Article on Lightning Protection Published

Jennifer Morgan and I have co-authored "Lightning Protection and the Building Envelope" in the August 2015 issue of Construction Specifier. The article provides architects with authoritative guidance to integrating lightning protection into their designs, a topic not discussed in the existing literature on lightning protection. The article can be read at www.kenilworth.com/publications/cs/de/201508/files/10.html.

Consultant to East Coast Lightning Protection

Morgan is Secretary/Treasure of East Coast Lightning Protection, Inc. (www.ECLE.biz), the leading manufacturer of lightning protection products in the U.S. Her firm has retained me as its architectural and marketing consultant. In a recent press release,  Morgan, explains, “Chusid is helping us educate architects and builders about the importance of lightning protection. He is widely recognized as an authority in building materials and for his effectiveness in explaining technical issues to the design and construction communities.”

Since most lightning protection installers are small businesses, Morgan believes, “Chusid's effort to educate designers will be good for the entire lightning protection industry and will provide our customers with promotional resources to use in their own regions.”

I am pleased to be working with ECLE. The risks of damage due to lightning have increased as a result of climate change and the widespread use of digital electronics in buildings. It is important for architects to realize that lightning protection should be an intrinsic part of designing a high performance building envelope. ECLE is taking leadership to collaborate with designers and develop lightning protection schemes that are compatible with contemporary architectural styles.

Trends in Cold-Formed Steel

The cover story for the 2015-February issue of Construction Specifier is co-authored by Michael Chusid. It discusses recent developments in cold-formed steel in construction.  It can be viewed online.

The Problem with Communication

“The single biggest problem in communication is 

the illusion that it has taken place.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Writing Captions

The Frank Gehry-designed bandshell in Chicago's Millennium Park provides an exciting visual anchor to the end of East Washington Street. Without this caption, however, you might not have recognized the view nor known what I felt about it. (©Michael Chusid 2011)

Writing captions for a magazine article or internet posting is an art. Here are some guidelines: 

Captions Sell the Article: The typical magazine reader flip through an issue to see what captures the eye. If a photo or illustration captures attention, the viewer is then likely to read the caption. If the caption conveys useful or intriguing information, the reader may decide to read the rest of article. 

Captions Summarize Article: Use illustrations and captions to summarize the article. That way, the reader gets useful information -- and you get your point across -- even if the reader does not read the body of the article.

Tell a Story with Captions: A caption should do more than just identify the content of an image. It has the opportunity to tell a story. Even a short caption can explain who, what, when, where, how, and why.

Caption Stands Alone: To the extent practical, a caption should be able to stand alone so the meaning of the photo is understood even before someone reads the article. This means, for example, that abbreviations and jargon should avoided in the caption, or at least succinctly explained.

Search Engines Like Captions: When writing for the internet, captions help search engines find your illustrations.

Editors like Captions: Editors hold the key to getting your message out. So anything you can do to make the editor's job easier will help you get exposure. I found this to be the case when Carolyn Schierhorn, the former editor of Masonry Construction, expressed her appreciation for an article I contributed: “It was a pleasure to receive an article so well-organized and mechanically flawless that almost no editing was required. That you included detailed, beautifully written captions as well is nothing short of miraculous.”

Finally, remember to include copyright notices and other identifying information required for use of the photo or artwork.

Greenwash On Wheels

It's a hot day in Tarzana, CA (where Chusid Associates has its headquarters) and I just saw a perfect symbol of greenwashing: a black Toyota with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on.

No knock against Toyota or its Prius hybrid.  I'm thinking of the driver.  In this hot climate, what environmentally conscious person buys a heat-absorbing black Prius? 

Someone for whom the purchase is not really a sustainable choice, just a sustainable statement. 

When the weather heats up and she turns on the air conditioning, it becomes pretty obvious to anyone who thinks about it that her sustainability credibility is pretty thin.  Her black Prius is pure greenwash.

Every day, Chusid Associates helps building products manufacturers tell their “green” stories in websites, press releases, magazine articles, sales sheets, data sheets, guide specifications, trade show displays, continuing education, social media and more.  Green has become a major aspect of marketing.  This means that the consumers – in our case, design professionals, contractors, and building owners – have gotten and continue to get more sophisticated.

In the current environment, a green story gets attention, but increasingly, greenwash gets seen through.  Design professionals can smell it.  LEED AP’s are cropping up in every architectural office.  And they care.  Owners and even contractors are starting to know, and they’re starting to care.

