Technology vendors often contribute bylined articles
to trade journals. The articles are great exposure for these companies
but they don't come cheap - the trades rarely pay for these articles
but the vendors spend time and resources to assign pieces, write
them, approve them and submit them. Your PR agency can help your
clients leverage their investment by wringing top value out of these
articles. Here are some possibilities:
Reprints
White papers
Product briefs
Booklets
Speech outline and handouts
Reprints
It's pretty galling to contribute a byline to a publication, only
to turn around and spend major bucks for reprint rights. But reprints
are good things: they significantly increase your client's exposure
to the market. Make sure you use the reprints anywhere you can,
including press kits, presentation handouts and conference take-aways.
Post them on your site too. Even if you haven't paid for electronic
rights you can probably link to the publication's URL, assuming
they've posted your article online. (It doesn't hurt to ask.) If
you've got digital reprint rights and are posting the scanned article
on your client's site, use at least 300 DPI for a decent resolution.
You can also create a .PDF file and use that for posting and downloading.
White Paper
Please don't use the published article as is for a white paper --
even if you retain all rights it's shamelessly self-plagiarizing,
and if the publication retains all rights it's rather criminal.
However, you can use the article text to form the technology section
of a white paper. Edit for length as necessary and re-work the text
to emphasize your client's product and technology take. Then add
white paper elements like a beginning executive summary and a problem
statement. Follow these with your technology section, then add details
on how your client's product will solve the problem, a customer
case study, and a conclusion on how great the product is. (You can
always switch the order by writing a white paper first, then editing
the technology section into a bylined trade journal article.)
Product Briefs
The article can serve as a great basis for expanded product briefs
- say the front and back of an 8-1/2x11, or a longer technical brochure.
Edit the article for length and jazz up the text, and you've got
a solid technology basis for the marketing document. (Good marcom
can explain what a NAS gateway is, but not by yammering about "enterprise-wide
intelligent data management portals." Puts readers right to
sleep.)
Booklets
One of the best press kits I ever saw included a sharp and informative
booklet on the vendor's technology. The booklet explained the general
technology's development and background, presented the vendor's
product, and listed clear customer advantages. It impressed both
journalists and customers in a way a press release or even a white
paper wouldn't have done. Booklets are labor-intensive, so use your
trade journal article as the basis for writing your own.
Speech Outline and Handouts
Use existing articles as the basis for client speeches and presentations.
Since trade journal articles are usually vendor-neutral, they'll
work as-is for similar talks. When the presentation is about a product
you can still use the article outline for the background technology
and analysis then add product details, customer case studies, and
Q&A's. You can use article reprints as a handout, or turn the
outline into speaker's notes and use that instead.
If your client gulps at the cost of developing a
trade journal article, don't leave them gasping for breath - list
all the ways they can leverage it to increase market exposure and
profits.
The
Christine Taylor Company
P.O. Box 3499
Wrightwood, CA 92397
