CTAs & Article Add-Ons

The simplest form of combining print and digital is by simply providing a call to action (CTA) in print that directs people to additional content or information online.  A call to action can be something as simple as a few words like “Web Extra – Visit magazine.com” or something a bit more visual like the image to the right.

Taking things to the next level, there is a great opportunity to make money with what we call an article add-on. For example, let’s say you are running a story in print about a local charity race. You could approach your local sporting goods store and offer to run an integrated campaign that includes a 1/3 vertical ad running adjacent to the story, an online advertorial, a banner ad and a newsletter blast. Instead of a traditional ad, the ad could read something like the following:

Stateline Sports Thanks All Race Participants for Their Generosity

Visit magazine.com/race-tips for great pre-race advice and to ask our experts questions

The advertorial would be something like “5 Tips to Get Ready for the Big Race”. You could then promote it further online with a banner ad enticing people to ask questions and engage with brand and the sponsors. Lastly, you can leverage your email list to further promote the race and the sponsor.

By combing elements from different channels, including print and web, the advertiser will be able to support their community while branding themselves as local experts and gaining significant exposure for their brand. Using CTAs and Article Ad-Ons are the most straight forward way to combine print and digital media.

Check out our Pinterest page for more print-to-web examples.

Augmented Reality

First off, what is augmented reality? According to Shweiki Media, “Augmented Reality (AR) is the layering of media (video, music, text, picture, graphics, animation) on top of a live video feed or real world environment in real time to create an interactive experience.” Given that definition, it’s no surprise that augmented reality is all the rage right now. Video, interactive, and real time are buzz words that you hear all the time and augmented reality samples from all them and more.

Let’s take a look at a simple example that would be perfect for a tourism focused magazine. Let’s assume that you magazine is distributed to local hotels and B&B’s. You could approach one of these establishments and offer an augmented reality campaign which would include an ad in print and an augmented digital campaign that could list nearby restaurants, today’s events, or other local attractions. It could include videos, maps and even special offers from other nearby businesses.

The down side to augmented reality, of course,  is that compared with some of the other options, it’s a bit more advanced but it is getting easier and easier to implement with tools like the one by Layar.

Make sure to check out these other great examples from Shweiki’s full article on how to “Bring Print to Life with Augmented Reality”.

QR Codes

QR codes, like the one listed to the right, have enjoyed a roller coaster like ride in terms of popularity. Advocates say it’s the easiest way to drive traffic to a specific page online without having to use unwieldy links in print. Pundits however counter that it creates an unnecessary step without creating a lot of value. Go ahead! Try and use the QR code listed here. It will likely demonstrate whether you are an advocate or a pundit. My personal opinion is that there is a time and place where they make sense (like directly people to an Augmented Reality App) but typically I shy away from them in favor of more traditional CTAs and Article Add-Ons.

Social Promotions

Social promotions, like a sweepstakes or a voting contest, might not appear to be very conducive to combing print and digital media at first glance, but if designed the right way can provide a valuable asset for your publication.

For example, a contest with a prize to be on the next cover of the magazine would foster the kind of back and forth you desire since there is a reason to go online to enter as well as to pick up a print edition to see the final result. This is obviously a more involved example but it could be as simple as announcing the promotion in print before the contest and then congratulating the winners of the promotion in the next issue. In either situation, this provides a great opportunity to thank sponsors in print which allows you to charge a premium for your promotions.

Digital Editions

I’d be remissed not to mention digital editions. They inherently combine print and digital but they fail to drive engagement or create any true value for the publisher and little to no value for the advertisers. Readers have no incentive to read the digital edition because it exactly the same as print and if they do visit the website to look at it, it misses a huge opportunity to be engaging and interactive. Check out this video from Locable founder Brian Ostrovsky:

The post 5 Ways to Combine Print and Digital Media to Grow Your Brand appeared first on Locable.

“Many readers utilize a magazine’s social media platforms for the same reason that they pick up the print edition in the first place–to enter contests, check out promotions, and cash in on coupons. What this breaks down to is that a publisher can share similar information across multiple interfaces (both print and social media), and users will remain interested and engaged. This is a strategy every publisher should take advantage of.” – Shweiki Media

This advice from Shweiki Media shouldn’t come as a surprise. Print has many limitations that are easily overcome with the use of social media.

