Trade Media Advice

Trade, industry and professional journals offer a great way of building your reputation with partners, funders, clients, users, suppliers, investors and prospective employees. Contact the Campaign if you wish to explore inclusion in one of CfL's sector specific PR campaigns. Or refer to our quick tips guide below to help raise your organisations profile within your industry or sector throughout the year.

• Know your media - Read the titles before you contact them. What issues do they cover, what features do they run? Which section does your story fit into? Who is the best person for you to contact? When is the magazine printed, does it fall within your time scale.
• Deadlines! - Know when they need stories by (copy deadline) and when they go to print (print deadline). You will need to get all information to them in good time before the copy deadline and you should never try and contact a journalist on either date.
• Forward features - Find out in advance what they are planning to feature in the coming months. Visit the publications website or call the publication directly. Try and angle your organisation's story so it's a good fit with planned features or specials.
• It's good to talk. It's even better to be prepared before making the call to a journalist or following up your press release. A good first question to ask is: "Is this a good time for you to talk?"
• Think ahead - Many trade publications have lead times of several months. You may need to have your case study or press release ready in March for a May issue. Start planning now so you don't miss out on any feature opportunities.