Custom Publishing
Custom Publishing: A Sensible Marketing Approach
Custom publishing is a branding strategy that is an important part of an integrated marketing campaign. As a communications approach—whether sponsored supplemental material, newsletters or magazines—it’s also a strategic PR initiative.
Custom publishing targets current customers, clients or prospects. Sponsored supplemental material, for example, demonstrates how products or services work in real-word settings, using newsworthy, full-length magazine articles that show a need being successfully met.
Newsletters and magazines can develop a relationship with prospects considering their first purchase. A well defined publication can also help retain existing customers and introduce new products to a pre-sold audience.
Visualize custom publishing, however, in a broader context—as an efficient method of transmitting a marketing message to all marketing audiences. The key is to take advantage of the individual audiences that a sponsored supplement can reach, and then tailor the message to the recipients.
Is launching a custom publication right for your organization? Here are five considerations to help you decide:
1. Is your marketing open to adding a custom publication? If your marketing or public relations focus is on collateral materials and advertising, the budget should already accommodate a custom publication. The nature of a custom publication as a discreet selling tool can make it a critical addition to product brochures and print ads because of its detailed, informative, editorial approach.
2. What audiences are you trying to reach? Recent research indicates that people are spending less time reading fewer publications, which means that custom publishing initiatives should be focused on addressing that fact. More than anything else in your marketing mix, custom publishing can effectively tell your whole story to an interested audience.
3. What internal support is available for custom publishing? Is it smarter to outsource the production of the publication or use existing staff to create the final product? If you can create most of your marketing materials in-house, you might be able to add custom publishing to your work load.
4. Where is my custom publication going? Once the magazine is published, one of the most important decisions is figuring out other distribution channels. Should you tip it into an appropriate magazine? Mail it to your own distribution list? Hand it out at trade shows?
5. How do I measure the return on investment? Some companies establish systems to learn how a new customer decided to buy a product or service. Others compare pre-publication sales volume with post-publication volume. Whatever the methodology, be sure to apply it consistently in order to help determine whether the strategy was successful and is worth continuing.
The Custom Publishing Council says that American business produces more than 50,000 unique custom publications each year, spending between $15 billion and $20 billion annually. Last year, 13.2% of the average corporate marketing budget was spent on custom publishing, up from 11.1% in 2003. Additionally, 40% of companies surveyed plan to spend more on custom publications in 2005.
If well planned and thought-out, custom publishing can go a long way toward being the keystone of a company's existing marketing or promotional programs. Most importantly, whether a sponsored supplement, a newsletter or a glossy magazine, a custom publication gives your business complete control over your message and how it is delivered to the audience you want to reach.
For more information, email crjolley@msn.com or call Chuck Jolley at 913-205-3791.
Custom publishing is a branding strategy that is an important part of an integrated marketing campaign. As a communications approach—whether sponsored supplemental material, newsletters or magazines—it’s also a strategic PR initiative.
Custom publishing targets current customers, clients or prospects. Sponsored supplemental material, for example, demonstrates how products or services work in real-word settings, using newsworthy, full-length magazine articles that show a need being successfully met.
Newsletters and magazines can develop a relationship with prospects considering their first purchase. A well defined publication can also help retain existing customers and introduce new products to a pre-sold audience.
Visualize custom publishing, however, in a broader context—as an efficient method of transmitting a marketing message to all marketing audiences. The key is to take advantage of the individual audiences that a sponsored supplement can reach, and then tailor the message to the recipients.
Is launching a custom publication right for your organization? Here are five considerations to help you decide:
1. Is your marketing open to adding a custom publication? If your marketing or public relations focus is on collateral materials and advertising, the budget should already accommodate a custom publication. The nature of a custom publication as a discreet selling tool can make it a critical addition to product brochures and print ads because of its detailed, informative, editorial approach.
2. What audiences are you trying to reach? Recent research indicates that people are spending less time reading fewer publications, which means that custom publishing initiatives should be focused on addressing that fact. More than anything else in your marketing mix, custom publishing can effectively tell your whole story to an interested audience.
3. What internal support is available for custom publishing? Is it smarter to outsource the production of the publication or use existing staff to create the final product? If you can create most of your marketing materials in-house, you might be able to add custom publishing to your work load.
4. Where is my custom publication going? Once the magazine is published, one of the most important decisions is figuring out other distribution channels. Should you tip it into an appropriate magazine? Mail it to your own distribution list? Hand it out at trade shows?
5. How do I measure the return on investment? Some companies establish systems to learn how a new customer decided to buy a product or service. Others compare pre-publication sales volume with post-publication volume. Whatever the methodology, be sure to apply it consistently in order to help determine whether the strategy was successful and is worth continuing.
The Custom Publishing Council says that American business produces more than 50,000 unique custom publications each year, spending between $15 billion and $20 billion annually. Last year, 13.2% of the average corporate marketing budget was spent on custom publishing, up from 11.1% in 2003. Additionally, 40% of companies surveyed plan to spend more on custom publications in 2005.
If well planned and thought-out, custom publishing can go a long way toward being the keystone of a company's existing marketing or promotional programs. Most importantly, whether a sponsored supplement, a newsletter or a glossy magazine, a custom publication gives your business complete control over your message and how it is delivered to the audience you want to reach.
For more information, email crjolley@msn.com or call Chuck Jolley at 913-205-3791.
posted by Chuck Jolley at Sunday, December 26, 2004
1 Comments:
Hi there ##NAME##. I was searching for the latest information on lead capture page and somehow, which I don't understand, found your site. Although your ##TITLE## wasn't what I was exactly interested in, I'm sure glad I found it. It's really amazing how, on the Internet, you can sit down and look for one thing, such as ##LINK## and lead capture page yet find totally unrelated interesting stuff and spend hours reading about stuff other than what you were searching for. I'll keep on looking for lead capture page but I just had to comment on how much I enjoyed reading the comments here.
Post a Comment
<< Home