When we publish articles in trade publication, we can save you up to $6,200 making it one of the most cost effective and powerful ways to market your products and services.
Don’t believe me? Let’s do the math.
Let’s say you are a manufacturing client of ours. You ask us to prepare a 1,200-word article and have it published in a major trade publication. In print, the article covers about two pages. After printing, the same article goes online, where it may stay posted for years.
Our charge for writing the article and arranging publication is about $800.
Now, let’s say instead of a two-page article, you decide to place a two-page advertisement in that same publication. With many trade publications, this costs about $3,000 per page, making the total charge about $6,000.
To complement their advertisements, many advertisers also place banner ads on a publication’s website, in newsletters, and elsewhere. These can run about $1,000 per month.
Now, let’s look at what all this is costing.
Advertising
• Two-page ad: $6,000
• Banner ad for one month: $1,000
• Total advertising costs: $7,000
Publish articles
• Our costs: $800
• Posting the article online: No charge (the article now belongs to the publication)
• Total costs: $800
Total savings: $6,200
But, wait, there’s more cost savings with published articles
Understanding the product. Many manufacturers come to us because the value of their products and services cannot be explained in an advertisement. They require the in-depth discussion of an article. As a result, an ad could be a waste of money.
Three, six, nine. At one time, it was estimated that it took three advertisements to determine if an ad was working. Then it went to six. Today, an ad may need as many as nine placements before it can be determined if the ad is proving beneficial. In the scenario above, this means as much as $54,000 would need to be paid just to see if that two-page ad works.
Dividends. Once published, articles can be added to the manufacturer’s website and posted on social media sites to extend its life. Now it’s getting more attention and paying dividends.
Just the beginning. Very often, editors with other publications come to us, having read one of our articles and asking if a similar topic could be discussed in their publication. This is when the PR/communications steam engine kicks in. PR is cumulative. It starts slowly and then builds up steam, with the client’s sales increasing along the way.
