Buyer's Guides -- An overlooked marketing tool

Buyers Guides – An overlooked promotional tool

Are you selling into a commercial, industrial, or retail market? Do you constantly seek new avenues in which to promote their products?

Old timers are familiar with the Buyers Guides frequently found in trade magazines, but they frequently are unknown to newcomers or companies marketing their products on a shoestring.

Many trade magazines publish within their pages a Buyers Guide once a year. These Guides list suppliers to the magazine’s audience in both Alphabetical and Product Differentiated listings.

Three or four months before publishing these listings, publications send forms to all known suppliers in that arena, requesting current contact and product information. There is no charge to be included in these Guides.

How do you uncover these opportunities?
First, are you aware of all the trade publications read by your target audiences (customers)? If not, go to your library and search through the Standard Rate and Data Services (SRDS) books. These consist of compilations of every newspaper and magazine published in the US, and list all major trade shows, by industry.

Also listed are the editorial schedules for every publication. Spend some time perusing each appropriate schedule to learn when it publishes a Buyers Guide. Contact each publication to obtain and submit the proper forms to be included in their Guide.