The trade press (let’s call it B2B media – ‘press’ is too limited a term) serves an important purpose. It’s both earpiece and mouthpiece, a gatherer and disseminator of information, an authority on the trends and realities of its business sector. B2B media aims to be impartial, inclusive and broadly informative.
I’ve enjoyed the change of focus. I’m no longer zoomed out, answerable to perhaps 200 or 300 clients (yes, B2B magazines are also answerable to clients) - or, for that matter, to anyone with access to a copy of the mag and an email account. Instead, I’m zoomed in, focused on and answerable to a select few. I spend more time with them than I could before, I’m more intimate with their products, their company values, their customers. I get to see the industry from a different viewpoint.
The relationship between B2B media and marketers continues, of course. The media works with PR and marketing agencies, or with in-house marketing departments, to source and confirm the information it needs. But, if it carries any weight at all, it also picks up its own information, by talking directly to rental companies, designers, technicians, installers, specifiers and clients.
We are swamped with information these days. The once-promised information super-highway has turned up, entwined with it its uninvited alter ego, the misinformation super-sewer. Amid all this noise, B2B media faces the challenge of providing unique content – in-depth interviews, insights, opinions, trends, research and statistics, while trying to raise audiences and/or revenues through digital routes - websites, digital editions, e-marketing, videos and social media.
Similarly, marketers now have access to a broad range of channels for disseminating clients’ messages. In addition to traditional print, we can now spread company news, case studies and interviews using words, photography, audio and video content, via websites, microsites, blogs, forums and, of course, social media. Using the web, dissemination can be immediate.
