I’ve been getting a fair number of phone calls and emails lately from distributors who are looking for ways they can get themselves or their companies interviewed in PM one way or another. This is awesome and wonderful and I’m glad so many people have been excited about our magazine, but it’s also made me realize that information about distributor press opportunities in our magazine isn’t something that is readily available on our site. I’ll look into figuring out a permanent solution to that in the future, but in the short-term, here is a quick rundown of what exactly we have to offer in terms of press opportunities for distributors:
MY BEST PROMOTION
If you aren’t familiar, My Best Promotion is a column we run every month detailing a favorite promotion of a given distributor (You can see online examples of the article here and here). It runs as a pretty straightforward Q&A and usually doesn’t require much more than a 10-minute phone interview on your part. I currently write all of our My Best Promotions, and I always need sources since the article runs monthly. Call me at my office at 215-238-5449 or email at [email protected] for a list of questions and other details.
HEADLINES AND THREADS:
If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely you’re more than familiar with both of our newsletters. Just for the sake of spelling out every press opportunity however, I will say that along with supplier and relevant world news, we do print distributor press releases and news stories. All press releases should be submitted to our senior online editor Kyle Richardson at [email protected]. And yes, unless it’s absolutely Earth-obliterating news, you will have to write your own press piece. It’s difficult to express the time investment required to produce a daily newsletter, but let’s just say that it involves more bloodshed and bitter promises of revenge than can be measured by modern numerical systems. Please indulge our private war against time and submit your own news piece if possible.
MARKETING FEATURES:
These articles differ from our normal feature in that they’re less about specific product categories (pens, sweatshirts) and more about markets (education, bars and restaurants). Not always, but very often we like to have distributor perspective on such articles since that’s who often knows the subject in question best (as opposed to a topic like product safety or the latest technical advances in drinkware, where a supplier source is often more than fine). If you feel you have a strong understanding of a specific market you would like to talk about, please contact me. We’ll go over Promo Marketing’s article calendar for the year and see if there are any spots where we might be able to fit you in. Just remember that I do not write every article for the magazine, nor do I dictate who our writers do and do not interview. That decision is up to each writer and ultimately our editorial director Nichole Stella, so being interviewed for a story is never a guarantee.
OUR ANNUAL TOP DISTRIBUTORS LIST
Every May we print a list of the 50 highest-earning distributors in the industry. The bottom cuttoff is usually around eight or nine million in yearly earnings off promotional products exclusively. If you would like to be considered for the list, keep an eye on our Headlines newsletter for an entry form around early April, or email me so I can add your company to our internal top-distributors e-blast list. Along with a chance to place on the list, we do typically interview a selection of companies placing within the top 50.
This is basically it for our distributor press opportunities. Thanks for putting up with the long post everyone! I know it’s sort of dull-city, but it is info that a lot of people have been asking for lately.
Until next week!
MONDAY MIKE FACT: I’m writing this post on a Friday afternoon, specifically a Friday afternoon where I’ve had entirely too many Fresh Beginnings jelly beans.
