How to Optimize Your Publication
Posted on Saturday, January 30, 2016 at 9:46 PM
Baiting your content hook to reel in ad dollars.
By
William Dunkerley
Is your magazine functioning optimally in a
business sense? Often when I audit the business functioning of a
publication, I discover there is a fundamental flaw. If you rely upon
advertising revenue, it is mandatory that you operate in a way that
creates synergy between your editorial, advertising, and distribution
functions.
Lamentably, in too many cases these functions operate
too much like independent fiefdoms. If they are not interacting in
consonance, if they are not working toward a unified goal, you are
probably achieving suboptimal results.
Perhaps there might be
some coordination between editorial and advertising so that ad sales can
pitch what's in the forthcoming issue. And promotion of editorial
content might be worked into subscription sales promotions. But that's
not enough.
A Tried and Proven Plan
Take a look at
this diagram:
The
diagram shows an optimized schematic for how any ad-supported
publication should operate.
The cycle starts with companies that
have products and services to sell. Without them there obviously will be
no advertising.
Next is your editorial product. It must be
oriented toward attracting readers who will become good customers for
the advertisers. An ivory-tower approach to content development that
ignores this isn't helpful. The editorial product has to be positioned
in recognition of where the ad money is.
Content is the bait that
goes on the hook to achieve and sustain readership interest. It's what
gets readers to look through your publication, and it's what gets them
to remain subscribers.
If your hook isn't baited for the big fish
with ad money, you are operating dysfunctionally. Serving the interests
of readers who aren't going to buy isn't helpful.
The next step
is the distribution. Subscription marketing is the key issue here. Just
as editorial must be oriented toward sustaining the interest of the
relevant buyers of products and services, circulation promotion is
charged with the responsibility for targeting those same readers.
Some
publishers believe acquiring any kind of audience will boost readership
numbers and support their rate base. That strategy may have some
short-term validity, but it will work against them in the long run.
If
one drags in advertisers based on impressive readership numbers and
their advertising bears insufficient fruit, sooner or later they'll
curtail their advertising in the publication.
Conduct a
Self-Audit
Use the above diagram as the basis of a
self-audit. Are you operating in a way that uses this life cycle of ad
dollars advantageously? Or are you wasting effort on activities that
produce little synergy?
If you are looking for a way to improve
the business performance of your magazine, getting your activities in
line with this cycle should be a top priority.
William
Dunkerley is principal of William Dunkerley Publishing Consultants, www.publishinghelp.com.
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