 by John OReilly
Recently, I completed one of my favorite activities as a public relations professional: a three-day “media tour,” in which I accompanied one of our manufacturer-clients in a series of face-to-face meetings with the editor staffs of roughly a dozen trade magazines at their Chicago-area offices.
As a former trade-pub editor myself, I enjoy connecting with my old colleagues on their home turf in a relaxed and friendly setting. (Meeting with trade and consumer media in other major publishing centers for our building and architectural products field, such as New York, Washington and Des Moines, is a lot of fun, too.)
But the true beneficiaries—and properly so—are our clients and the editors themselves, who use these occasions to gain a better understanding of one another’s interests and needs on their way to forging deeper and more productive relationships.
Each media-tour meeting, which typically runs sixty to ninety minutes, merits its own approach, depending on the editor, the client and the season. But there are certain fundamentals for any get-together that will ensure success both during the meeting and in its aftermath. Pay close attention to these basics and, when all is said and done, you’ll have zero doubts about the value of the experience.
Fundamental #1: Have something to say. It’s not enough to just show up and plop down for a little coffee and chit-chat: This isn’t a chance encounter at a trade show. Editors are routinely cordial to their guests, but they will expect the meeting to have a specific intent, enabling them to learn things they don’t already know. Without a worthwhile agenda, you’ll likely have a hard time even getting on their schedules.
Previewing a new product is a great way to anchor a media tour: An editor’s main mission is to report on “what’s new,” so your audience will welcome an in-depth look at your latest offering. This approach is also a great way to generate a quick and tangible payoff on your meeting in the form of coverage of your new product in an upcoming issue.
But editors are also on the prowl for content that is more general and not-so-brand-centric in scope. They need “big ideas” they can readily translate into feature stories, in line with their published editorial calendars.
So, in addition to announcing your newest product and what makes it so special, put all those messages in the context of the industry zeitgeist: Why this particular product at this particular time for this particular audience? What needs does it meet? How does it fit in with the general direction of the market? How does it differ from what came before?
What’s more, those questions need not be confined to a new product. Editors will generally welcome your POV on the overall industry (or at least your product category): where it’s been, where it’s headed and why, and how you are adjusting your strategies in response.
This type of big-picture presentation will deliver compelling ideas around which editors can build their own trends stories. And when they finally get around to writing such a story, guess whom they are most likely to contact for further insights and information?
Check back tomorrow for three more fundamental elements of a successful media tour, as well as a gallery of images from a recent tour for Uponor.
