Contributed Content - Articles and Case Studies
What is This Section About?
This section is all about contributed content in all its forms, how to determine which form works best for the occasion, and how to bring a contributed article from start to finish.
Why is This Section Important?
Contributed articles are a vital tool in public relations because they supplement other types of editorial coverage. Contributed articles allow clients to strictly control the messaging, content and (to some degree) the length of the resulting published piece. Although they cannot overtly promote a product or technology, they speak to higher concerns of readers and at the same time help the client to show industry leadership.
Types of Articles
Any article that Trainer contributes to the media on behalf of a client is a “contributed article” – no matter what form it takes – a how-to, industry overview, technical article, customer case study, or opinion editorial (op-ed). Each form is appropriate for different circumstances, whether because the editor has specific requirements or Trainer thinks it can best serve the client by going one route and not the others.
This document describes the process for getting your article published. As for the finer points of execution, those will come with experience.
Here are five types of contributed articles:
Which Type of Article Works Best?
The nature of the challenge should suggest the best approach. Let’s say your client is pursuing a contrarian approach to popularizing a technology. Should you recommend a technical article? Well, ask yourself if getting readers to understand the technology would suggest that they ought to adopt it. If so, recommend a technical article. But if readers first need to understand why your client would even suggest a polar-opposite approach to the prevailing approach in the market, an op-ed would probably make more sense.
Where Should You Place a Contributed Article?
The guiding principle here is to know what your client’s customers read in their daily work. Here’s a scenario to consider. Your client develops application software that can be used by insurance companies. Ask yourself this: who will use the software? If the users are insurance agents and they would use an application like your client’s, what do they read? Clearly, they read insurance industry publications. But what if this software would be adopted by insurance companies only if their IT departments would be required to approve the software first? Then you need to know what IT department staffers read. They may read Insurance Industry Weekly, but their “go to” publication may be an IT publication such as eWEEK, Computerworld, or InformationWeek – where they can keep abreast of changes in their profession and improve their skills and employability.
Most importantly, you need to think through the trade-offs so that you can make an informed recommendation to your client.
How Do You Secure Agreement from an Editor to Place Your Contributed Article?
There is a simple, almost fool-proof process for getting an agreement from an editor to accept and publish your article. Several things can go wrong, but they usually don’t: the editor could leave the publication, or you could deliver an article that doesn’t meet the editor’s requirements. For the former scenario, there are no guarantees. For the latter scenario, the chances are 20-to-1 that the editor will accept the article if you deliver what you promised you would deliver!
Procedure for Placing a Contributed Article
Here is how to successfully place a contributed article and see it through to publication:
This section is all about contributed content in all its forms, how to determine which form works best for the occasion, and how to bring a contributed article from start to finish.
Why is This Section Important?
Contributed articles are a vital tool in public relations because they supplement other types of editorial coverage. Contributed articles allow clients to strictly control the messaging, content and (to some degree) the length of the resulting published piece. Although they cannot overtly promote a product or technology, they speak to higher concerns of readers and at the same time help the client to show industry leadership.
Types of Articles
Any article that Trainer contributes to the media on behalf of a client is a “contributed article” – no matter what form it takes – a how-to, industry overview, technical article, customer case study, or opinion editorial (op-ed). Each form is appropriate for different circumstances, whether because the editor has specific requirements or Trainer thinks it can best serve the client by going one route and not the others.
This document describes the process for getting your article published. As for the finer points of execution, those will come with experience.
Here are five types of contributed articles:
- How-to article. This is an article explaining a process for achieving something, such as building a wireless network
- Industry overview. This is an article that provides a view of a particular industry segment. It may focus on the history of the industry, growth, challenges, user needs, or projections.
- Technical article. This is an article that explains a technology. Depending on the complexity of the technology or depth of the discussion, it could provide a micro-level (very technical) or macro-level (less technical) view of the technology.
- Customer case study. This is narrative on how a customer has used a client’s product or service to achieve desired goals. It may be very deep and detailed, or it may be a very high-level view. In any case, it is designed to demonstrate the customer’s success with the product or service.
- Op-ed. This is an article that takes a position on, typically, an industry issue, and is designed to prescribe a solution to the issue, or at least to detail the challenges.
Which Type of Article Works Best?
The nature of the challenge should suggest the best approach. Let’s say your client is pursuing a contrarian approach to popularizing a technology. Should you recommend a technical article? Well, ask yourself if getting readers to understand the technology would suggest that they ought to adopt it. If so, recommend a technical article. But if readers first need to understand why your client would even suggest a polar-opposite approach to the prevailing approach in the market, an op-ed would probably make more sense.
Where Should You Place a Contributed Article?
The guiding principle here is to know what your client’s customers read in their daily work. Here’s a scenario to consider. Your client develops application software that can be used by insurance companies. Ask yourself this: who will use the software? If the users are insurance agents and they would use an application like your client’s, what do they read? Clearly, they read insurance industry publications. But what if this software would be adopted by insurance companies only if their IT departments would be required to approve the software first? Then you need to know what IT department staffers read. They may read Insurance Industry Weekly, but their “go to” publication may be an IT publication such as eWEEK, Computerworld, or InformationWeek – where they can keep abreast of changes in their profession and improve their skills and employability.
Most importantly, you need to think through the trade-offs so that you can make an informed recommendation to your client.
How Do You Secure Agreement from an Editor to Place Your Contributed Article?
There is a simple, almost fool-proof process for getting an agreement from an editor to accept and publish your article. Several things can go wrong, but they usually don’t: the editor could leave the publication, or you could deliver an article that doesn’t meet the editor’s requirements. For the former scenario, there are no guarantees. For the latter scenario, the chances are 20-to-1 that the editor will accept the article if you deliver what you promised you would deliver!
Procedure for Placing a Contributed Article
Here is how to successfully place a contributed article and see it through to publication:
- Research and select a publication that accepts contributed articles.
- Find the editor who is responsible for making decisions on contributed articles.
- Pitch the editor. State the topic of the article and explain what the reader will learn from it. If the editor agrees in concept, tell him/her that you would like you to submit an outline of the article initially for approval. On agreement, give the editor a commitment date for the outline.
- Ask the editor for writer’s guidelines for contributed articles.
- Upon receiving the writer’s guidelines, size up the opportunity and present it to the client. Be sure to explain what form the article will take, and explain your recommendation.
- With agreement by the client, develop the outline and submit it to the editor. It should indicate the main contents of the article and indicate how the article will flow. It should also include a proposed word count and a recommendation regarding graphics.
- Ask the editor for approval of the outline, with or without edits. Commit to a submission date for the article, and ask the editor for publishing terms. You can assume the editor will not commit to a publishing date until he/she has reviewed the completed manuscript.
- Complete the manuscript. Depending on the depth or technical complexity of the topic, determine how you will involve the client: you will either interview the client, research the topic and write the manuscript on your own, job the research and writing out to a contractor, or ask the client to provide written content for each outline point. (Note: the terms of our plan with the client may state Trainer’s deliverables in detail.)
- Complete the manuscript and submit it to the editor. Ask the editor for confirmation of receipt and tell the editor when you will check back regarding the editor’s approval.
- Check back with the editor, get approval and ask when he/she expects the article will run. Be prepared to make minor changes or updates as required by the editor. Note: as stated earlier, because you got the editor’s approval of the outline and ensured that the manuscript was objective-sounding and not overtly promotional, there were few ways to go wrong.
- Follow the article through publication. At this point in the process, the article should publish on schedule as long as you have the continued backing of the editor.