magazines

The range of magazines available in newsagencies is the one point of difference all newsagents in Australia share.  While there are other points of difference in individual newsagencies, magazine range is the one national point of difference.

Despite the challenges with the magazine distribution model, the migration of some print traffic to digital devices and other challenges around the print model I am confident that magazines will continue to play an important role in newsagency businesses for at least some years yet.  This is why I am always looking for and thinking about different ways to promote magazines in my newsagencies.

So, to my marketing tip for today, why not run a magazine focused shopper engagement promotion in your  newsagency…

MY FAVOURITE MAGAZINE

I see this as a very simple yet engaging in-store promotion.  It is unlike anything you would or could see in any other magazine outlet.  It is too customer engaging and too local to be of interest to supermarket, petrol and convenience outlets.

No, this promotion is designed for people who think about the magazines, people who have a relationship with the titles they purchase.

The idea is to engage with your shoppers about the magazines they like and through this to attract more shoppers to engage.  The subtle narrative I would hope for from such a promotion is: what a wonderful range of magazine titles there is in this newsagency and what a passionate group of regular and local shoppers who love these titles.  That has to be the goal for the more shoppers who realise the range and who connect with a regular visit the better.

Here is how I see a MY FAVOURITE MAGAZINE promotion.

1. Set aside a fixed time for the promotion: two weeks, a month.  You decide and stick to this period.
2. Before you start, review your magazine department, make sure that the layout is fresh and easy to navigate.  Also make sure that each section is anchored around a good strong title for that niche. your magazine department needs to sparkle!
3. Find a space near the front of the newsagency for a whiteboard or a wall of paper on which you can post customer entries / notes.
4. Headline the promotion space: MY FAVOURITE MAGAZINE and note some simple rules like:  Tell us your favourite magazine and let others share your passion.  You could a $50 worth of current issue magazines of your choice. Get your most creative team member to make this space look professional.
5. Work out your own prize package.  While I’d recommend it be free current issue magazines, you choose the value, the frequency of the prizes and how many.
6. Create a A5 entry form where they write: the title of their favourite magazine, some notes about why it is their favourite magazine and their name.  On the back have them put their phone number for contact purposes – maybe an email address to build your email database.
7. Kick off the promotion with entries from every employee and their family members.  I think that a white board or a wall with notes already will look more interesting.
8. Let the local newspaper know.  It could be a photo opportunity for them.
9. Get your team to hand entries to every shopper … drive engagement from the counter out. This is not something o do just once, do it through the week to engage with difference shoppers you see.
10. Offer pens for shoppers to fill the entries in then and there at the counter.  Encourage this with your team.
11. Send entry forms out with you customer accounts, with a note explaining the competition.
12. Keep a running total of the top five magazines by popularity of entries.  maybe augment this with a list of the top five selling titles.  This is where a white board can help as you can change it daily – butcher’s paper is just as good.
13. Encourage your team to hand out entry forms to browsers, yes even those who browse and never purchase. Who knows, getting out onto the shop floor and into the magazine department may lead to engagement which drives purchases.

That’s pretty much it.  As I said, this is a simple and local campaign designed to show off an important point of difference between your newsagency and other non-newsagency magazine outlets nearby.

I have not run this promotion as described.  It’s only something I have thought about in this format this week. I have run promotions where customers vote and others where we focus on top sellers in categories – but nothing like this where customer opinion and feedback for the magazine titles about which they are passionate is so vital.

If you try this marketing tip please share with us your experiences.  Also, let your magazine distributors and key publishers know.

Magazines are vitally important to the newsagency channel.  The value we harvest is up to us.  Local engagement around our point of difference is vital over the next couple of years.