Construction Marketing Ideas

The Art of Publicity

This Contractortalk.com forum posting on press releases (originally started some months ago but refreshed recently) shows the diversity of perspectives and approaches to media publicity -- and the great untapped opportunities here for general and subcontractors, and suppliers.

I especially appreciated the posting on page 2 which showed that selectively placed publicity in smaller media -- sometimes where the advertising and editorial 'boundaries' are not strictly observed -- can prove to be profitable; leading the contractor, in this case, to think of starting his own informative publication -- and selling some advertising to non-competing businesses.

The basis of our business, in fact, are advertising features; stories written about businesses and projects, and generally supported by their advertisers. Of course, we publish independent editorial content and announcements (especially community service publicity) without any advertising requirements.

But I am always concerned about delivering value to our advertisers -- the companies that place support advertisements in their clients' features. Sometimes the best approach is to write a similar feature about the advertising company in a future issue; but often this approach is not the best, so we need to figure out other alternatives. I'm a firm believer in providing real value for our clients -- $265, $485 or more for a single ad is plenty of money, so part of the service is frank and customized consultation on the best methods of achieving objectives -- and often publicity in other media is the way to go.

Press releases, blogs, online newsletters, and the like all can work really well, often in conjunction with each other. The trouble is, what works once might not work the second time; despite some basic principals, there are issues of reliability and predictability here. Nevertheless, if you have a choice of spending $50,000 on advertising or $50,000 on editorial/publicity services, go for the latter. You'll get far more results for your investment.

If you would like a copy of my Art of Publicity report, email buckshon@constructionnrgroup.com.