Green is not a fad, it’s not going away.  As has been noted here before, it’s becoming standard.  Products that can’t meet the standard will see their markets shrink.

If you have a green story, now is the time to tell it. 

If you don’t know whether you’ve got a green story, now is the time to figure it out (we can help).

If your product has a green problem, now is the time to address it.  There are many avenues to tackling a green problem, and there are experts available.  Get some help, save your product, save the planet.

But don’t waste your time trying to greenwash a black Prius.

Great story about bad specs

CoatingsPro editor Jack Innis tells an insightful and entertaining story about what happens when paint specs go bad.

"...Dave looked up and saw sheets of paint hanging from the structural beams. Bedsheet-sized sections—seven stories up—were fluttering like laundry on a clothesline. Newspaper-sized pieces swirled toward the ground. The parking lot was littered with leaves of paint."

Without giving away too much of the ending, the problem came about because of a poorly advised substitution allowed by loosely written specs. Reading this story reminded me of the importance of helping your clients write strong, substitution-resistant specs, especially if there are known or suspected material interaction issues to consider with your product.

Structures Magazine: New type of Structural Monitoring

Existing jetty is 20m high.

An article written by Chusid Associates appears in the April 2011 issue of Structure Magazine. "Inside Information Through Real Time Dynamic Structural Monitoring" describes work done by our client, STRAAM, to investigate the condition of a jetty at a major harbor. The analysis performed by STRAAM saved the port authority approximately 90% of originally estimated costs by pinpointing where remediation work was required. Download pdf.

While STRAAM's protocols have been under development for thirty years, they are only now being offered as a commercial venture. The authors had to assimilate STRAAM's complex technology in order to be able to explain it in terms that would be meaningful to structural engineers and individuals responsible for managing infrastructure projects.

Industry Optimism About the Construction Market Returns

McGraw Hill Construction posted the following article, brightening the construction market future:

Industry Optimism About the Construction Market Returns

Creating New Words

Construction is a field where new technologies and practices often justify the invention of a new term. As an example, I coined the phrase, "studcast" to describe a new type of wall panel that consisted of a hybrid of prefabricated light-gage steel frame with a thin precast concrete veneer. I offered the term to all the manufacturers of this type of product, and most of them now use it to as a standardized, simple, and descriptive term.

However, some invented terms are unnecessary and can lead to confusion.  A case in point is the recently coined term, "civionics".

I first encountered the term in the article "New civionics technologies for structural health monitoring" in the November 2010 issue of CE News. While the article shares valuable information about the evolving science of structural health monitoring. I question whether the use of the term "civionics" was equally valuable.

The author, Nathan Yang, defines the term as "the synergistic combination of civil engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, photonics, and other disciplines for [structural health monitoring]. This definition suggests that "civionics" is an equivalent term for "structural health monitoring", a field that already encompasses a variety of disciplines. Indeed, electrical and computer engineering are already integrated into the practice of civil engineering. In this case, "civionics" is a word of of questionable value in a field already cluttered with jargon.

A search of the CE News website reviews that "civionic" has not previously been used in the publication. Similarly, a search of the internet reveals that the term has few users -- most of its occurrences on the internet result from one site quoting another. A similar concern has been raised by a commentator on Google Talk who opines, "All of the references describe [civionics] as an emerging field, yet they seem to point in a circular manner as to establishing the notability of this term. Wikipedia is not a place to establish notability. So if this term is not widely used in the engineering field, it should not have an article here." Nor, in my opinion, should notability be established by an oblique reference in a magazine article.

But marketing is marketing, and I note that the author of the CE News article works for a company that sells electronics to the Civil Engineering community. Maybe he feels his company will benefit from embracing new term. How ironic, then, that the term "civionic" does not appear in his website, either.

Flashings for Masonry

While masonry is one of the most ancient ways of building, the techniques used are constantly evolving.  An article written by Chusid Associates in collaboration with our client, Earl Bickett of Mortar Net USA, has just been published in the Construction Specifier, September 2010 issue. It discusses trends in cavity wall flashing.

PR & Social Media Success Story

Here is a great example of how publicity and social media combine to create market awareness and produce leads.

I monitor the online discussion group artconcrete@googlegroups.com on behalf of several clients that are suppliers to this field. The group links artists and artisans from around the world that work at the leading edge of decorative concrete. While the collective buying power for this group is not huge, the members of the group are often at the cutting edge of innovations in concrete.

