Magazine Marketing -

Magazine Marketing


Rebecca Sterner
has been creating promotions to sell magazine subscriptions since 1980. While the channels used to sell magazine subscriptions have changed drastically since that time, what makes for effective magazine marketing has not.

For example, the skill that goes in to creating teaser copy on an outer envelope of a direct mail package is the same as creating strong subject lines in an email promotion.

Winning direct mail "Girls!" package created by Rebecca Sterner for American Girl magazine

Longstanding control package

Here are some of the ways that a magazine marketing expert can help increase the effectiveness of your current program:

Identify and define your magazine marketing goals and how your current pieces either support or fight those goals

Find, or fine-tune, a marketing positioning statement that sets your magazine apart from every other competitive product

Develop the benefits of subscribing to your magazine, and then use the strongest benefits in magazine marketing materials

Design a marketing test program and evaluate the results

Uncover new ways to market your magazine

Point you to the magazine marketing channels that are most likely to work for you; help you avoid expensive investments in magazine marketing programs that won’t work for you

Execute full magazine marketing plans, including expenses and deadlines

Put together a team with the skills needed to execute all the details of your plan

Recommend suppliers who can deliver specialized services or save you money

If you need to create new magazine marketing initiatives or fine-tune existing materials, contact me for a proposal.

Direct Mail Premium Insert created by Rebecca Sterner for Alaska Magazine

Direct Mail Component Created by Rebecca Sterner for Alaska Magazine

Services offered:
  • Copywriting
  • Design
  • Print- and web-ready production
  • Turn-key project management
  • List services
  • Test structure recommendations
  • Analysis of results (including past campaigns)
  • Creation of premiums
  • Social media
  • Waiting room & sampling programs
  • Vendor selection and management, including:
  • Printers
  • Lettershops
  • Data services such as list appending and merge/purge
  • SEO
  • Email services
  • Subscription agents
  • Newsstand distributors
Call for a proposal on your next project:
  • Columbia Journalism Review Email Promotion

    Columbia Journalism Review Landing Page

    Direct mail

  • Email
  • Renewal series
  • Gift subscription program
  • Web landing pages and promotions
  • And all your magazine marketing projects
Magazine Marketing Case Studies

View Case Studies presentation (PDF will open in a separate window or tab)

Magazine Marketing Checklist

 

  1. Are you using any of the following to market subscriptions?
    • Bind-in and blow-in cards – still relevant, even with websites!
    • Direct mail – more efficient than you think!
    • Email
    • Your website and others—SEO, pay-per-click ads
    • Social media
    • Subscription agents – things to watch out for
    • Telemarketing
    • Inserts — into product shipments, etc.
    • E-newsletters
    • Partnerships with like-minded organizations
    • Gift offers to current, past on prospective donors
    • Sample copies in waiting rooms or to targeted locations
    • Conferences and shows
  2. Do you know how much you’re investing in each of your magazine marketing initiatives?
  3. Do you know what your optimum price is, based on sound testing?
  4. Do you know how each of your new business sources renew?
  5. Do you have a strong renewal series and know how best to renew each source?
  6. Do you sell any of your new subscriptions with an auto-renew option?
  7. Are you selling single copies in retail outlets?

Follow me on Twitter for weekly magazine marketing tips. #marketingtoolbox

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