One has to be fairly careful when advertising in trade journals because the costs can get prohibitive, yet if you are selling to the industry, the percentage of readers who might be interested is large. If you have a company, which is not selling to the industry but rather participating in it, it is not always smart to run ads that allow your competition and invite to solicit you as fake customers to scout you out.

Indeed, many companies in an industry sector are members of large associations and they advertise in order to get favored articles written about their company, which they can use as reprints in brochure packages or on their websites. Personally, I think this is a mistake as it tends to end up as an unspoken game of extortion, in that the more you advertise the more articles they do on your company. I can tell you that our companies have always had good fortune in industry trade journals, without ever advertising in them.

Although even an article will incite immediate shopping by your competition and your sales departments will notice this the week of and the week after these articles come out and are mailed throughout the industry sector. What can you do? Well be sure to only have specific people interviewed and never anyone on your sales staff for them to contact.

Additionally, make it clear that you do not sell to the industry, but you buy from the industry in the article. This will bring you the competitions sales teams and their information without you handing out all of yours. Be wise where you advertise and be very careful around industry trade journals as your competition reads them more than your buyers ever will. Unless you sell to the industry, think on this in 2006.