Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Seems like you've covered your other bases, including the most important: identifying your audience.

Take those stats and a copy of your launch edition as proof of your publication's quality and content and shop for supporters! Invite socially conscious businesses that cater to your demographic and provide them advertising options.

The fact that you're in print and online should make the product that much more valuable than if it existed on just one medium.

You'll need to do some research to determine what companies are trying to tout their "social consciousness".

From there it's just a matter of making a pitch that your magazine reaches an audience they cannot reach elsewhere...your USP.

Michael

I started a print magazine a little under 2 years ago and went through what you are dealing with. Wrote a blog blog post on this exact question:
https://expandabroad.blogspot.com/2011/06/ads-in-new-publication.html

I don't think you have defined your market-- you need to drill deeper. All you have defined is an age and gender bracket. Just being male or female in that age bracket does not mean they are your customers.

Socially conscious means different things to different people. If you get on BP's website you'll see pages of how wonderful they are, and their social consciousness stance-- and I'm sure they have a different ruler than a company promoting wind energy. There are as many shades of "green" as their are in the pantone color wheel.

Almost every company touts they support the community and give back. I think if you will better define your customer you will know where to go for your advertisers.

Your market are the people who base buying decisions on the corporate culture of the company-- not price. (I did my master's thesis on this.) And your advertisers are those who market to that group. How do you get the advertisers, show them you are lazar sharp in marketing to their core customers.

To drill deeper, is there a sector in "social consciousness" that you will focus? Enviro, education, health issues? There are a lot of places to go with that.

Can you please define that copies will be hand delivered by staff and Miss Earth contestants? You surely don't mean the mag will be delivered to the 10K subscribers by this group. If you are thinking of bringing this to the prospective advertisers, think again. This is a business decision, you need someone who is there to present the business side of things, with an appointment and with the right person. Don't waste the resources or gas doing otherwise.

And please make sure your image is just as progessive as your stories-- soy inks, fsc certified paper, be senstive, your subscribers may not even want paper format.

Your audience is anyone who knows and would review the Miss Earth pageant (as I type and think). Though honestly, to that age group, beauty pageants are about beauty first, and changing the word second. It may not be real, but it is the perception. I just googled and was shocked the following-- 3rd largest pageant. But I am still not convinced they are your customer. I consider myself a person who has a core value of giving back. I have most always been involved board level in a non profit (never paid only as volunteer) and when my kids were home summers and not old enuf to be employable, they volunteered to be productive. Not touting my horn, but I never heard of Miss Earth and they quickly lost me as I read on-- I think my eyes are locked I rolled them too hard.

I hope I haven't rambled too much, but you really have asked a very big question. I would love to delve deeper in this with you.

You attract new advertisers by letting them know what's in the deal for them—by telling them "For this amount of money (space), and for this page or page position, you get X, Y, and Z. You also receive X-amount of editorial space, access to our mailing list, and preferential rates for longer term deals."

You cannot just appeal to advertisers, you MUST woo them! You must offer them things that no other magazines offer. Your deal must be SWEETER than the deals offered elsewhere. It must be the super model of deals. Your offers must reflect the fact that you want a long term relationship with your advertisers, not just a one edition deal.

If I'm an advertiser of save the world, give-back-to-society type products, goods, and services I need to know that your readers can and will become MY customers and stakeholders.

This means you've got to show me stats where the sales of similar advertisers went up as a result of advertising with you. However, because you're new, this is going to be difficult. So, show me your track record. What else have you done and for whom? When, Where? How?

If you can offer your advertisers design and artwork creation, throw that in too: it's all grist to the mill. But no matter what, your ad packages must be set up so that they deliver maximum bang per buck spent. This then means you helping your advertisers CRAFT and TRACK their ads. I'll put good money on the fact that no other advertiser is doing this.

I hope this helps

Gary Bloomer
Princeton, NJ, USA