The agency that is selecting publications for a client is making decisions that the client rarely sees and rarely understands. The selection criteria that produce results are not the criteria that produce impressive-looking reports.
What the selection is actually about
Publication selection for client placements is about audience alignment. The publication that reaches the client’s target audience is the right publication, regardless of its name recognition or its reach numbers. The publication that does not reach the client’s target audience is the wrong publication, regardless of how impressive it looks in a report.
The agencies that produce results for clients tend to be the ones that start with the audience question. Who does the client need to reach? Where does that audience spend time? Which publications have credibility with that audience? The answers to these questions determine the publication list. The publication list is not determined by which publications the agency has relationships with, or which publications are easiest to place in, or which publications will look best in the report.
The credibility transfer question
The second question in publication selection is the credibility transfer question. A placement in a publication produces value through two mechanisms. The first is the direct audience it reaches. The second is the credibility it transfers to the client. The publication that has high credibility with the client’s target audience transfers more credibility than the publication that has low credibility, regardless of the reach numbers.
The credibility transfer is why a placement in a niche publication that is highly trusted by a specific professional community can be more valuable than a placement in a general publication with ten times the reach. The professional community that trusts the niche publication will extend that trust to the client. The general audience that does not have a strong relationship with the general publication will not.
The durability question
The third question is durability. A placement that appears in search results for five years is more valuable than a placement that is visible for a week and then disappears. The publications that maintain their content, maintain their search rankings, and maintain their credibility over time produce more durable placements than the publications that do not.
The agencies that weight durability in their selection tend to produce better long-term results for clients than the agencies that weight short-term reach. The client who is building a long-term credibility asset needs durable placements. The client who is running a short-term campaign needs reach. The agency that understands the difference tends to ask the client which they are building before selecting publications.
What clients should ask their agencies
The client who wants to evaluate whether their agency is making good publication selection decisions should ask a few specific questions. Why did you select these publications over others? Who is the audience for each publication, and how do they overlap with our target audience? How long has each publication been operating, and what is its track record for maintaining content? The answers to these questions are more useful than the reach numbers in the report.
Related from Impulsblog: What it takes to run an independent media brand
