How to Be Successful in Direct Magazine Marketing

Magazines, newsletters and catalogs are some of the most important venues for direct marketing. They can be used in conjunction with other methods or as the main marketing method for your company. Magazines and newsletters can be especially successful marketing techniques because consumers feel that they are receiving a valuable product for free.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Create Magazines as Direct Marketing Materials

1. Plan your product either for print and mailing or for email. Layout techniques for each can be very different. For instance, an email newsletter should be fairly short while a printed newsletter is expected to be at least a few pages long. It can be much more expensive to produce a printed magazine, as well as to mail it, especially in comparison to online marketing materials.

2. Develop content for your magazine or newsletter. Any articles or letters you include should focus on your products or services and how they are ideal for your target demographic. You can write content yourself or hire professional writers. You should also consider visuals, such as photographs.

3. Target your ideal demographic and create a list of potential clients to whom you wish to send your magazine. Expect to change this list as readers sign up for your magazine or ask to stop receiving it.

4. Mail or email your magazine to your contact list. Your magazine will be more successful if you produce it on a regular basis and your contacts can anticipate it. If you are operating a printed magazine, you may consider sending out a monthly, quarterly or yearly publication. If you are sending an online publication, you can send out updates spaced much closer together.

5. Keep track of how your magazine affects your sales and business. Check to see whether you receive more traffic on your website after sending out an emailed newsletter or whether you sell more of a product after featuring it in your magazine to help you determine how effective your direct marketing is.

Tips & Warnings

• Direct marketing via magazines or newsletters is most successful when your consumers actually ask for your magazine. If you offer your contacts an opportunity to sign up for a free magazine, statistically most will.
• Marketing through magazines is effective when you are planning to market to the same demographic for long periods of time. You will be able to send regularly scheduled updates to your contacts.
• Magazines can be very expensive to produce and do not guarantee that recipients will automatically buy the products you offer through your direct marketing materials.

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