Articles

Have you ever heard someone say 'It must be true!I saw it in print!' Just one good article in a decent magazine can do more for the marketing destiny of your product than several back-to-back ad campaigns.

Why? Because America loves magazines. This can be seen by simply looking at the facts. Oxford Communications said that in 2006 alone, there was 22,106 magazines in over 310 categories. That means there were 308 specific topics of interest that Americansactually, people all over the worldloved to read about last year.

Are We Overdosing on Ads?

Marsha Friedman, Managing Director of Event Management Services, a national publicity firm focusing on obtaining media attention for their clients says, " In virtually all of those 22,106 magazines, there were both ads and articles." It's true, many readers do respond to these ads, mainly because they relate to the content of the magazine. Butand here's the big problem with advertisingsince we're absolutely bombarded with ads every single day, it's just hard to focus on them. Fordham University recently did a study on advertising!here is their findings:

Advertising is the most pervasive element of the marketing mix: the average family in the United States of 4 is exposed to 1,500 advertising messages and a daily basis !'

Now that is quite a lot of advertising messages. Marsha Friedman adds, "Every day, each of us see anywhere from 300-400 ads a day, like it or not. And because, most of the time, we don't like it, our wonderful brains screen this promotional onslaught to, essentially, safeguard our sanity. As weird as it may sound, we are exposed to hundreds of ads every day that we don't even see!"

Aside from advertising, let's take a look at articles and how they can positively affect your public relations campaign.

Marsha Friedman says, "The people who actually regularly purchase those 22,106 publications want hot, informative content on their top topics. This is an example of when articles can really work and hit the market. And readers tend to accept the information presented in them without question!because it's as if the magazines are actually endorsing the articles' content."

"Let me give you a good example of their sheer profit power" , says Friedman. "In the very early days of my career, I worked as the director of sales and marketing for a money manager. I generated leads and brought in big money clients."

"A journalist from The Robb Report contacted me one day about doing a show on money managers, like my boss. While talking with my boss, the reporter discovered that he lived in the 90210 Zip Code (this was during the height of that popular TV show) drove a brand new Mercedes and was married to a famous actress. That apparently was enough to land a lengthy feature story inside the magazine with his picture (alongside his Mercedes) plastered on the magazine cover!"

Friedman continues, "And then the story came out. The phones were ringing off of the hook! The orders just flooded in!" It was amazing how we went from 20 to 50 million dollars in such an amazingly short time!"

How many ads would it have taken to get him from $20 million to $50 million? Maybe the better question is, could ads have even done the job?If you would like to learn more about gaining media attention for your company, product or service, without the financial burden of monthly retainers, Friedman would love to help. Feel free to contact her directly at mfriedman@emsincorporated.com or visit her firm online at http://www.emsincorporated.com. As a PR expert Friedman has the ability to get the media attention that you desire without monthly retainers .

Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations for nearly two decades as CEO of Event Management Services, Inc (EMSI). If you would like to receive her free Ebook "How to Be a Great Talk Radio Guest" visit http://www.emsincorporated.com.