Loose insert marketing
23 May 2008
Loose insert marketing will always be popular
Here are some marketing proposals I can guarantee will get passed, because they cost next to nothing. From experience I can say these will prove popular with senior managers.
Making money appear out of a highly restricted budget is not easy, but that’s what many marketers are expected to do. The best way to approach the task is to imagine you are going broke and your company is desperate for cash. (That’s what many an M.D. would have you believe anyway.) Here is what you do:
How can you boost response to a loose insert?
Sadly, creating a loose insert represents the main marketing effort for many publishers. A loose insert, of course, isn’t marketing. For consumer publishers it’s simply changing the way you deliver your magazine to your reader. And for most controlled circulation publishers the revenue wouldn’t pay for an office party.
Most insert cards are copied from other magazines. That’s why they all look alike. We could choose almost any insert card for this demonstration.
It’s no help to be critical without being constructive. So with some creative thought we will turn things around. We will increase the revenue received from a typical insert without spending any more money.
Six ways to boost response to your insert
Here are six measures to take. The we explain the resulting benefits:
1. Cut colour
2. Add in three and two year payment options
3. ‘Bill me’ orders accepted only. Cut out other payment options
4. Offer a more exciting incentive (extracted from a previous editorial feature?)
5. Include three inserts in your publication instead of one
6. Write your copy so the insert sells when it’s placed in other titles
The benefits
Here is what you have accomplished:
1. Printing in one colour: costs reduced
2. Including longer subscription terms: increase revenue by 10% to 15%
3. ‘Bill-me’ orders only: orders increase by 50% to 100%. Mailing list built up
4. Incentive: ‘red-hot’ report lifts response by 40%
5. Multiple inserts: 40% uplift in revenue
6. Insert swaps in other publications: lots more money for nothing
Costs have increased by printing more inserts, the free report for subscribers and running a billing series
However, you have reduced costs by printing in only one colour. And with each invoice you send out to new subscribers, you can up sell and up-grade your subscribers by selling ancillary products.
Your business will really start to rock and roll.
The subscription volume and revenue is multiplied many times. Because your mailing list is suddenly making great leaps in growth, you can sell other products and bring in new revenue through more frequent list rentals.
Most loose inserts are created and designed in house, and copied from others. But as a rule of thumb a specialist copywriter can usually increase response and revenue as described above by selling each publication on its unique benefits and steering things the right way.
You’ll find other inexpensive yet highly effective ways to bring in more money from your marketing spend on this website.
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