First, it gives readers the opportunity to connect more often, especially when the print version is only available once per month, or worse once per quarter.

Second, it allows readers to come together to create a community and engage with the magazine they already love and with fellow readers that have similar interests.

Third, it allows the publisher to enrich the magazine experience by delivering interactive content that couldn’t be included in print.

Publishers need to embrace that digital is an extension of the print version of their magazines. They can and should play off each other, a strategy we call Print-to-Web. For example, an article in print that includes recipes could have an extension online where users can upload their own recipes to be voted on by their peers. This incentives sharing with social media and gently drives further engagement. You could even host a final event where prominent figures in the community judge the top 10 vote getters and pick a winner thereby using one article to reach your audience online, in print and in person. A win-win-win!

These types of promotions provide several opportunities to increase your bottom line both on and offline. You could:

• Sell a sponsorship for the contest (ex: The King Arthur Flour Baking Contest) or multiple sponsorships
• Sell an online advertorial (ex: A local bakery could provide 5 baking tips)
• Sell additional print advertising as an article add-on (ex: The same local bakery above could purchase an ad that would appear next to the original story that offers to answer questions online for the duration of the contest and also promotes their advertorial thereby branding themselves as the expert in the area)
• Work with a local restaurant to host the final judging event therefore driving business for them
• Sell banner ads to other business with complementary products or services (ex: grocery stores, home goods stores, cooking schools, etc.)

Regardless of the topic, publishers need to look at every article in print as an opportunity to connect, interact and engage with their readers online (and in person). The real bottom line is about building community and providing relevant information, entertainment and in some cases news. The rest will come naturally as long as you commit to thinking that digital is just as important as print.

The post How Publishers Can Increase Their Bottom Line with Social Media appeared first on Locable.

Figuring out how to create a brilliantly designed cover can be heart wrenching or hilarious, or fall anywhere in between. Without question, remarkable magazine covers have made history…and sales. Here are 12 rules for designing remarkable covers.

1. Content beats design. Without a good story…your effed.
2. People buy emotionally, then justify their decisions logically. Provoke any of these 6 emotions. Love, joy, surprise, anger, fear or interest.
3. Pick colors for your cover on purpose. Your color palette is in your photo.  Zoom in, pull it out with your Doppler tool, use the color wheel to find complementary and analogous colors. (Not that Doppler tool…the one on your computer.)
4. Take some risks when designing covers. If people talk about it, bad or good…it’s good.
5. Use a generous dose of  W  H  I  T E  S P A C E. Negative space is very positive.
6. Use only two typeface families. Dos (that means two).
7. Photography sells better than illustrations. Great cover photograpy…easier said than done my friend.
8. Jaw-dropping relevant benefits. Remember you are competing with hundreds of other publications.  Your cover should visually communicate clearly and effectively what the reader can expect from the magazine.  Sell the sizzle, baby…
9. Use numbers. “10 Richest People in the World ” better than, “Some Rich People.”
10. Ask (yourself): What are we selling?
11. Answer (the reader): “What’s in it for me?” (WII-FM)
12. Break the rules. Here are some great covers that follow… and break the rules.

The post 12 Rules for Designing Remarkable Covers appeared first on Locable.

If you identify and/or take offense with any of these portrails we’re happy to help

The Beauty Queen – High quality photography and paper, jeweler’s generally adorn the inside cover (often highlighting a very expensivewatch). Great content, great ads, but generally light on engagement – a bit of an arms-length publication that often has significant distribution in hotels signifying readers are visitors not locals.

The Old Pro – While not explicitly an age identifier, longevity in the industry is absolutely a part of this publisher. They’ve seen it all – at least until they stopped looking about a decade ago. Because of all the empty promises and flash-in-the-pan technology that have popped up over the last 15 years or so they believe ALL technology is just a fad or fundamentally useless (never mind the fact that they use email, software to layout the publication digitally and a slew of other modern marvels). Unfortunately, this publisher simply preempts innovation within their company rather than applying the wisdom that should have come from experience.

The Marketer – A sales person’s publication that may walk the line of a coupon mailer, often lacks refined design but delivers high value impressions and real-estate (including cover presence) to advertisers. Often derided for lack of editorial / advertising separation or willingness to write in exchange for ads purchased.

