PR · Trade press
Trade press for manufacturers: stories editors run and buyers read
Trade press for manufacturers works when the story is useful to the editor's readers: a hard problem, how it was solved, what changed. Your Blueprint is full of them. As part of our industrial PR, we write them up, clear them with the customer, pitch them and make sure each one links to a page with the facts.
What makes a manufacturing story worth an editor's time
A story earns space when it teaches the reader something they can use on their own floor. Trade editors get plenty of announcements. What they're short of is a specific problem with real numbers, told by the person who solved it.
'We added a five-axis machine' is an announcement. 'How we machine a family of titanium brackets in one setup' is a story, and it carries numbers you can stand behind. The test we use is simple: would an engineer at another company forward it to a colleague?
The best ones are already in your Buyers Blueprint: the job nobody else would quote, the process you brought in-house, the failure your product prevents. We find them there, so nothing has to be invented.
What manufacturing trade editors run
Illustrations with invented companies.
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Application stories
A medical OEM needed a burr-free cross hole in 316L tubing. How the supplier did it, with the customer's OK.
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Capability news
A heat treater adds vacuum carburizing, and why that matters to gear makers.
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Technical how-to
A fabricator's engineer on designing weldments that distort less.
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Field lessons
A testing lab on the fatigue-test setup mistakes it sees in parts sent in for qualification.
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Product line news
A distributor's application engineer on choosing hose for a plant switching hydraulic fluids.
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Plant and people
A new cell, a new approval, an apprenticeship that works.
Stories from your record: how we work
Five steps, in this order, for every story.
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Step 1, OP 10
Pull
We find the story in your Blueprint record: the job, the problem, the fix, and the numbers that prove it.
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Step 2, OP 20
Clear
Customer approval in writing, ITAR and controlled technical data checks, and confidentiality, before a word is pitched.
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Step 3, OP 30
Write
In your engineer's words, with numbers you can stand behind. Your engineer signs off on the technical detail.
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Step 4, OP 40
Pitch
To the editors and newsletters your buyers read, chosen from your market intelligence.
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Step 5, OP 50
Link back
Every placement points to the page that proves the story. If that page doesn't exist yet, we build it first.
Questions about trade press for manufacturers
Do you guarantee placements?
No. Editors decide. We pitch what their readers would want to read.
Can we name the customer?
Only with their written OK. Many good stories work with the customer described by industry and part.
Which publications would you pitch?
The ones your buyers read, chosen from your market intelligence. A medical device supplier and a defense machine shop get very different lists.
Do you still write press releases?
When there is real news, such as a new certification or a new facility. Most of the work goes into application stories, because those are what buyers read and forward.
Tell us the job you're proudest of
We'll tell you whether it's a story, and which editors' readers would want it.