When I worked for a major PR firm in New York City, we had a media specialist who had contacts in major daily newspapers such as The New York Times and Post.  One day I asked her to help me get a story into some of the real estate publications.  In an arrogant tone, she answered, “I don’t do trades.”

I was still a bit of a novice, and didn’t quite understand her attitude.  For my clients, trade publicity turned out to be extremely important.  I represented architects, engineers, and real estate developers and it was essential that their projects get noticed in construction and real estate trades, such as Real Estate Weekly and Engineering News Record, among many others.

Since I was a writer before ever becoming a publicist, I became a master at finding opportunities in the trades and placing articles “written by my clients.”  Trades might not have been for the media specialist, but they worked for me.  In fact, I later went to work for a small boutique firm that mostly wrote by-lined articles for trades.  We handled PR for major engineers, such as Parsons Brinckerhoff and Stone & Webster.  Sure, we also got them into major dailies and business publications, but the bread and butter of our work were the trades.

I strongly recommend getting to know what trade publications would be right for your business.  Then request media calendars and plan ahead to write on topics that tell stories about your business and expertise.