The Technophile – An early-adopter publisher that embraces, well, everything… Mobile apps, flipbook, any tech will do. QR codes? Those are so 2009, we’re now doing Augmented Reality because what’s really missing from a print magazine is video.

The Editor – High-brow editorial at the sacrifice of relevance or profit, often the publication is a hobby masquerading as a profession. Spends hours sweating the little things like a misplaced comma while major strategic or tactical aspects of the business go completely unaddressed.

The Defeatist – Always on the verge of going out of business – even when they’re not, think Eeyore with a magazine. Some advertisers seem to buy ads, not to grow their business but because they want to support their local publisher (who makes them think they’re on the verge of going out of business). Like The Editor the Defeatist struggles to run their business like a business extending terrible payment terms to advertisers and offering credit to new businesses without so much as a credit check.

The Starving Artist – Writer, editor, graphic designer who doesn’t run it like a business. You’re starting to see a theme, like The Editor and The Defeatist The Starving Artist struggles to get into a rhythm both on the day-to-day activities and in general as they run the publication. Unlike the other two similar types, this person is genuinely busy because they won’t allow other people to contribute thinking they must do it themselves or, worse, thinking they’re the best person to do each (very different) aspect of producing a publication.

The Pragmatist - Sadly, less common than hoped for they approach their business with fresh eyes each day looking for ways to grow the business and remain relevant while delivering true value to advertisers and unique insights to readers. Like a great salesperson, they constantly look to refine their craft and evolve knowing that publishing is about storytelling not paper and ink. They tend to be profitable, disproportionately so, and optimistic and while they don’t fully understand all of the facets of the changing media landscape unlike The Old Pro this doesn’t keep them from exploring opportunities to grow their business and leverage their leadership position moving forward.

While this was created as a fanciful way to have some fun with the people we’ve had the pleasure of interacting with over the last 4 years there’s also a lot of truth and we believe that knowing yourself is important – in life and in business. If you identify with one or more of these folks we challenge you to embrace the opportunity to grow, yourself and your bottom line, by trying something new.

If you want to learn how Locable saves publishers time and money while improving their digital presence (website, FB, email) and, as a result, drive new digital revenue… basically, turning digital from a cost center to a profit center then please contact us to schedule a demo of what we can do for you (and your advertisers and your community).

P.S. did we miss any publisher classifications that should be added to the list?

The post What type of Publisher are you? appeared first on Locable.

If there’s anything our increasingly digital world shows us is how little control we have. Do you have a server in your office that hosts your website? Did you build it and do you maintain it? If the answer is “no,” as it is about 99% of the time, then you don’t have control. And, in reality, you don’t want that control. Data centers are far better places to host websites than offices (yes, we’re cloud hosted but that cloud resides in data centers). You may be able to build a website but are you really the best person to build cutting edge software for an emerging industry? If you are, you shouldn’t be publishing a local magazine.

Business comes down to two things: what is the best use of your time and how do you exert influence over the right partners/employees/customers? Control is a mistake, control leads to residing over a kingdom of 1 rather than an empire of millions.

As you think about the evolution of your business, if you’re not thinking about how your business is evolving then invest in a new resume, think about what values you and your business holds dear, what value you want to deliver to your community and advertisers and then seek partners that are well aligned and can bring expertise to bear on your behalf to help you get there.

Do you want to build a stronger community where you live? Are you looking for ways to add new value to advertisers? If so, contact us about our Locable Affiliate Network – we’re revolutionizing local media by creating a network of incredibly relevant local sites in partnership with local publishers. Join a 1-hour educational webinar (See webinar agenda) and we’ll show you how – don’t forget to ask how much money is currently being spent on digital advertising in your county.

The post The Illusion of Control – Publishing is about Influence appeared first on Locable.

Once a week everyone receives the not so worthwhile junk mail full of overlapping advertisements addressed to “Our Valued Customer.” If you want your customer to feel valued and you want to get a good return on your money, you need to take a few minutes and think about a few key factors that will keep your direct mail efforts from becoming junk mail.

As part of the brainstorming process, consider some of the following tips and come up with a game plan before spending money on your next direct mailer.

