 |
Call us on 01733 891 860 (UK) or use this contact form |
 |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Moving communication campaigns into action |
|
|||
|
|
|
First step to a great customer magazine Here is a back issue of Marketing Booster, the email newsletter that Richard Groom writes and sends free every fortnight to subscribers. You can subscribe here or read over 60 back issues using the back issues index page. In a previous edition of Marketing Booster I looked at some of the 'winning marketing practices' examined by Philip Kotler in his book 'Kotler on Marketing'. One of them was to have strong points of difference from your competitors. I suggested that your marketing communications campaign is one place where you can stand out from the crowd. Since then, I have been helping a customer put together a new customer magazine and it's reminded me what an effective part these can play in a campaign: they can give you increased visibility, because they create a ready-made reason to keep in regular contact with people. There are a lot of good customer newsletters and magazines out there, but there are a lot of bad ones too. So here is a quick five-point checklist to get you started if you want to take the plunge and launch a customer magazine - and do it better than your competitors. It really does cover just the tip of the iceberg, but it should help you clarify a few essential things. Let me know if you have any questions about other aspects of magazines. Note: these tips are mostly about printed magazines, rather than e-zines. 1. What do you want to achieve? You will probably have general objectives such as raising your visibility. But what specifically do you want to achieve? Do you want to generate new leads by having people ask for more information? Do you want to cross sell, offering more products to existing customers? Coming up with one or two specific objectives might help you focus on what content to include. 2. Who do you want to reach? Will you send the magazine to every existing customer, or just a select group? Will prospective customers be included in the distribution? Will the magazines always be sent by mail, or used at trade fairs and exhibitions? Take some time to think about this. The more specific you can be about your audience, the easier it will be to create the content. So for example an optician might decide to produce a magazine for spectacle wearers over 40 who bought their last pair more than two years ago. This would be very different from a general magazine to every customer and prospect. But on the other hand, if you are too specific, you might not be able to use the magazine in response to new opportunities that might arise. There's no easy answer - except to think carefully before printing your first issue. 3. How often will you publish? The obvious way to do this is to work out your total annual budget, then come up with a number of cost scenarios involving different numbers of pages, different colour options, different frequencies and so on. If you choose a shorter, simpler format then you might be able to afford increased frequency (and visibility). But if you choose a twelve-page, full colour format then you might run out of money after issue one. Another tip is that it's probably best to commit to a less frequent option and get more frequent later on. You might look unprofessional if you start out monthly and then have to cut back due to time or budget constraints. 4. Can you add value to your readers? Magazines that just talk about the issuing company's products are perhaps more likely to go in the bin than ones with genuinely useful, value-adding content. Get a good balance between product plugs and objective, practical information. 5. Is a magazine really the best choice? Now you've done all that, just make sure you aren't launching a magazine just because it seems like a good idea. Explore some alternatives, such as a letter writing campaign, a series of leaflets on different subjects, telemarketing and so on. Sometimes other methods would achieve better results for less money. Copyright 2003 Richard Groom |