On July 18, Deborah asked for help:

I know there are issues combining concrete and glass...  I want to set old bottles into bases of concrete. Will I get degradation of the concrete segment that holds the bottle? Is there a additive I can use to eliminate the problem? I do use metakaolin in my mix; will this reduce or cure the issue?

Two days later, Andrew responded:

I found this great article that speaks to the problem and solves it
with metakaolin: http://www.solutions.precast.org/precast-concrete-recycled-glass-tiles-case-study They replace up to 20% of their cement with metakaolin when using all kinds and colours of recycled glass in their concrete.

I wrote the article over six years ago -- a reminder of the enduring value of getting published. At the time, I was a consultant to BASF, producers of MetaMax brand High Reactivity Metakaolin (HRM). The article includes a great case study and explains how HRM makes it practical to use glass in concrete mixtures. The article cites my client's brand names and includes a link to their then current website.*

I have now jumped into the conversation. Even though I explained why Deborah would not need metakaolin for her project**, the online discussion was a chance to reiterate the key benefits of metakaolin and point readers towards my client's product.

My contribution will have high credibility among this online community as one of their own has cited my article as a great resource. This word-of-mouth, peer-to-peer communication is an invaluable addition to a building product marketing communication program.

-------------
* The link is no longer valid.  Companies should periodically search the internet for obsolete links to their website. I suspect that Precast Solution would revise the link on its website if BASF requested it.

** The short technical explanation is that concrete reacts in a self-destructive manner when exposed to crushed glass. The bottles Deborah wants to do not have enough surface area to create the reaction.

Associate part of Construction Specifier Editorial Advisory Board

We are proud to announce that our associate, Vivian Volz, has been appointed a member of the Construction Specifier Editorial Advisory Board by the Construction Specifications Institute.

As a member of the EAB, Vivian will provide peer review for articles in Construction Specifier magazine, recommend editorial direction by identifying trends and concerns in the design and construction industry, and serve as the magazine's ambassador to the industry at large. 

This is a very exciting addition to our team, as we already have a very close relationship with Construction Specifier and will now have even more of an edge that will help us better serve our clients and the building product industry.

Publicity Directory for the A/E/C Industry

The Publicity Directory was conceived as a one-stop resource of the publications that cover the built environment. Now in its 18th edition, the 2010 directory includes over 200 trade magazines, webzines, and regional business publications. It remains the only comprehensive guide to getting published in design and professional industry publications.

The research-based publication – on CD – is market-focused and is published by the Fuessler Group Inc., a Boston-based 25-year-old marketing communications and public relations consulting firm. The markets covered in the directory include education, healthcare, corporate, environmental, real estate, governmental, residential, transportation, design, construction and cultural among others. It is a great tool for marketers who are developing a publicity strategy for their firms and want to know what editors look for.

The benefit of the directory is that firm marketing departments can save hours of time researching information about publications. Each listing includes an editorial calendar, submission requirements, editor preferences and, with the increased focused on web content, each magazine’s on-line content strategy.

Subscribers receive each year’s directory on December 1st and three updates during the year in February, May and August. The directory also includes a section on how to work with the media, and the Publisher Rolf Fuessler, APR, FSMPS is available for free telephone/email consultation on media relations issues and publication strategies.

The cost of the 2010 Directory is $260 for new subscribers. Information on the Publicity Directory, a sample page, and an order form can be viewed on-line at www.fuessler.com/pub.html. The publisher can be reached at 617.522.0550.

Enhanced Online Magazine Edition

I have yet to see an online edition of a print magazine that is easy to read. Sure, digital editions are useful for retrieving specific articles, but my notebook computer's small screen does not duplicate the experience of being able to see an overall layout of a story and focus in on the text or individual elements.

Still, digital editions continue to increase in circulation, and publishers are finding ways to add features to enhance the experience. For example, Interiors & Sources magazines has announced that:

Beginning in April every print issue will also be accompanied by an enhanced digital edition. Ours is not like other digital editions you might be familiar with. We're pushing the envelope. It will include everything from the print issue, with oodles of additional project photos, product information, and other content to give our readers and your customers the sort of design inspiration they desire. Editorial and advertising can be enhanced with video and rich media content. The reader experience will be enhanced and readers will consume the content in the format of their choosing.

Advertisers and publicists need to take note, and be prepared to offer this additional content when submitting an ad or story.

The True Benefits of "Non-proprietary" Articles

The latest e-newsletter from American School & Hospital Facility has an article titled "The True Benefits of Cleaning "Green"".