Audience

Who are you marketing to with this mailer? Without a defined audience, you might as well be throwing your money out of a moving car. Your audience will determine 90% of your marketing strategy. They determine your message, purpose, design, and much more.

Message

You have always heard that it’s not what you say, but how you say it. This is even more true when it comes to a direct mail campaign. Depending on your design and medium, you may be limited on space, therefore you must be concise. Think about the junk mail you get. If it has too much reading and no attention grabbing visuals, are you likely to read it? Probably not.

Before printing your materials, proofread your draft over and over again. In the world of auto-correcting technology, you have to pay extra close attention to your draft. Typos can ruin your reputation as a business or confuse your customer. There is a difference between “Prescription Delivery for Fee” and “Prescription Delivery for Free”.

What are you trying to accomplish?

An important part of any marketing is to determine what goal you are looking to accomplish. Is this mailer for customer retention, attracting new customers, or advertising your new location?

Design

Looking back at your audience and your message, what is going to be the most engaging way to design this mailer. Maybe you can create a theme based on your product or service. For example: You run a tanning salon, and you’re looking to capitalize on the upcoming spring breakers. Theme your mailer around a trip to the beach. It will help relate your message to the customer and convince them that they need what you offer.

Printed Incentives

Whether you’re attracting new customers or retaining loyal customers, printed incentives can help make your direct mailer an effective piece of marketing. When considering incentives, first think about what your customer is worth. Can you afford to give a free large pizza to 10,000 people if they all take you up on your offer?

How will you follow up?

So you are about to spend a pretty penny on your well designed, well planned out mailer. How will you determine whether or not it was effective and worth that shiny penny? Before dropping off the postcards at the post office, have a plan for follow up.

One way for follow up is keeping track of your coupons. You may have offered 10% off your new service if the customer brings in the postcard you just sent. When they bring in the coupon, keep tabs on it. At the end of your promotion, tally up the results and evaluate the value of doing this promotion again.

You can also give a call to action in your mailer. Include in your message things like, “Like us on Facebook” or “Share your thoughts on Yelp!” to see the results of your mailing efforts.

What can you afford?

Unfortunately money is a large, sometimes limiting, factor in any form of marketing. I always recommend thinking large first and then scaling it back to fit your budget. Brainstorm what you would like to do, given you have the money, and then make it happen with what you can afford.

Involve the customer

Use this mailer to drive increased traffic on your website, Facebook, or Twitter page. The more people you have viewing your website or Facebook page, the more FREE marketing you can do. It’s much more cost effective to update your Facebook status with your new special than to send 3,000 newsletters at $0.45 a piece.

An easy way to get traffic is by placing a QR code on your mailer. QR codes allow your customer to connect with you using their smart phone.  One unique thing about the QR code is that you can have it link directly to a particular part of your website or straight to your Facebook page.

Timing is everything

When you buy clothes, you buy them according to the season- jackets in the winter, shorts in the summer. This is relevant to your company too. Selling frozen yogurt during the summer may be a walk in the park, but may be more difficult when it’s cold outside. Therefore, it would make sense for a frozen yogurt shop to develop a strong customer base through a direct mailer during the summer time and not in the winter months.

What are the comps doing?

To gain a competitive advantage, consider what your competitors are doing. Another store may offer a similar product or service for $5 more than your current price. Seize this opportunity to advertise your potential for saving their customer money.

Similarly, if you’re looking to host a grand opening or new store location, you want to make sure that your business isn’t doing it so close to another competitors grand opening. You want the customers’ full and undivided attention.

Format

The layout and overall format of your direct mail is critical. This can often be determined by several factors. For example, what can you afford to do, how much space do you need, what is your purpose?

If you’re a new start up and your budget is tight, a smaller publication is probably best. One, it will save you money on printing, but it will also save you on postage- it adds up quickly when mailing thousands of people. You can consider sending a postcard, flyer, or newsletter-type mailer. It all depends on your needs and budget.

Although there isn’t a fail-safe way to guarantee that everyone will read your mailer and in turn purchase your product, it helps to consider a lot of the small details to make it as effective as possible.

For more information, visit www.shweiki.com.

The post Direct Mail vs. Junk Mail: How To Use Your Mailings Effectively appeared first on Locable.

