Question

Topic: Strategy

Increase Subscriptions

Posted by stanner on 2/7/2014 at 3:23 PM ET 250 Points
I am editor of a denominational Christian magazine. We have 300+ churches and only 2500 people subscribe. Our budget is extremely low but I am curious if you have any suggestions to increase the subscription. The magazine has family friendly articles and activities along with information from different agencies of the denomination. I need to get word to the church members somehow and get them interested in the magazine. We have been around for a long time and the most people think it is for old people. I want to change that and let people know what it is all about now especially since I became editor, January 2014.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 2/7/2014 at 3:52 PM Accepted
    The first thing you can/should do is ensure that the articles are of high interest to your target audience. Give them what they want to read, not what you or someone else wants to tell them. Without dynamite content, you're doomed to failure. There is too much great content out there in the world for anyone to waste time on material that is just good.

    Next, make sure you have a robust online presence, with ample opportunity for your subscribers to contribute/interact.

    Once you have that in place, I'd suggest a one-on-one campaign with the pastor or other head of each church to solicit ideas and get them to encourage folks to subscribe. If there are 365 churches, you should be able to talk with each one in 4-6 months -- at 2-3 per day. They may even come up with some good ideas for you if you give them a chance.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 2/7/2014 at 4:21 PM Member
    Sample sample sample. Have copies of the magazine available at church event and the like so they can read it. Make sure it is easy for them to subscribe off of the samples (postage paid subscription cards and the like). Provide opportunity online and such for people to get free sample or trial subscription. If your magazine does meet the desires of this target audience, a percentage will subscribe.

    You could consider also partnering with like-minded organizations. For example, when I joined the California State Parks association, I got a complimentary subscription to Sunset magazine. Some times the like-minded organization will pay you something for the subscription for their members (if it is very targeted to what their members want), sometimes you just do it to get the added subscribers (with less hassles of getting them to subscribe and re-subscribe).



  • Posted by Moriarty on 2/7/2014 at 5:44 PM Member
    Facebook Advertising.

    Given a little time you can dig into their (I can't remember what they call it now - their graph search, that's the name) and target those who are EXACTLY who you want.

    You'll find that you can set bids to match your funding. You can send them to your website or your fan page - but engaging them will pay huge dividends. The other advantage of Fb advertising is that they bring you insights into who actually did click, who subscribed - and so you can advertise to people who might not quite fit your profile, but would still be interested to know about the things you speak about in your magazine.
  • Posted by saul.dobney on 2/8/2014 at 4:08 AM Member
    Your audience is sufficiently focused that you could go out and visit churches and introduce the magazine to people. Obviously 300+ is too much for one person, but you could ask for help/reps/correspndents to help promote across districts and drum up content.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/8/2014 at 9:53 AM Accepted
    Instead of trying to appeal to 300+ churches, start by focusing on 1 or 2 (local) churches. What information are THEY interested in reading. Can you highlight a church each issue, to build interest locally and then spread the message "globally"? Can your magazine covers highlight a younger group? What are younger readers interested in knowing/seeing?
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