Develop a Demographic Profile
Both large and small businesses are usually interested in finding out demographic information about magazine readers in advance. Spend some time developing a demographic profile of readers to get magazine advertisers for your publication. This can be done by conducting surveys in early issues of your magazine or hiring a market research firm to develop the demographic profile. It helps potential advertisers determine whether or not your magazine will be a good investment in their marketing plan. The surveys or research can include your readers’ income, education level, shopping interests, marital status and any other information that will help to get magazine advertisers.
Search the media kits of other magazine publications and popular websites to learn more about demographic profiles. The demographic information about your magazine is not difficult to collect and can even get done faster if you offer incentives to readers who complete a survey. Demographic profiles are usually based on averages from a large volume of responses. Therefore, choosing to survey 10-20 readers of your magazine may not produce the best results for an accurate demographic profile. Publishers can learn how to get magazine advertisers that will sponsor multiple issues, using a demographic profile.
Allow Readers to Buy Advertisements
Large corporate advertising accounts seem to be the main focus of magazines published around the world. You could be missing out on potential advertising revenue by adopting the same approach to get magazine advertisers. Offer sponsorship or per-issue advertisement opportunities for your readers. Sales may increase if you also provide design services for their advertisements based on pre-designed templates to keep work hours at a minimum. Readers would likely advertise in a magazine to congratulate students, promote their own events or list birthday announcements.
Use Magazine Space for Classified Advertisements
There are lots of magazines that do not provide a classified advertisement section in their publication. As a result, small and new magazines are especially affected by the decision to skip classified ads and bring in less revenue. Use one page for classified advertisements to get magazine advertisers that cannot afford the larger display ads. In this scenario, magazine advertisers pay a significantly smaller fee for basic text advertisements in your publication. While they are basic in design, classified ads can be made to match your overall magazine layout.
Offer Advertorials
Small and large publications can utilize the skills of their writing staff to get magazine advertisers. Charge a premium rate for sponsored editorial content and featured articles in your magazine. These “Advertorials” are designed to look like a regular article while indirectly promoting a magazine advertiser. Some magazines that include advertorials do so as a bundle package with orders for separate full page ads in their publication. The sponsored articles should be highlighted as such at the top or bottom page for disclosure to your readers.