Think you understand the changing media landscape?

We find publishers are busy people, they run a publishing business after all. More than that, media is changing fast. How you make money online is changing even faster and keeping pace isn’t practical for publishers – especially local understaffed publishers. That’s where Locable comes in.

Locable is a turnkey solution for publishers looking to become relevant in an increasingly digital age.

The Locable Webinar has the following modules:

• Current state of local-digital advertising and projected growth
• Overview of competitive landscape – from Google to Yellow Pages to web-only plays to service providers, nearly all sell against print!
• Ways to make money with digital – we cover the top-10… publishers usually think it’s all about banner ads – not so! Our Revenue-First approach means that with 3 hours of work you can make your first $1000 (it’s pure profit folks) and sustain that from month to month!
• Types of local content – there are 8 types on on-site content plus Facebook & email… just putting your magazine online doesn’t cut it
• Locable Affiliate Case Studies – How we drive revenue, traffic & engagement today
• We help you understand your unfair competitive advantage and, very importantly, how you can succeed online with very little effort by doing the right things!
• How to leverage your print product to drive web content & traffic – you’re probably doing it wrong today
• How Locable fits in as a partner: a technology provider, a digital expert that continually trains your staff, as another set of hands operationally (we provide the fulfillment), as a network that gives you scale to accompany your local relevance.

Do you want to be relevant and profitable online? Limited staff, limited resource, simply don’t want to have to become the digital expert? Digital revenue isn’t a pipe dream when you do the right things, Locable is here to help and we’ll show you how other publishers just like you are making money today with minimal effort by extending the things they’re already doing. Contact us to schedule a webinar today!

The post What’s this webinar Locable wants me to attend appeared first on Locable.

Staying busy isn’t enough, working efficiently on the right things is what matters. Having a partner is even better.

Surely being slow isn’t good for business but I mean busy as in focusing on the wrong things and missing revenue, even strategic revenue, because of said busy-ness. A startup blogger once wrote,

“Sure, setting up your home network and printer is important but don’t mistake that for working.”

How does this connect to local publishers?

Well, last fall I had a regional advertiser here in Northern California that had a budget that they needed to spend, target markets in mind and a willingness to pull the trigger. The only problem is that a couple of the markets were areas Locable didn’t yet have an affiliate i.e. a publisher-partner. So, I called a few publishers to introduce Locable and mentioned this advertiser (by name) that was interested in their market.

Not one but two different publications failed to follow up with me – here I am waiving money at them. When we finally connected I was informed that they were pretty busy… busy doing what that’s more important than growing your revenue?

To be sure, some of the revenue was non-traditional as in they weren’t buying display ads but rather social promotions. But, as we said with our recent post, social promotions are profitable ways to grow your Facebook Fan-base and your email opt-ins as a side-effect.

As a business owner intellectual curiosity is a prerequisite to remaining competitive over the long haul and as a business in an industry as dynamic and evolving as media is today having the foresight to investigate new opportunities isn’t just about remaining competitive it’s about staying in business. To be sure, some publishers chase every recent fad and that’s equally destructive but if you combine intellectual curiosity with a healthy does of skepticism you can find true, sustainable, value-adding opportunities that seamlessly plug into your business… like becoming a Locable Affiliate.

If you want to learn more about efficiently evolving into a media business from a publishing business while adding new value to readers and advertisers contact us to schedule a 1-hour webinar.

The post Are you guilty of being too busy to be profitable? appeared first on Locable.

Why are local magazines so popular?

Most local magazines do a very good job of engaging and inspiring their readers. They focus on niche audiences, like a local community, or on a niche topic, such as computing. This focus is attractive to both readers and advertisers who want to identify with that target market. In short, local magazines are incredibly relevant and a positive voice for their community – more than that, the experience of reading a printed magazine is far superior to reading the same content online!… at least when done right.

If magazines are so popular, why do I need to embrace digital?

There are two main reasons why you need to embrace digital. First, is that as readers become more sophisticated, they want to interact with brands they trust in more than one way. For example, say they receive your magazine in the mail and read your article on a chocolate shop. Later that day, they might be out on Main Street and get an urge for chocolate. Having seen the article earlier, they decide they want to see if it’s as good as the article says, but wait! They don’t know where it is. If they pull out their phone and browse to your website, what will they find? If the answer is not “an easy way to find that chocolate shop”, then we have a problem. We’ve missed an opportunity to drive real revenue for your advertiser but more importantly we’ve let down the reader.

