Archive for the ‘Copywriting’ Category
How to sell magazine subscriptions online — THE WEEK Magazine example
CASE HISTORY
A tornado creates a blizzard…
How to turn a magazine into a subscription-selling machine
CASE HISTORY
What happened when the irresistible force of Felix met the immutable laws of marketing…
How to sell newspaper subscriptions via direct mail
CASE HISTORY
What must be done to reverse the failing, flailing future of newspaper subscription sales? Everything. A call to arms from The Morning Call…
Re-gifting “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins
Received this full-text, online e-book as a gift in my holiday email from John Forde, the man who heads the Copywriter’s Roundtable. With thanks and best wishes to John, paying it forward to you. Enjoy!
Successful 5-year renewal effort
THE WEEK tested and repeated (with contextual changes) this 5-year / $250 renewal. As traditional print magazines become increasingly unattractive to readers in general, it’s natural to seek long-term commitments from current subscribers. And the marketing math makes it enticing:
Make your magazine the free gift with a purchase
Would you find subscriber love in an arranged marriage?
How to sell magazine subscriptions online – the Vanity Fair example
This idea works even better than I first imagined.
“Good direction doesn’t stifle creativity, it stimulates it.”
This is the BBDO Discipline, a useful four-step method for creating effective advertising and marketing. Learned while I worked at the Boston office of BBDO in the era of Phil Dusenberry and Allen Rosenshine (a golden time despite the fact the agency became better known to the general public as the outfit that set Michael Jackson’s hair on fire).
Can you guess the No. 1 magazine in your dentist’s office?
PROOF BOOK
Idea: Suspense in copy is motivating. True? Answer inside…
49-Point Checklist for Beating Your Control
What do you need to know to beat your control? The answers to this list of questions will provide a good start when working with outside creatives. Or—and especially—if you attempt to do it yourself.
What Now? What Next?
Costs are up. Response is down. Circulation is falling. Lists are exhausted. Offers are fatigued. Rules are changing. Subscribers are wary. Has there ever been a better time for new ideas in circulation? Here are some things you can do now to survive the tough times so you can positively thrive when — if ever — the going gets good.
Three magic words
Where do good ideas begin? Some do-it-yourself advice. In three words. Or less.
113 Certainties for Circulation Success
Here’s a list of tips, techniques, and truths to help you create winning subscription promotions. Do you know them all? Know a few more I should add? Reply before midnight.
Issue 1
OPEN LETTER
The myth of subscription direct mail is it gets very little response. In fact, it gets 100% response. Readers either love it or hate it. Remember it or forget it. Open it or throw it away. And to a degree far greater than you might imagine, how customers respond to your marketing is controlled by you.
