How to make education programs pay dividends - CMP's Channel Advocate Program

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov 15, 1994 by Suzanne Zelkowitz

Although there's a small fee for promotional materials and premium items, there is a channel merchandising and promotion book containing reseller and vendor success stories available at no extra charge.

Advocates can also use the logomedallion in all their advertising and direct-marketing campaigns. And this year, to increase recognition further, the Channel Group is holding its first annual Advocate of the Year/Reseller of the Year awards luncheon.

The Channel Advocate Program itself was not designed as a profit center, but it does have to break even. Although we didn't set out to charge a fee down the line, we also didn't set out planning to do proprietary research and road shows, or give discounts off our major conferences. That has evolved. So it's wise for publishers who are attempting this to think ahead about how to control the growth and how to allocate resources. The more that people like your program, the more they'll want.

As we've added services and realized the expectations for new information and education, we've achieved a critical mass requiring self-funding. So charter members will pay $1,000 annually starting January. And as of last month, 32 new vendors have paid up to get in on the program.

The Channel Group has been in existence for 12 years and has a rich history with its customers and readers. Publishers who have the history, the reputation and the knowledge to know what readers operating in a sophisticated and complex business environment want, as well as the ability to make the contacts to put in place formal programs that broadcast advertisers' messages to that type of circulation base, can implement education programs that pay off.