Generate interest
in your services with a newsletter or magazine
One of the best ways of promoting a new or even long standing
company is with an in-house magazine. Boost staff morale,
encourage teamwork and generally let everyone know what you
are up to. Really there's no excuses why you shouldn't be
producing a magazine, heres how you could get started...
Short of cash? Get some advertisers to pay for it!
Paying for a good quality designer to design and layout your
in house magazine goes without saying and a print run on a
couple of thousand magazines isn't going to give you much
change out of a couple of grand. Therefore make the magazine
pay for itself by getting some advertisers on board. It would
be worth offering some big name advertisers in your chosen
field a highly reduced ad rate for the first issue and by
the time issue 2 is ready to go, advertisers will be queuing
up to get involved having seen who else is placing ads in
your publication.
As endorsed by...
Everybody loves celebrities and if you can manage to get some
sly celebrity patronage of your product or services then you've
effectively got your magazine cover star - doing your selling
for you. For instance, if the company you are involved in
sell shoes, send out some samples to public relations companies
handling the stars and ask for some kind of feedback from
their clientelle. Even if it is met with a blanket silence
you can always pull out the old 'allegedely' trump card and
claim that Kylie Minogue was reported to be a fan and user
of your product and hey presto buddy, you've got yourself
a hot dang news story.
Circulation, circulation, circulation
Lets face it, printing a handful of A5 magazines on the office
inkjet isn't going to create a buzz among the cognoscenti.
Realistically you need to be looking at 10's of thousands
quantity wise to get the return on investment for your time.
Depending on your particular industry, mailing and marketing
lists of suppliers and contacts within your target market
are fairly cheap and easy to come by. Send out your industry
bible and get people talking.
Generate a buzz
Magazines live or die by their reputations. What you should
always be thinking about is your next promotional idea. Most
retail magazines these days in the shops are plastered with
promotional giveaways. Could you give away a cover mounted
CD with your magazine for example? The design and style of
the magazine is also intrinsic to its perceived value. If
you don't have in-house designers or writers capable of producing
a quality publication then you need to find a good contract
publishing company to take care of your magazine design, layout
and sub-editing. This could then free you up to come up with
some wacky promotional ideas such as getting Gordon from accounts
to do a sponsored masturbateathon in aid of endangered wild
cod. You get the idea - make it controversial and see those
circulation figures go through the roof.
OK thats given you enough incentive to go out and produce
some wonderful magazines. Once the magazine settles in and
becomes the industry standard, why not sponsor some kind of
festival or event giving the magazine and possibly your products
even more promotion. It's far too easy isn't it?
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