“Supplies limited.” “Act now.” “Save big.” Traditionally, these are the bulletproof phrases not only in circulation promotion but also in all of direct response advertising.
In an age when newspaper and magazine publishers must cast their nets wider though — as “media providers” producing not only print-based content but also online videos — we must review our marketing dogma from the ground up.
When it comes to the sales language used in acquisition and retention programs, marketers must assess which new promotional phrases will present discounts in ways that grab consumers’ attention... and actually move the conversion needle.
Simply put, we must ask: What’s in a name?
Well, to certain star-crossed lovers, not much. Juliet held fast to the notion that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
Poets may still agree with her... but test panels rarely do.
Thanks to four hundred years of hindsight, circulation promoters in the United States (a brave new world in Shakespeare’s time) are reviewing their marketing strategies — and combing over every word of sales copy.
So if you haven’t already done so, today’s the day to review your control print and digital creative and see if there’s an opportunity to remove old chestnuts like “preferred discount” or “savings entitlement”. And then replace them with more distinctive verbiage such as “credit adjustment”.
Here are five proven ways to make the change right now:
1. DO NOT announce that your promotion is, well, a promotion...
Straight savings messages immediately tip off recipients that they are being advertised to — especially in a voucher format where you are asking prospects to send payment for a publication they may never have read before. There’s no faster way in an email subject line or on an outer envelope to announce that you are gunning for a person’s hard-earned money than by leading with standard discount copy.
Couching the savings instead as a credit adjustment removes the unspoken stipulation from such presentations. More of a focus is placed on the money coming to the customer... and away from the pounds that are filling the publisher’s coffers.
Using a pistol or double window die-cut, the credit amount show-through immediately sets the whole tone and theme of the interaction. The current trend of using an official business-look in mailings evolves one step further. Your DM doesn’t just resemble a bank document — it is now literally a financial communication (as the savings benefit is elevated in perception to the level of a monetary reward).
When the London Review of Books was looking to increase its presence in the US, the winning creative ended up turning the idea of savings on its head — by stating that a credit had already been applied to the recipient’s account.
In this case, the benefit to the prospect isn’t paying less for a trusted resource. Rather the reward is that same monetary amount presented as money in the bank. The documents then have an increased perceived value and are then placed in the same pile as important invoices or cheques... avoiding being immediately banished to the trash bin.
A head-to-head A/B envelope test for the same client reinforced this line of thinking. In fact, mirroring the look of an important air mail carrier — in concert with urgent “Do Not Discard” language — failed to win against the immediate reveal of the credit adjustment theme.
2. DO impart the sense of an existing relationship to prospects...
An ancillary advantage to credit adjustment copy is the fact that it hits the ground running with language that assumes an ongoing exchange between your brand and the names on your mailing list.
In a recent promotion for ESPN BASS, not only do references to the recipient’s account set the tone of a pre-existing connection, a you-centric statement of benefit entries also hits this point home.
The publication’s editorial mission is presented in terms of the consumer’s general interests — and is directly connected to the main reasons you are mailing them a promotion to begin with. Copy for this audience of fishing anglers in part reads:
“You want to catch bigger bass and more of them...”, “You demand proven tips that work where YOU fish...”, “You know a value when you see one...”
In this way the major unique selling points of the specific title can be illustrated by a clear understanding of who the reader is and exactly what s/he wants. (Again, the sales logic focuses on what the customer will receive — a credit adjustment as well as a bit of wish fulfilment.)
Working in concert with highlighting the consumer relationship, it is also important to educate prospects about your publication’s editorial staff. While the back of the order form for ESPN BASS gives brief bios on the champion fishermen and writers who present the magazine’s proven tips, such elements are especially successful when your title has celebrity or award-winning contributors.
For Hearst’s new O, The Oprah Magazine control, television staples “Dr Phil”, “Suze Orman”, “Dr Oz” et al are featured to leverage their familiarity and broad appeal.
