The Power of Trade Coverage and Why National Media Isn’t Always the Answer

Businesses invest in PR to increase awareness of their products and services. While the exposure is great, in the end, it all comes down to new business leads. That being said, the value of media coverage doesn’t always lie where one may think.

When you think of amplifying exposure for your company, which media outlets come to mind?

If you answered Forbes, The New York Times, Fortune, Inc., Entrepreneur, or any other national media outlet, you’re not wrong. However, while big name outlets can be exciting and valuable, they may be the wrong place to start if you’re looking to drive new leads to your business, especially if your focus is B2B.

The right PR partner will ask you first and foremost – who is your audience? They will then ask themselves – what are these decision makers reading?

The Endless World of Industry Trades

If you are a food and beverage company, you’re likely targeting grocers. And chances are those grocer CEOs are not taking a deep dive into The New York Times every day. Instead, they are browsing online at Grocery Dive. They subscribe to Winsight Grocery Business’s weekly newsletter. They are flipping through the latest issue of Progressive Grocer that’s sitting on their desk. Grocery trades are where they are getting their news, keeping up on the latest industry trends and reading about best practices for their business. These are the outlets this food and beverage company needs to get in front of to drive leads.

Trade media targets consumers and decision makers who work in a particular industry. There are trades for nearly every industry, and they can range from broad subjects to niche focus areas.

For example, there are construction trades that highlight the industry as a whole – like Construction Dive, Construction Business Owner and Construction Today – but there are also trade publications that cater to niche services within the construction industry. Let’s take a company that focuses on metal building products, for example. There are trades such as Metal Construction News and Design and Build with Metal that speak specifically to these audiences.

Proven Results

Uproar has years of experience targeting, pitching and building relationships with trade reporters.

When one of our B2B tech clients in the eyesight space came to Uproar looking to increase new leads at an upcoming trade show, one of the first things the team did was reach out to event organizers to get an attending media list and built an all-encompassing list of relevant trade contacts for that client. The outreach resulted in a feature article in a trade magazine prior to the trade show. From that coverage, the client generated three new consumer leads for the product as well as B2B interest from an optometrist seeking to partner.

Additionally, Uproar introduced a name brand European-based provider of temperature controlled solutions to the U.S. market, targeting relevant supply chain, pharmaceutical, food and beverage and disaster relief outlets. The relationships that Uproar has established over the years with these reporters helped make the launch successful. The 12 pieces of trade media coverage drove a massive spike in their social media following and generated additional inbound leads from new potential customers.

While the thought of national media coverage is enticing, it is important to consider the value of coverage and which publications will generate the most leads for your business.