Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

This is a good time of year for you.

When I was single, I dated a a lawyer who tells of sitting with his board brainstorming a good holiday gift for clients. He had just picked up a mag he liked and suggested instead of the usual one time gift-- how about one that comes 12x a year.

Ironically, across town, the publisher of the same mag was wondering how she was going to make ends meet. And her phone rang, with the law firm buying 200 plus subscriptions for her clients.

It made all the difference to her biz, so much that years later she invited us to a high end Vail resort for the weekend as her guests for a nonprofit fundraiser-- all on her. And while her mag is a staple here, to this day she credits this firm, this order at a crucial point in her biz life, for her success.

And here you are nearing the holiday season and Christmas. Its a perfect match for every Christian business owner to send not the traditional fruit basket-- but a gift of your mag that will come to their client 12x a year. It makes a huge statement of values.

I think in a prior post you mentioned you don't charge for subscriptions. Even better-- charge only for postage and the owner has a low cost gift -- and you're in the door for advertising.

Sell Well and Prosper tm

Alex,

Since your mag is a Christian lifestyle magazine, hopefully, you have checked prices for radio and cable TV. If it's like around here, I would suspect that for a budget, you are talking less than $300 per month for radio and less than $500 per month for cable TV in a given area. If you go local, it's not tens of thousands of dollars like a national campaign. Plus, the stations you'd hit for your audience are probably cheaper than if you were trying to get on ESPN. Maybe this is still over your budget. But. even if you had the budget for this, I would think there are more effective marketing investments anyway. But, if you are bent on doing this, some other ideas: Have you checked to see if you can trade advertising with Christian radio/TV? Perhaps you could offer them a regular column on some topic as well. If you trade them, it would cost you considerably less.

Also, surely, you've tried to create buzz with local churches? Create relationships with the pastors and get them to allow you to set up a table outside the church or in their gathering hall (versus the church proper). Give away issues. Sponsor coffee and cake.

Offer churches ads in your mag in exchange for an entry in their bulletins and some time to address the parish from the pulpit.

Do a blog. Have contributors write 100 word entries 5 times a day and you'll get lots of organic SEO. Seek lots of co-linking with related sites.

Join Christian networking organizations in the geographical areas where you distribute. Build word of mouth marketing efforts. Seek referrals for your magazine from members. Be prepared to GIVE referrals in order to make this work.

Seek out Christian book stores in the area and see if you can set up "free samples" in their store for people to take. For bookstores with mailing lists, sponsor an event with them. The book store would provide the mailing list and you'd send post cards to those people announcing the event at the store.

Look for consumer shows in the geographical areas of interest that cater to families - like at malls and such. Procure a table at these. Chances are they are in the neighborhood of $300 or so and in the right locations, they have 50,000 people coming through.

These are the thoughts that come to mind immediately. Hopefully, some of these will hit what you need or will spawn other thoughts.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Who's your audience? What is a reader's incentive for wanting your publication? What's your focus? Is it all advertiser-underwritten, or are you trying to sell subscriptions?

If you'll post the answers to these q's, I'll send you some thoughts.

Claudia

If you're looking for a buzz, then identify Christian trend-setters in your community. Can you get an interview/cover shot? Then, follow up with a press release announcing the special interview for (potentially) local media coverage - specifically targeting the demographic.

The point is instead of trying to "push" your magazine to people who don't know they want it, try to "pull" your demographic to you based on having what/who they're looking for.

Obviously, not knowing a great deal about the magazine, I would suggest the following:

Use some guerilla marketing and hit your churches, Christian book stores, etc. Pull together a list of all ministers in the area, make sure they are mailed every issue—you are likely to get mentioned from the pulpit. Get permission to distribute copies in as many Christian venues as possible, that will help get your distribution up.

Note, the fact that you a controlled circulation (you’re free) publication doesn’t help much with generating interest from advertisers.

You may want to consider going national using the web and charge a subscription fee for “out of area” subs and offer home delivery via USPS for local readers. You can easily cut deals with several of the many Christian sites on the web and pay them a percentage of each sub. You also could include editorial content for their site and gain additional exposure that way. I turned around an unprofitable $18 million company with a similar strategy.

Good luck and hope this helps.

Brin Lewis
Anne Frenette: The Event Marketing Company
Washington, DC