Building
your database; Create a
fail-safe promotion to bring in those hot names; Preventing
the death of a promotion; The three
main reasons why a promotion fails;
Creating
two-stage advertisements: How Which?
created an effective two-stage advertisement and how you can do the same; Name-gathering
promotions from two small publishers; The eight
steps to making a sale; The
hidden sequence in planning a successful promotion; Niche
markets -there are
plenty of markets wide open for niche publications.
Dear
Colleague,
Focus on
the downside and your marketing will take care of itself.
That may
seem negative, but let’s examine the implications:
What’s
the worst thing that can happen in marketing? What are we all, underneath, most
afraid of?
It’s
zilch response. You can put a great deal of effort into creating a promotion
that you hope will work really well; that takes a lot of hours and a lot of
money. But supposing that after two weeks, nothing has come back? Not a single
coupon, telephone call, visit to your website – nothing.
That has
happened to all of us at least once. Once is acceptable. But if it happens
twice, it reveals a lack of planning.
In this
issue of Subscriptions Strategy, we show how to avoid the worst thing that can
happen to any publisher. We explain how, if you anticipate problems, success
will follow.
HOW TO
PREVENT THE DEATH OF A PROMOTION
Let us
suppose one of your promotions dies. It can be very difficult uncovering the
cause. If you have paid for another publisher to place your loose insert into
its publication, for example, is the printer going to admit your packages are
still sitting in a warehouse? Are you going to turn up unannounced and ask to
look around?
There are
no losers but you in that scenario. The publisher may never get another insert
from you, but he’ll have your money and the printer will have saved a great
deal of time. You’ll have also lost a potentially lucrative medium.
If,
however, you are sure all the inserts went out, perhaps the readership wasn’t
right for your product? Or could it have been your copy, the offer or the price
you were charging?
The same
questions come up if a mailing or advertisement fails. Is the response to that
European-wide mailshot lost in a London sorting office during a postal strike?
How many copies of that free magazine were actually read by committed readers?
THREE
REASONS FOR FAILURE
There are
three main reasons why a promotion fails:
1. It wasn’t seen
2. It was seen by the wrong people
3. Your message was wrong
If you
are using untested media in your marketing, there are well-established methods
for reducing the risk of any of these happening.
Members-only section Subscriptions Strategy issue 56 >>>
