© 2008 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Winter 2008
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 46

GarageWowNow Articles Reach 6 Million in 2008
Valuable Resources Are Also Available to Dealers

By Tom Wadsworth, Editor

Getting exposure on six million pages for $15,000 isn’t bad.

One component of GarageWowNow, the garage door industry’s 2008 national public relations campaign, has been distributing feature stories to editors through a service called ARA Content. Throughout the year, the GarageWowNow campaign invested $15,000 with ARA to distribute three articles:

• A Home Improvement Idea for 2008 That Impresses (released Feb. 29, 2008)
• Top 10 Secrets About Today’s Garage Doors (released May 21, 2008)
• A Great Fall Fix Up Starts With Your Garage Door (released Aug. 6, 2008)

Fishing for Exposure

ARA made these articles, with photos, freely available to hundreds of editors and reporters and then tracked their use. As the chart below shows, the three stories were published in more than 1,000 print and online sources.

The circulation of the print sources alone exceeds 6,000,000. The exposure is considered to be the equivalent of $280,000 in print ads. Adding the value of the online exposure, its value increases to almost $400,000 … an excellent return for a $15,000 investment.

These three stories were designed to spur purchases of upscale garage doors. Each one was crafted with our key messages and reader-friendly appeals, and was timed to coincide with the year’s buying seasons.

Spring Story: A Home Improvement Idea

Our first story, distributed from March to June, urged readers to view a stylish new garage door as a wise home improvement idea, a “fashion statement” that adds curb appeal. The article promoted the carriage house door as “the industry’s hottest trend.”

The story also emphasized the benefits of getting a new garage door opener and the rising popularity of technological conveniences such as keyless entry pads. “Yesterday’s ‘latchkey kids’ have become today’s ‘keypad kids,’” said the article.

Summer Story: Top 10 Secrets

In May, we released “Top 10 Secrets About Today’s Garage Doors,” identifying 10 little-known facts about today’s new garage doors. The secrets included a stylish new garage door’s powerful impact on home value and its role as “the new front door.”

With the likelihood of hurricanes increasing throughout the summer, the story revealed “the critical role played by the garage door in protecting your home from high winds.” The story also featured new accessories, such as battery backup systems, also helpful during storms.

Fall Story: Fall Fix-Ups

The fall story attracted the most placements, reaching a print circulation of more than 2,000,000. The story described a stylish new garage door as “the one fall home fix-up project that takes only a couple of hours and yields the biggest bang for the buck of any exterior home renovation.”

All three stories urged professional installation with statements like, “Hiring a pro is a smart move” and “It’s dangerous to install a door yourself.” All articles urged readers to go to www.GarageWowNow.com to see dozens of door styles and find a local dealer.

Are You Using These Tools?

Several door dealers have recognized the value of GarageWowNow and have added a GWN link or GWN materials to their own Web site. A recent Google search revealed that door dealers from coast to coast are wisely using GarageWowNow to their advantage.

The GarageWowNow committee has placed no restrictions on dealer use of any materials. The site, funded by DASMA and IDA, exists to promote more sales of garage doors, especially the newer upscale designs.

Dealers should feel free to link to the site and freely use any of the articles posted there. The articles in this story are among the 11 stories posted at www.garagewownow.com/press.htm .