Print is not dead. In fact, niche print is thriving. More content than ever is being consumed in print by audiences waiting out the COVID lockdown at home.
How can you take advantage of this silver lining?
Charles Warner, CEO of Innovative Properties Worldwide, shared a ton of print revenue information with us for the Super Niche (Almost) Live event last week. And these are ideas you can use right now!
First Things First
Advertiser outreach is tricky any time and even more so now. Charles recommends three tactics:
- Communicate: Check in whether you have a product to sell or not. Let them know you are here for them as an industry partner and a fellow human.
- Be Respectful: Recognize that advertisers may have spending freezes in place. Find flexible ways to help them now so you can retain future business.
- Offer Ideas: Share new opportunities (like the ones below) that give a lot of bang for the buck.
4 Big Ideas!
Try these out now for extended reach, value for your advertisers, audience engagement, and new revenue!
1. Custom Covers and Reprints
Spotlighting an advertiser in an interview, article, or product roundup? These features are desirable for advertisers to send out to their own leads and customers for branding and credibility. Offer to create a custom cover featuring their brand and put it on a reprint run of your magazine featuring their article. Instant collateral for them, new print revenue (and distribution) for you! Charles recommends charging 2x the print run cost, plus design time.
2. Golden Ticket Prize Packs
Put together a prize pack of advertiser products and gift cards, then put random “golden ticket” giveaway insertions into your print run. Promo the giveaway in your social media and on newsstand covers to drive copy sales. Great exposure for the advertisers, plus you get double revenue: prize package inclusion fee + copy sales! This works really well if tied into a theme issue like “top restaurants” for a city & regional or “best of” issue for a B2B product listing.
3. Spin Off Popular Sections
If you’re getting a ton of engagement on a magazine section, consider spinning it off into its own magazine. Your team is already doing the work, and you can expand the topic with more pages — including advertiser pages. Polybag with the existing magazine to start, or determine a mailing list or distribution plan based on reader demographics for that content. Sell sponsorships of launch issues too. This super-niched audience will give a huge ROI to your advertisers!
4. Sell Section Sponsorships
Alternatively, if you feel a popular magazine section needs to remain within your original magazine, start selling sponsorship of that section in each issue. Continue to use your great content — this is not a sponsored content section, necessarily — and brand the advertiser around the section. Use their logo/company colors for the section graphics, and include exclusive full page ads designed very specifically for the section. This gives your advertisers a sense of ownership, and association/authority on a topic with your readers.
Get six more ideas from Charles in his recording Print Revenue Ideas for the Win!
And check out more great selling tactics in the Ad Sales section of the Super Niche (Almost) Live Recordings page. Stay strong!
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About Charles: Charles Warner is the CEO of Innovative Properties Worldwide, a marketing agency and publishing company based out of Denver, Colorado. He is also currently the Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning publications Innovation & Tech Today, Residential Tech Today and Cannabis & Tech Today, which allows him to work directly with the most innovative brands and products in the world. Charles has over 20 years experience in the media industry including high end publications, event marketing and creating branded content. His strong credentials in cross-platform branding and marketing communications have helped fuel the growth of Innovative Properties Worldwide and its partners.
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Niche Media has the best events, education, and training in media! Our super niched-out events & content give target-audience publishers in the B2C, hobbyist, B2B, city & regional, and association markets the tools they need to build revenue, audience, and more.
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