Launch publishing: What comes
first, the product or the marketing?
Newstrade launch: how Computer
Active built 112,000 subscriptions; Direct marketing and Internet launches: wisdom
from our panel of experts; Do-it-yourself publishing: why so many new
publishers fail; Loose inserts: creative testing to boost performance; Pay-per-click
test marketing: try your idea with key phrases, Yahoo and Google ; Case
studies: Richard Branson’s Event; Computer Active
Dear
Colleague
What
comes first, the product or the marketing?
“Only people who
haven't taken the trouble to find out what marketing is ask this.’
These
words from Drayton Bird set the tone of this article. We put this question to
some of the most experienced publishers and marketers in the UK and USA. The
motivation for the survey came from the many calls we receive from new
publishers who have 'launched', spent a great deal of money on production and
design, and come to the 'marketing bit' with nothing left. Panic!
This is
written, then, to help all those publishers who have a great idea, only to
become disheartened as production money pours out and income fails to
materialise.
Taking
advice from any one of these experts would be enough to ensure a new product
will never fail through poor launch marketing. But in practice, most new
publishers seek this kind of guidance at the ‘rescue’ stage. That’s far too
late to do anything without a big re-think and further investment in people. By
this time the poor publisher is too battered to do anything but carry on in his
downward spiral.
For those
who are considering launching, the wisdom of what follows is guaranteed to
guide you safely away from those hundreds of lethal mines planted just below
the surface of that inviting green field you are about to enter.
Peter Hobday
Editor
Members-only section Subscriptions Strategy issue 64 >>>
