The great magazine battle and the life blood of most publications is the advertiser. Do you know what your ideal advertiser is? Do they relate to your target audience? Whether or not you know the answer to these questions, we are all in the same boat when it comes to attracting them to buy advertising space in the latest version of our magazine.
We hear daily about the readable content vs advertising content balance and its generally recognised to be the right balance at about 50-50 to get good reader engagement and a good response for most of the advertisers.
More often than not we read lists like the one we writing here and normally we pull away one snippet of info that may just spark a processing revolution. So here are 10 ways we see are the best to get more advertisers.
1. Phone them – It may sound simple but people are getting more and more shy about picking up the phone and saying hi. It’s true that we are bombarded with overseas sales calls but as a business specifically targeting the person on the other end to give their business a great reason to grab their target audience’s attention. Don’t forget to mention the fact that you believe in their product or service and that they would relate to your readers. A little self promotion never hurt.
2. Letter – The art of the sales letter has nearly died from our prospective but as we get so many spam emails that we have become desensitised to daily attacks so why not write your prospective advertiser a nice letter detailing how they would be a perfect match as a ‘partner’, would compliment your publication and appeal to your reader base.
3. Social Media – What do you know about social media, do you use it? I bet most of you are on Facebook. But what about promoting your business? There are so many social media networks out there and most are free to use, the key to getting it right is ‘Getting your voice right’ these networks are very similar to learning a new language. But once learnt you can talk to your audience about your publication, articles and gain interest from new readers but you will also gain the attention of new advertisers as your reach should be larger or more targeted than your competitors. The social media general rules are similar to learning a new language, don’t be scared by it. Heard of Linkedin? it is very good for direct business chat and conversations about business subjects. Facebook is good to talk personally or appeal to a personal topic and Twitter is good for all conversations but try not to sell your wears too much people will engage with you if you appeal to them directly or a situation they relate to. There are a lot more social media platforms but these three offer the largest audience and if used correctly, offer the best return.
4. Video – Did you know that YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world? Are you using it for your business, do you know how? Remember not to sell, educate your audience they are more likely to engage with you. If you are promoting your magazine it may be worth telling your audience about the people your putting in the magazine, interview them, video the process of making the magazine, what about filming our printing processes? Video offers a visual reason for you to relate to your audience directly this doesn’t have to be costly but unless you can afford to get a video professional on the case you need to learn the basics of video production or it may debase your currency.
5. Events – Your target audience will have a show relating to them by it locally or nationally there will be an arranged event offering to get potential readers and advertisers all together in one room. If you can’t find one why not set one up and be the main sponsor? This will quickly establish you as ‘the knowledge’ for your subject. It will only raise your profile and should increase your readers which in turn will attract more advertisers.
6. Door Knocking – If you are a local magazine you should know of the right businesses that will do well in your magazine. Why not go see them directly, most will be smaller businesses and a face to face visit may be the opening to a great working relationship.
7. Poach them from other related magazines – Now this on the surface may seem a little unscrupulous but have you thought to ask your potential advertisers about their other advertising? do they place ad’s with your competitors? Ask for their feedback and learn from it. You may have a better and cheaper offering. You never know. All you should be aware of is that by thumbing through the other publications will give you access to customers that are all willing to advertise all you need to do is approach them with your offerings.
8. Encourage Referrals – By building up strategic partnerships with related industries and customers can only benefit. But have you thought about asking them to promote you and your service? Why won’t they when you give hem a great return on their investment with you. The best form advertising is word of mouth use it.
9. Networking – These groups of like minded professionals are not only potential advertisers to your magazine but its who they know too that will make networking worthwhile. You should have a look around at the types of networking available to your industry or locality. You might even start your own? Regardless we know that structure and attendance build trust with your fellow networkers which will in turn bring you business.
10. Efficient Paperwork – The single most important part of your business is the paper trail and infrastructure of your business. ‘How does this get me advertisers’ I hear you ask? well actually it wont but it will ensure that you keep them happy with your order confirmations and renewals to your magazine. No-one wants to deal with an inefficient business. Don’t get me wrong not all processes have to be perfect but your advertiser needs to be kept in the loop about the money they are spending, the offers you have on the space you are trying to get them to buy and what you are trying to do to help get their advertisements noticed by your target audience and you will not be able to keep track of this without efficient paperwork.
I hope that has helped sow some seeds to go and talk to more advertisers and get your magazine flourishing. Till next time…