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Success Breeds Success

Posted on Monday, September 21, 2009 at 10:39 PM

Did you know that your success as a publisher can actually contribute to the success of the market in which you publish? That includes your advertisers and potential advertisers.

Think about that. Your success can boost the market. That in turn can boost the success of the advertisers. And, when they’re more successful and optimistic, that means more advertising money can flow your way.

Let me give you just one example of how this works: A number of years ago, the publisher of a small quarterly magazine came to us. The publication, which served a small, specialized technical field, was losing money. What’s more, the whole field was in the financial doldrums. Now, the publisher wanted our help to identify publishing expenses that could be cut.

My analysis of the business indicated that the publisher’s problem wasn’t with expenses that were too high, but with revenues that were too low. So, I worked with him to find ways to boost revenues.

We formulated new strategies for selling advertising, and conducted training workshops for the sales staff. We also inaugurated an ongoing coaching program aimed at enhancing the sales effectiveness and to do real-time problem solving on individual accounts. On the circulation side, we developed very effective marketing materials and programs. We also worked with the publisher to upgrade the quality of the editorial content. We started a research program to get answers needed for advertising sales and editorial development. And, we showed the publisher how to focus both content and circulation sales efforts to attract and acquire readers who would produce good results for the advertisers. In a latter stage, we added sponsorship of conferences and meetings to the mix.

Over time, this all produced outstanding results. The little quarterly went to bi-monthly, and finally to monthly. A publication that was once a money-loser was now sporting profit margins worthy of envy.

But in the course of all this, something else happened that was significant.

The field that was served by this magazine improved, too. The market left its doldrums behind, and became a vital and growing field. What happened is that the magazine, through its own success, had inspired the success of the entire market. It did it by providing better and more frequent content, and by bringing together buyers and sellers through the advertising content of the publication.

Not only did this magazine benefit from its own success, but all the players in the marketplace were able to benefit, too. They were all in a symbiotic relationship. The success of one player contributed to the success of others -- and on and on it went. It was an upward spiral!

You can start an upward spiral for your publication and your field, too.

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