Pitching trade journalists is just as important as targeting those at national publications especially in B2B PR.
The Panorama episode about the Post Office scandal is both heartbreaking and eye opening. What I hadn’t realised before watching the episode was that the initial story was broken by trade publication Computer Weekly and the first piece written by Rebecca Thomson. So congratulations to her and the team there on bringing such an important issue to light.
But I also think there’s a lesson here for any business wanting positive tech PR coverage. Especially those who might not consider a trade publication a PR win compared with a national.
Don’t get me wrong, I love getting national coverage for clients, but if any potential client said to me they only wanted national coverage and weren’t interested in trade press, there’s a few things I’d remind them of:
1) A trade journalist is likely to understand your sector far better than a national, so you can usually expect more detailed coverage. Especially important in a sector like tech where people who live and breathe it understand the nuance and will just ‘get it’ when it comes to explaining how your platform fits into the mix and works.
2) Your customers. Does your buyer turn to the FT when they’re thinking about a new platform to add to their tech stack? The audience might be smaller but it’s probably a highly engaged and relevant one.
3) A lot of national journalists read trade press so your story (hopefully a positive one that a PR worked on and not something negative) could get picked up by a national. (I often make this point with regional TV versus national TV).
4) Trade publications can be an entry point in someone’s journalism career and many often go on to work at national publications. Damaging any relationships with a journalist at a trade publication isn’t going to help you in the future.
Ultimately though, regardless of where people work you should always aim to be helpful and polite. Recently I saw a journalist post that she reached out to a potential case study only to be rudely spoken back to as they didn’t want to take part. Manners cost nothing but maybe that’s a post for another time.
It’s important to remember that any good B2B PR programme will have a mix of national and trade coverage. You can find out more about our work here.
If you liked this blog post, do take a look at our tech resources page here.