Cleaning institutional buildings poses many challenges for facility managers. In education and health care buildings, mangers must find safe and effective cleaning solutions, sensitive to the volatile health of their occupants. At the forefront of most managers’ cleaning agendas are needs to improve indoor air quality (IAQ), improve the health of buildings and the people who visit them, and reduce the negative impact to the environment both in the building and beyond. These are demanding objectives for any facility manager and are especially tough today for many who are faced with shrinking budgets. In these unique environments, managers must be armed with cleaners that are:

• Affordable and meet their budget requirements;
• Effective at removing a multitude of stains and dirt;
• Agreeable to their building’s IAQ and the environment.

Good start; sounds promising. Especially since the newsletter itself opened by talking about Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). As I read further, the article quickly came to focus on green cleaning as it applies to carpets. All the specific examples pointed to carpets. The case study discussed carpets. Even the section on reducing injuries discussed only injuries obtained by cleaning and changing carpets.

Looking at the end of the article, I was not surprised to see the piece was written by someone from a carpet cleaner manufacturer, XL North.

Let me be clear: I have no problem with this. Some people are distrustful of what they see as "insider articles", but I find them to be useful, as long as any potential author bias is made clear. Consider: cleaning carpets in an environmentally conscious way is an important issue. I would assume someone who produces carpet cleaning products can speak on the issue with expertise. I see no reason to doubt his facts and figures (although one study mentioned without citation seems a bit too good to be true). Important topic, expert writer, good information; sounds like a good article to me!

So this article is helpful to me as a reader, but how is it good for the company sponsoring it? Several reasons:

1. Viral marketing. They wrote an article, it got emailed to thousands of readers, I reposted the link, exposing it to new readers. Soon it will go onto my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn profiles, get listed on Digg and Readit, and if even one person likes my article enough to repost it, the whole cycle starts again, bringing a whole new set of eyes to the magazine, the article, and the company. Meanwhile, all these links, mentions of the company name, etc. help raise the company's SEO score.

2. Expertise. A large part of successful marketing in the communication age is convincing prospects you are the one that can help them solve their problems. The internet has brought that to a personal level as well, which is why so many CEO's have their own blogs and Twitter accounts. Placing non-proprietary articles in respected periodicals demonstrates how much you and your company know about the topic.

3. Setting the Terms of Debate. This is an important but often overlooked benefit. Non-proprietary articles allow me to define the important issues in the way that is most beneficial to my company and my products. Done well, this means you determine the questions prospects ask your competitor.

I do have one qualm with this article; it is important that a non-proprietary article provides what it promises, and I think the title and introduction promise more than the article provides. If this were a seminar at a trade show, I would be disappointed by the exclusive focus on carpets when what I wanted was IAQ. This would be a stronger article if the title used the word "carpet". It would still be useful and interesting, but I would not walk away feeling something was missing.

Editorial Calendar - The Construction Specifier

In the fall of each year, most construction industry magazines publish editorial calendars for the coming year. Building product marketeers can use editorial calendars to create publicity opportunities. Review the calendars of magazines your prospects read, then contact the editor to provide news or suggest timely stories that fit the calendar.

For example, The Construction Specifier has just issued the following calendar for 2010:

JANUARY
Openings
Acoustics
Concrete
Existing Conditions

FEBRUARY
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Metals
Finishes
Transportation

MARCH
Openings
Masonry
Wood
Earthwork

APRIL
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Concrete
Safety and Security
Plumbing and Bathrooms

MAY
Openings
Finishes
Plastics/Composites
Exterior Improvements

JUNE
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Masonry
Bathrooms
HVAC

JULY
Openings
Finishes
Concrete
Electrical

AUGUST
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Site Construction
Safety and Security
Utilities

SEPTEMBER
Masonry
Acoustics
Openings
Conveying Systems

OCTOBER
Finishes
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Concrete
Furnishings

NOVEMBER
HVAC
Masonry
Wood
Exterior Improvements

DECEMBER
Thermal and Moisture Protection
Openings
Finishes
Communications

Chusid Associates wins Awards for Construction Writing and Photography

Chusid Associates won two awards in the field of construction journalism, in a competition sponsored by the Construction Writers Association (CWA). The association presented Michael Chusid, principal of Chusid Associates, the award for "superior journalistic and writing skills" as demonstrated by articles he had published in construction industry magazines and journals during the past year. The award was based upon a sample of four articles about innovations in concrete construction and sustainable construction practices. The articles appeared in The Construction Specifier, Precast Solutions, and CE News.