3. DO NOT fall victim to anti-spam programs or “human filters”...
For years, savvy online copywriters have been tweaking their e-promotions and subject lines to avoid email spam filters. To get by these automated gatekeepers, circulation promoters will avoid tagged popular or overused phrases like “money making” or “financial freedom” — and avoid clichés in body messaging such as including “Dear” prior to a personalised greeting.
The same thinking should be employed once your message gets delivered digitally — or via the post box. Make sure your word choices do not trigger the human filter... wherein your prospects deem certain language to be too commonplace or see them as a come on.
“Limited-time savings”, “special discount”, and even “best offer” can all easily raise red flags for a reader. So think outside the inbox.
4. DO version your emails and print promotions to your expire lists...
By altering your HTML or lasering a message to your expire names, you can amplify the power of the three prior suggestions:
* You withhold announcing these are sales materials to a lapsed subscriber who once decided to stop giving you business.
* You make the most of an actual existing customer account by teasing the credit adjustment message.
* You avoid repeating the savings messages this name group was first converted under... thus avoid message fatigue and resistance to your new creative.
As of the writing of this article, Mother Earth News — a bi-monthly country lifestyle publication — is about to blast the following email: the email preview pane touts “Preferred Former Subscriber: We’re ready to instantly credit $25.70 to your account” — and acts like a business-like outer envelope in a mailed promotion.
Once clicked open, the illustrative elements and copy present a “Welcome-Back Credit” presentation... along with a risk-free invitation for recipients to see what they’ve been missing in the magazine.
While in most expire-focused creative I would take pains to list what new features exist since the prospect last read the publication, in this case Mother Earth News’ circulation department felt strongly they did not want to be at odds with the sense of tradition they’ve cultivated over the past forty years.
This minor roadblock made innovative credit language all the more important when communicating a bit of news to a past customer — and is a necessary ingredient in helping to coax this group back to the fold of current subscribers.
5. DO NOT be afraid to segment to more specific audience profiles...
I have seen major increases in standard voucher presentations when versioning to various interest groups. For one business publication in particular, announcing features that best spoke to either a technology- or design-minded reader increased response rates by over 200%. So there’s every incentive to do the same using this package theme.
Popular Science is currently putting such segmentation to the test — taking aim squarely at senior citizens who are more apt to spend time with a print magazine rather than interacting with an electronic edition.
In this case, copy discusses that a credit was applied... while at the same time promoting a “special rate adjustment for seniors only.”
Such a set up is just one further way to announce the connection between the recipient and particular ways the newspaper or magazine will meet the recipient’s entertainment, educational, and financial needs.
So what is in a name?
This question remains central to what we do as circulation marketers — and has been key ever since the infancy of general advertising.
It was then, at the turn of the 20th century, that a copywriter sent the following note to the partners of Lord & Thomas — a respected Chicago ad agency that was nonetheless located above a tavern:
“I am in the saloon downstairs, and I can tell you what advertising is. I know that you don’t know. It will mean much to me to have you know what it is and it will mean much to you.” — John E. Kennedy
The answer that Mr Kennedy famously shared was “salesmanship in print” - although today we must revise this slightly to “salesmanship in media”.
That is to say, if we’re selling hoovers door-to-door or subscriptions online and in print, we must first get our figurative foot in the door... lead with something of supreme interest to the consumer... and form a connection before an offer is ever presented.
Whether in today’s economy or in the Chicago of 1904 — or even 1590s Verona — the possibility remains that a rose by any other name might smell as sweet.
But if we never give our prospects a one-of-a-kind reason to breathe deeply and fall head over heels for our publications, there is only a dwindling chance that our efforts will retain their “dear perfection” (like Romeo in Juliet’s eyes).
So I urge you to put your best foot forward. Announce yourself. And test innovative promotional phrases that will start new business relationships... plus rekindle old ones.
