Ideas! Ideas! Ideas! And More Ideas For Successful Magazine Management

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 1, 2002

DESIGN

No Redesign is Forever - Bring Back Your Best Type

Don't make the mistake of thinking that newer is always better. After a redesign (or three) you might find yourself pining for your magazine's old look. But just because you've had a makeover doesn't mean you can't go back to salvage some touches worth keeping. Just make sure you do it in a way so your readers aren't startled - subtlety is key.

The most graceful way to recall an old look is through use of type. Dusting off a typeface you once thought as hopelessly retro and reusing it - either by tweaking the type itself or using it in a new place - can stir good memories in readers rather than bore them. In a redesign for National Geographic Traveler, design consultant and Time Inc. editor at large Michael Grossman reused type from maps in the flagship magazine. "By taking some old typefaces used in the magazine when the baby boomers were growing up," Grossman says, "Traveler, in a way, looked more like National Geographic than National Geographic did, and it spoke in a fuzzy, warm way of distant lands."

TELEMARKETING

How to Get Over Hang-ups

Remember the "Seinfeld" episode in which Jerry gets a call from a telemarketer? Jerry, ever waggish, tells the person on the other end of the line that he can't talk. "Can I get your number and call you back?" he says. There's a pause, then: "Now you know how I feel!" as he hangs up. If only that telemarketer had known how to ask questions.

"Regardless of whether it's an inbound or an outbound strategy, I rarely see enough questioning skills," says Bill Gessert, founder and president of TeleSolutions Consulting, Inc. To improve sales, telemarketers need to ask "one or two questions to better understand the potential need that might exist with the person or the business that we're talking to," he says.

To enhance your chances of getting a sale, spark a conversation instead of a monologue. Start with one inquiry, listen to the answer and build subsequent questions based on the prospect's response, offers Gessert.

A sample script? "I might get you on the phone and say, 'Hi, I'm calling from Runner's World magazine, and today we have some information we're going to send out to you. But first I just have a couple of quick questions for you to make sure it's of value to you. In terms of your exercise regimen, what kinds of things do you do?'" Gessert says. "It's a good, open-ended question, and allows the person to respond. You may find that running is not their number one thing, but there are nutrition articles and exercise schedules in Runner's World that will help any athlete. And if I find out that fitness is one thing you're into, I may be able to sell you the magazine even though you might not be a runner."

Gessert acknowledges that starting a dialogue isn't easy. The best scripts and the most ambitious telemarketers will still get their share of hang-ups. But, says Gessert, you have a better shot at closing the sale if you depart from the traditional approach of pitching the subscription in the first few seconds of the call.

PRINTING/PRODUCTION

Maximize Profits by Getting Personal

Forget about the ethical misgivings of Maxim's "Greatest City On Earth" issue. (As part of an April Fools' prank, the magazine named 13 cities "the greatest.") Instead, think of the marketing and newsstand possibilities of printing 13 different versions of a magazine to target different cities. That's where magazine publishing is heading, says R.R. Donnelley & Sons' president and CEO, William Davis. To accommodate advertisers' increasing demands for more targetability and to capture the interest of media-saturated consumers, publishers should consider customizing their ads or content based on specific readers or regions, he says. This printing technology, known as selective binding, has been available for some time, but Davis says there's a renewed surge of interest in this area.

To maximize targetability, publishers first need a strong knowledge of their customers and their particular interests - psychographic data is key here. This information will not only help hone the message, it will supply better segmentation for advertising sales purposes, says Davis. From a production standpoint, there are several options. "Publishers can personalize either by inserts or with special signatures - sets of pages that are binded into only certain copies," says Davis. "The bindery lines are flexible and allow us to mix and match certain sets of pages or other kinds of drop-in inserts. We can customize these by being able to stamp certain pages with certain messages - not a whole lot unlike what we do now when we address a magazine." Personalization isn't limited to the cover, says Davis. So the creative opportunities are boundless.

EDITORIAL

Newsstand Sales Sagging? Stick with Consumer Hot Buttons

Few publishers possess the good fortune of being able to rely on celebrity mugs like Rosie or Oprah every single month to sell their magazines. So when it comes to creating engaging, sure-sell covers, instantly connecting with reader hot buttons is crucial, says Michael Gold, principal with West Gold Editorial, a San Francisco-based editorial consulting group for magazines and Web sites. "Some editors get bored with [buzz words] and start doing things that may puzzle their readers because they're trying to keep themselves interested," says Gold. "But the truth is that most readers read your magazine because it's about specific areas they are truly interested in. If you don't remind them that their favorite hot buttons are being covered in every issue, they'll start wondering if they should pick up another magazine on the newsstand." The challenge is finding new ways to present those hot buttons. That's where creative editors earn their keep. "Call it editorial marketing," says Gold. "Finding interesting, creative ways to sell the same old territory you cover every month."