Sharing the award as co-author was Steven H. Miller, a freelance writer and photojournalist, and frequent collaborator with Chusid. Miller was also honored in another category by the CWA, receiving the Gordon Wright Photography Award for his series of photographs depicting the installation of a new type of wall system. The photos were commissioned by Chusid Associates to accompany an article written by Chusid and Miller.

The judges offered the following praise for Chusid's and Miller's writing:

"Well written and clear; almost literary."

"Factually, the most dense articles I read. (That's good; they contained the most factual information.)"

"I was convinced that this is a guy who really appreciates concrete."

"He's almost like a priest talking about his religion."

"Chusid is the 'Dalai Lama' of concrete."

More than 40 nominations were received for CWA's journalism awards competition this year. The panel of judges for the awards consisted of Dick Reavis - professor of journalism at North Carolina State University, Mandy Hoyle - construction reporter for the Triangle Business Journal, Kati Knowland - editor of NC Magazine, a business publication, and Judy Kienle - a business writer and president of Kienle Communications.

Chusid has written more than 200 published articles about construction materials, techniques, innovations, and building product marketing. He is a Registered Architect, a Certified Construction Specifier, and a Fellow of the Construction Specifications Institute. His company, Chusid Associates. now in its 20th year, provides marketing and technical consulting services to building product manufacturers and other construction industry organizations.

Miller has over 30 years experience in journalism, public relations, advertising and marketing. He has won numerous honors for his work including the CLIO, the One Show Silver Pencil, The Art Directors of Los Angeles award, and the Hollywood Reporter Key Art award.

CWA is a non-profit, non-partisan, international organization for professional journalists, writers, editors, and publicists serving the information needs of the construction industry. The group strives to provide educational benefits to its members and to promote high standards in construction communication. The group celebrated its 50th Anniversary at its recent convention.

The award-winning articles and photographs can be seen at www.chusid.com.

Now is Time to Convert to MasterFormat 2004

CSI announced that it will stop support MasterFormat 95 at the end of this year, completing the transition period to the newer MasterFormat 2004 edition. If your building product sales literature still uses MF 95, now is time to make the change.

MasterFormat is an indexing system used to organize specifications, project manuals, construction cost information, and drawing notes. MasterFormat 2004 increased the number of divisions from 16 to 50, replaced five-digit section numbers with a six plus-digit system. The added divisions and sections expanded MasterFormat to accommodate a greater range of building products and construction practices plus future construction industry innovations.

Chusid Associates president Michael Chusid, RA, FCSI, CCS served on CSI’s MasterFormat Implementation Task Team and has written an article on using MF 04 in building product marketing (click here). He opines, “If your sales and technical literature still use the old numbers, it is a good indication that your collateral has not been updated in many years. Converting to MF 04 provides a good opportunity to take a fresh look at your marketing presentation to see what else needs to be updated.”

In addition, urges “manufacturers to train their sales, customer service, and technical staff so they understand the new system. Your distributors and customers may also need help making the transition. Instead of viewing this with frustration, it is a great opportunity to offer them services to update their business. Providing this type of service can help strengthen relationships with your customers.”

For more information on MasterFormat, visit www.masterformat.com. In addition, Chusid Associates offers a free telephone consultation to help manufacturers locate new section numbers for their products; call 818-774-0003.

Marketing the Green Challenge

The construction products industry has, for the past few years, been consumed by the struggle to either be green or appear green. It's caused me to reflect on the different marketing struggles faced by old products trying to green themselves vs. new ones that are built green from the bottom up.

An example of a green-from-day-one marketing challenge is CalStar Products, Inc., a Northern California-based company founded to create more sustainable cementitious products. (www.calstarproducts.com) They are in the final development stages of a non-clay, non-fired brick. It is made dominantly of fly ash, a recycled smokestack byproduct.


This innovative product was developed to address the high energy consumption and concomitant CO2 emission associated with making fired clay brick (the most common form of brick). The process for firing clay into brick involves up to three days in a kiln at about 1000 degrees F. During most of the past 100 years, that's resulted in about 1.3 lbs of CO2 being sent up the smokestack and into our air for every common 4.1-lb. clay brick produced. Coal-fired kilns can cough up additional smokestack pollution problems if they're not properly scrubbed.

CalStar's fly ash brick isn't kilned, and the energy consumption of its prototypes is coming in at about 15%-20% of a fired clay brick. They hope to get it down to 10% when they have fully ramped up commercial production. They've done testing to demonstrate that their brick meet the same ASTM structural standards that clay brick have to meet. So their marketing story is about a product that can be substituted for clay brick while making a big reduction in CO2 related to global climate change.

