Folio: Plus CIRCULATION

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Jan, 2001 by Barbara Love

* Rethink your circulation in terms of the Internet

Online communication focuses on the user, not necessarily on content, says Nick Cavnar, vice president, circulation, Intertec Publishing. "I've always talked about the three-legged stool in the publishing model--circulation, editorial, sales' he said at a recent FOLIO: seminar. "The focus on all three of these is the magazine. But now our focus is much more on the user. If you start doing e-commerce, you may be creating sites that are not particularly content-driven. Certainly the content that we have is an enormous asset online, but I think there is an even greater asset-an existing database. We should stop thinking of our database as just "controlled subscribers," and start thinking of it as "registered information users." There's a big question now: How do you get people to register online? But if you have been involved in a controlled-circulation environment, you have been registering people for years--asking them to give you information that identifies them, who they are and what they do. In many cases, we now have huge databases with physical addresses and e-mail addresses. We already have an identifiable registered group of users who have given us permission to send them our content and messaging information. I no longer describe my job as controlled circulation or circulation management. I explain that I leverage our company's free content to get users to register and give us permission to send them marketing messages. The odd thing is that many people understand that who never understood why I gave away free subscriptions."

* Look for brand-related contest opportunities

Sweepstakes still pull in huge numbers for circulators, but many readers consider them suspect. So instead of using sweeps, Playboy is using brand-related contests. "We think of what the brand has to offer that's appealing' says Phyllis Rotunno, vice president-subscription circulation. Contest prizes include brand-related items such as tickets to a Playboy jazz festival, a trip to the Playboy mansion, being a Playboy photographer for a day, meeting a Playboy bunny, and so on. "Every magazine has the opportunity to do this if you really look for it," she says. "You have to find something that is appealing to your audience and play on that. Not every magazine has a mansion, but every magazine has something appropriate. This Old House could have a contest where the winner gets to work with Norm Abram on an old house, for example." There are also opportunities to get contest prizes from advertisers, she points out. Playboy has offered as prizes a Dodge Viper and a Titan Motorcycle. Now a guitar advertiser wants t o offer a guitar as a prize. "Contests are difficult," Rotunno adds. "But there is no stigma attached to them. They are also short-term; prizes are awarded in a few months. They are good for advance renewals or one-time offers. You can't do them all the time, but we get away with it several times a year."

* Push the envelope with your fulfillment house

What do you do when you want to work with foreign credit cards or foreign subscription tapes, or to integrate Internet and print subscriptions into one database--and your fulfillment company can't do it? "Push the envelope," says Brenda Stuthard, president, BMS Consulting Inc., Powell, Ohio. Stuthard, a Fulfillment Management Association's Fulfillment Manager of the Year, believes publishers should not accept a fulfillment house's limitations. "Some of the best clients are the ones who keep pushing us to do new things," she told FOLIO:Plus. "They end up getting what they want, and usually more. Both parties end up with a stronger relationship that truly becomes a partnership. Publishers should absolutely try to push the envelope. It's the only way they'll be able to improve and test new marketing ideas. The ideal fulfillment house, or any supplier, is the one that can anticipate the client's needs and commit the resources--time and people--to those capabilities before the client even asks. The whole idea of b eing a service provider is to help your client grow. And if you help your client grow, you help your company grow."

* Don't have a Web newsletter? Start one

Of the off-site Internet marketing ideas available today, newsletters are hot right now, says Joyce Swingle, consumer marketing director, Business Week. "They are working like gangbusters," she says. "If you don't have one on your site, you should." Why are they so hot? "The name of this game is the same as it is in traditional media," she says. "You need names and addresses. You start to collect them when you offer a subscription. Getting a subscription via the Web requires more patience than direct marketing because the cultivation of the customer is a bit different. We're used to sending a mail piece and getting a response and calling it a win or a loss. In the Web you sort of woo people. A newsletter is one way to do it, and it really works." Swingle points out that there is an ancillary benefit to Web newsletters: "Every advertiser on the Web wants to be in the newsletter, so you'll sell out your newsletter fast. If you don't have your own newsletter on your own site or someone else's site, she says, buy into newsletters on other sites that are complementary to you." Swingle also suggests partnerships and CPM buys. Just having your Web address on traditional off-site marketing locations--coverwraps, buckslips on renewals and bills, direct mail, insert cards and other advertising--is good for branding, but only efforts designed to push the Web site lift traffic and sales, she finds.