Industrial gears and gearboxes
Drives, motors and controls
Motion control
Industrial belts and chain
Servo and automation systems
Fans, blowers and air extraction systems
Safety systems and machine guards
Seals, bearings and linear systems
Lubricants and lubrication
Couplings
Power transmission
Fastening technology and industrial springs
Industrial maintenance
Sensors, test, measurement and encoders
Industrial marking equipment
Machine building
Computing for manufacturing, design software, simulation and analysis
Engineering materials
Injection and rotational moulding
Metal spinning
Machine tools
Condition monitoring
Pumps and valves
Connectors

Public Relations (PR) is the strategic communication between a business and its stakeholders aimed at fostering trust, building greater awareness and enhancing reputation and credibility. These stakeholders have an interest in and can have a significant influence on the operations of and success of a business. They include customers, employees, suppliers and the media etc. These stakeholders are known as 'Publics' and hence the term Public Relations.

In the majority of cases we would recommend issuing regular press releases and writing exclusive feature articles for the relevant engineering publications such as Drives & Controls, Industrial Technology, Design Solutions, DPA, The Engineer, Plant & Works Engineering, Eureka, Factory Equipment, Controls Drives & Automation, Operations Engineer and many others

All press releases and feature articles should then be published in a news section on your web site, and used for email marketing to reach an even wider audience.

There's a mass of information on the internet, but engineers still value printed magazines. The reason why is that information on the internet isn't edited and there's tons of it. A magazine with an editor and an editorial team know their readers and what they're looking for. They pick out all the relevant news and what's new in industry, then effectively gist it to their readers.

A design engineer, would read a design engineering magazine like Eureka, Design Products & Applications (DPA), Industrial Technology or Design Solutions, to name just some. The editors of these magazines will produce editorial content that will bring design engineers up-to-date with all the latest news, innovations and technology likely to be of greatest interest to design engineers.

By turning the pages of a magazine you can bring yourself up-to-date with what's new in industry very quickly. No one could do this just by browsing the web. Of course, most magazines do have on-line versions of their printed journal, but the content is exclusive to them, and either way they're the quickest way for enginers to keep themselves up-to-date.

An engineering magazine is a bit like having your own intelligence service reporting to you regularly on what's new in industry that is most relevant to you.

Most definitely not and PR should not be viewed in that way. Advertising and PR go hand in hand so whatever your budget for marketing communications it should be split between the two, as both are important and play different roles in promoting your business.

The quick answer, in our opinion, is that no you shouldn't. Editorial should free and totally independent of any charges levied on companies submitting press information.

It's only in this way that editors can be free to make decisions on which editorial submissions are likely to be most interesting to their readers. If an editor's hands are tied and is only able to publish paid-for editorial, then effectively they cease to be editors and are more like advertising sales people. Not only that but if only paid-for editorial is published the value of the magazine to readers is significantly diminished.

A magazine should be able to generate enough revenue to cover its own editorial costs. If we submit a press release on behalf of a client we would almost always decline any requests for a fee or colour separation charge.

Generally the only exception to this is advertorials. An advertorial is an advetisement, the chosen content of which is editorial. All magazines have an advertisng/editorial ratio, and advertorials are classed as advertising in this way.

After listening to your objectives and having received your brief on the products or services you wish to advertise we'll produce a range of visual concepts for you to choose from. This will include a headline, and a rough sketch that will indicate the photography that will be required.

Once you've made a choice, we'll handle everything, including all the copywriting and necessary photography. You'll then get to see a proof of the ad for amends and when you're happy we'll produce the artwork correctly sized according the the mechanical specifications of the publications you intend to use. We go through the same process for both digital and in print advertising.

At The Marketing Practice we have a deep understanding of the engineering press and will recommend the best publications for the products or services you're promoting and the audience you're targeting.

If, for example you were promoting a product or service targeting maintenance engineers then we would recommend the publications with a circulation and editorial content that focuses on this job function.

The relevant press can be categorised into four areas. These are: General Engineering, such as The Engineer, Technology Specific, such as Drives & Controls, Job Function Specific, such as Eureka and Plant & Works Engineering, or Industry Specific, such as Food Manufacture and Mining Magazine.

The Marketing practice will recommend the most relevant publications, based on the products or services you're advertising and the target audience you're trying to reach.

The simple answer is nowhere nearly as soon as you think. You might get tired of running the same ad repeatedly but your target market won't have seen it nearly as often as you might think.

Reaership research has shown us that if you run the same ad in the best read magazine in every issue (12 times a year) on average only just over 50% of readers will have seen it at least once.

As long as your ad is communicating a message still relevant to your business and marketing strategy we wouldn't recommend changing your ads more than once every couple of years or so. That doesn't mean you shouldn't produce new advertising for different purposes. It just means that as long as your products, marketing strategy and priorities don't change, each ad should have a shelf life of two to three years. And even longer if you don't run your ads very frequently.

Most business-to-business magazines have what is known as a controlled circulation. Effectively what this means is that the circulation manager will add a reader to the magazine's circulation if they meet the terms of control.

For example, a magazine that is essentially for maintenance engineers, will send regular free copy copies to maintenance engineers. To apply for a regular free copy potential readers must apply either by filling out a reader application form, usually printed within the magazine, or apply online.

In return for getting a regular free copy the potential reader provides a significant amout of information about their job function, their specifying power, and the company they work for, usually by company size and activity. They may then become a registered reader.

It's generally the view, particularly of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), that magazines must renew registration of each reader every three years. A reader who has not reregistered after three years, may no longer be considered a registered reader, and if the magazine continues to send regular free copies, the reader can no longer be counted as part of the magazine's controlled circulation.

Magazines should be able to show their total circulation and what part of it is controlled and what part not controlled or free. Reregistering readers is a big job and some magazines don't do it. Also, some new or smaller magazines may buy mailing lists, often from exhibition organisers, and send out free, unrequested copies to boost their circulation figures.

Generally the best magazines are the ones with the highest percentage of requested readers, and ideally would have an ABC Certificate of circulation. This is essentially an audit of the magazine's circulation by the ABC and is the publishing industry's quality assurance standard.

The time this takes and the cost involved is a deterrant to many small business-to-business magazines. In this case we would still look closely at the publisher's analysis of circulation and look for the percentage of registered readers.

The Marketing Practice works with a creative team of photographers with a well equiped studio and all the latest cameras and photographic equipment. We can provide both studio and on-location photography, depending on your requirements, for advertising, PR, brochures, exhibitions and your own web site.

We work with various independent graphic design teams so we can meet your needs in the most cost effective way. Think of it this way. If all you wanted was new letterhead and business cards designed, we'll keep costs down by using a design team perfectly qualified to do the job. However, if you're looking for a totally new corporate identity that reflects a future vision of your company we'll work with the most creative minds to create stunning concepts that reflect your vision.

Renold Chain

Renold Gears

Renold Hi-Tec Couplings

Renold Clutches & Couplings

SEW Eurodrive

Motor Technology

Edward Pryor & Son

Tom Parker

Ondrives

Rino Industries

INA Bearings (Schaeffler)

Wilde & Partners

National Agency for Finite Element Methods and Standards (NAFEMS)

Occupational Medical

Fibreforce Composites

Nadella UK

UPG