CalStar's biggest challenge is, in fact, that their product is innovative. It hasn't been built with before. Not only must CalStar introduce its new solution to the marketplace, it must also overcome the industry-wide reluctance to be the first to try anything new, a type of caution for which design professionals and construction contractors are notorious. Construction-related liabilities can be enormous, so a decision-maker considering a really innovative product has to be wondering whether human progress is worth the risk of his personal livelihood. CalStar needs to simultaneously tell their sustainability story and overcome the well-entrenched fear of change.

CalStar is tackling this challenge with a combination of science and good public relations. They are testing and refining their product rigorously, both to meet industry-wide brick standards that will make it a equivalent and approvable substitute, and also to ascertain that the product is safe, responsibly made, and reliable. At the same time, they are working with construction PR professionals to educate the industry in depth about the issues, tell their story and build confidence in their product, and make the case for brick masonry that is more friendly to the planet.

The clay brick industry (www.gobrick.com) has the opposite marketing challenge. They are the dominant player, and their product is a very well established, economical, reliable building material. But the sustainability profile of brick is becoming more and more of an issue for them.

The clay brick industry's challenges are a) fighting a rearguard action against competitive masonry products like concrete brick and new green bricks such as CalStar's, and b) making their own product either be greener or appear greener.

On the greening front, the clay brick industry has made a mighty effort to reduce their energy consumption and pollution. They claim a per-brick-reduction in embodied energy of about 1/3. Unfortunately, this still leaves a lot of CO2 between them and their nearest competition, concrete brick. Moreover, they may be reaching the lower limit of energy consumption possible within the nature of clay.

The clay brick industry has responded to this challenge with a deft public relations campaign. They have, first of all, tried to brand fire clay brick as the only true brick, excluding concrete, adobe, and others. They use language very effectively in this effort, referring to concrete bricks as cricks (see article on newhomesource.com, for example) or referring to competitive products in quotes, as in: fly ash "brick".

They are making the most of the green properties they do possess, such as durability, thermal mass effect, insulation value, etc. Based on these properties, they have gone on the offensive, claiming to be the greenest building material available.

Personally, I'm not sure I buy every one of their claims, and I wonder how much of it is really just greenwashing. (That question comes up lately in regard to many products.) But professionally, I have to admire their strategy and their execution. They are using marketing methods effectively to make the most of their situation and extend the life of their product.

For more on brick and sustainability, please see our article from the May issue of The Construction Specifier.

Using "Non-Proprietary" Articles to your Advantage

There are lots of magazines that accept submitted case studies or short product news pieces, but there are only a few that will accept in-depth technical articles. Many of these magazines have a policy against using proprietary names in articles. This is also true in industry guidelines for continuing education, where the only permitted reference to your company or brand are in the title and final slides of a presentation..

Ironically, this policy actually increases the marketing value of the articles. By writing in an authoritative, non-proprietary voice, the article will be perceived by readers as having more value as a trustworthy source of news they can use.

Moreover, writing your article correctly creates brand equity for you. For example:

• Author Credits: The author bios identify your company affiliation and can include your website and email address, making it easy for interested readers to contact you.


• Creating Awareness: The first step in sales is to create awareness and interest. The article is intended to get designers thinking about the many benefits of your product. At the early stages of a project, it is most important that an architect know about the product category because they can always look up your name for specific information. More, one of the benefits of publicity is conditioning prospects so they are more responsive to other sales contacts or advertising.


• Define Terms: By publishing the article, you get to establish the scope of the discussion. By discussing your points of differentiation you establish them as the baseline for comparison. The focus is on educating the customer to appreciate the benefits you offer.


• Photo Credits: The projects cited and the photographs used will all be credited to your company. If you have a jobsite installation photo, there might be a banner in the background, or a package in the foreground, with the company name.


• Online Content: The article can go onto your website and those of your reps, dealers, or applicators. You will be able to use it as part of your sales collateral.
  

• Reuse: With a quick rewrite it can be sent around to other magazines as a press release. This maximizes the value of your investment.


• Licensee Support: If the name of the game is winning licensees, then it is important to show the type of publicity you are getting for your existing licensees. The same is true for certified installers, distributors, and others in your market stream. List them as co-authors, and feature their projects.

In short, anyone reading the article will be lead to think about your products and will have no trouble finding you when they are ready to move forward.