Second, people desire instant gratification and want to interact with their community on a daily basis. So even for publications with a monthly distribution, this is often not enough. Having a community website is the perfect way to bridge the gap between issues. It allows both the advertisers and the readers an instant way to interact which is a win-win. Going back to the example of the Chocolate shop, we could provide (and charge for) additional value by running a social promotion that would highlight the chocolate shop on your website and drive real revenue and foot traffic for them. At the very least, they could be in your directory so that the reader that pulls out their phone can find them easily and have their chocolate.

How is digital different than print?

Magazines are great for branding, but they lack one important ability when it comes to building a community. ENGAGEMENT. Now I’m not talking about an engaging story, I’m talking about the ability to interact with the story. When building a digital community is should be thought of as an extension of print that allows the reader to interact with you on a daily basis. For example, you run an article in print on How to Plan for Retirement. Likely, people that choose to read this story will have questions, but in print there is no interactive forum for them to ask them. Online however, you could have the author host a free Q&A session via email. This acts as a lead generation tool for the author (likely a financial planner) and provides additional value in the form of engagement to your readers. This type of Print-to-Web campaign ads more value for the advertisers and allows you to justify a higher price because you have both a print component (an article add-on that tells people to go online to ask questions and also acts as a branding ad next to the story) and a digital component (the forum to ask the questions which generates leads).

You can see from the above examples that there are lots of opportunities to grow your publication online but you have to have the right strategy in place to take advantage of these opportunities. Leveraging your print readership is a powerful way to build your digital presence and provides a significant competitive advantage over those that try to do one without the other.

At a time when we see publishers pulling back on paper quality or color, ensuring their product is a treat to read should be at the top of the list. Our print-partner Shweiki Media, works with short run publishers to help them get the most out of their print budget. Printers are not one-sized fits all. You need to ensure you have the right printer for your particular situation.

For more information on why magazines are so popular check out 10 Reasons to Advertise in Print Media from Shweiki Media.

The post Why Are local Magazines So Popular? appeared first on Locable.

Well, Locable has always contended that content, traffic and revenue are not mutually exclusive and has worked with our Affiliates to implement a digital strategy that is both effective and easily manageable by local publishers with very lean organizations. More recently, we have incorporated an expanded use of Social Promotions which is proving to be incredibly powerful.

Why are social promotions so powerful?

Well, it’s been a month since we wrote about a few of the contests our affiliates have run and in that time we have solidified our Social Promotions playbook and have run a number of additional contests & sweepstakes both on-site and on Facebook. All have been extremely successful generating revenue, driving traffic through incentivized social sharing, building engagement (literally growing the # of likes on Facebook) and growing opt-in email lists.

Within the local sphere there are multiple ways to deliver value to businesses and thus generate revenue, some are one-off, some are contracted, some are recurring but they all require their own nurturing. When you strategically implement a digital strategy with Locable we work with you to drive digital revenue and grow reach immediately which lays the foundation for larger but longer-term revenue opportunities. The myriad of ways we drive revenue is beyond the scope of this email but we cover them in our webinar, be sure to join us for a free educational webinar which will show you exactly where the threats and opportunities lie and how Locable can partner with you to address them.

The near-term revenue is a nice profitable catalyst while the long-term revenue is recurring.

Social Promotions, comprised of contests and sweepstakes, are fun for the community, great for sponsors and easy to sell. Here’s an example of the sorts of things we provided to our Affiliate publishers for Valentine’s Day promotions: http://locable.com/the-ultimate-valentines-giveaway/ which we ran on their Facebook page or website directly via our Community Content Engine. In all cases, Locable acts as our Affiliates Virtual Digital Sales Manager prepping your sales team for the sale, providing marketing materials and in some cases closing. Once sold, Locable implements the contest and thus acts as your digital back-office allowing you to drive incremental revenue from existing advertisers or prospects with no additional workload – oh, and you get more traffic, grow your Facebook fan-base and email list in the process.

The post Social Promotions – Driving Digital Revenue from Go appeared first on Locable.