In these dark, foreboding, difficult economic times, it’s very easy to just curl up and just wake up when it’s all over. But, if you become paralyzed … cocooned into a shell …and cut your marketing to the bone … you might just wake up and have no publication. So, wake up now! There is no shelter from the storm.
Companies ARE doing business. People ARE buying. It’s just not as many people buying and it’s harder to make your subscription sale. So in Part 1, I have a few ideas for you - with more to come.
Idea #1. Have you considered an Advanced Renewal? I started my first magazine, many years ago, with very little capital. I quickly learned that advanced renewals (asking your subscribers to renew ahead of their expiration) could be a tremendous source of cash flow. I still occasionally run into my old service bureau account executive and to this day, he still remembers me as the Mr. Advance Renewals. I had no shame.
Advance renewals don’t work for all publications. They’re best when you have a specialty topic and subscribers who greatly love the publication. Typically, if you enjoy fairly high renewal rates, then you’re a candidate for advanced renewals. Here’s what you should know for successful offers -there are several little tricks you can use to improve the response, and most times I used them all in the same offer.
1) Offer a discount and/or additional issues for buying in advance.
Of course everyone likes a deal. The deal can be both in price or extended issues for your reader. Although I recommend a “cash-only” offer, you should certainly test bill-me offers.
2) Offer an attractive Premium(s).
And, then you add real impact by offering a powerful premium that’s only available through the advance renewal special offer. Additionally, you can put a value on it and sell it later for more profits. Typically I found editorial premiums worked the best and were also the cheapest. You’ve got writers – use them! And with your inside industry knowledge, you should be able to come up with a special report, directory or how-to video that your audience would die for – certainly advance renew for. Maybe you can even repackage existing content. The more the better -two premiums beat one-three premiums are even better.
3) Give a reasonable explanation for the advance renewal.
You can easily justify to your reader the need for advance renewals. Simply explain in your sales letter how it helps you to budget your publishing needs such as paper, postage and ink, in advance. I sure you can think of other areas in which you would save. For example, it would save you the cost of printing and mailing a renewal series. Further, it would save your reader from suffering through reading your renewal series or worse, expiring accidently by not responding.
4) Send your “Printed” offer by mail.
Although Email is the rage, I suspect you’ll get a much higher response with a traditional mail order package with letter, order card, business reply envelope and premium brochure The odds of your subscriber recognizing and opening your live mail is much higher with mail than email. However, following-up with email is a big plus. In fact you should create a separate website landing page that you can promote in the letter and in your emails. Let the reader receive your mailing first and then send a series of emails. The landing page should restate your offer and allow the reader to easily renew on-line. And don’t try selling something else at the same time – it’d just eat into your results. Keep it simple with only one offer.
5) Add a clear deadline and mean it.
Deadlines are important for all offers, but particularly with advance renewals. Impress upon your subscriber that the special price and free premium go away if you haven’t received their order by your firm deadline. Two to Four weeks is typical for the deadline but much depends on how you mail. First Class gives you more control of a quicker deadline, and I recommend it. Bulk mail, especially nationally, makes harder to control delivery times.
From my own experience, I would typically get 3% to 8% response rate. And that was with a “cash-only” offer. I like cash-only for advance renewals (check or credit card) – because it is a special offer. And, that means cash in your bank fast, which is the point.
It’s true that you’re borrowing from the future but probably much of your income would be deferred from a tax point of view until the next year. To me, Cash is King! Survival is a must right NOW- not LATER! Cash gives you more options. Cash gives you more time. This is NOT the time to do NOTHING. That said… maybe you should consider trying an advance renewal. If you do, let me know how it went. I’d love to hear your experience.
If you don’t have a system like Lynx Media’s First Edition to track your advance renewal response rates, let me know. You simply must have a system that quickly and simply reports response rates to you.