Editors and Freelance Writers; Can Custom Save the Dying Print Industry?

Couple of very relevant posts this week on the Junta42 blog. First, guest blogger Tom Peric' writes about the relationship between an editor and the freelance writer. Great information on how they work with each other, and what freelance writers can do to get more stories. Here's one of Tom's tips:

Cracking into the pack of writers used by a reliable editor can be very difficult even when you've shown, via clips or references, that you’re a pro. Editors don’t like taking chances, probably because they have been disappointed in the past. Hence a reluctance. Yes, ironically, they must always be on the lookout for new talent. Yes, your clips are good, but how do they know that a superb editor didn’t slave over your effort to make it good? Suggest to the editor that you might want to take an article, not for the next issue but several issues down the road. This way, you're offering the editor a way to deal with your work (kill the story) if he or she doesn’t feel your work doesn’t pass the test.

Second, in response to Mr. Magazine's Most Notable Magazine Launch of the Year, Joe Pulizzi contends that the hurting print industry may very well stay afloat due to the ongoing strength in corporate, custom magazines. Here's a take on why there may be continued opportunity for businesses regarding custom print magazines:

I believe that the number of traditional magazine launches will continue to go down (yes I know, big leap). More investment is going into online and print will continue to be challenging for marketers to measure results. So, publishers will continue to go online.

Second, less print means more opportunities for those still in the game - publishers as well as marketers.

Third, almost everyone I talk to or work with still LOVES print. As much as I believe in the growth of online and mobile (and I do), people interact and engage with print in ways that are difficult to replicate online. I still take about 10 magazines with me on every trip.

If you, as a marketer, buy into this, than you should consider some form of print custom communications as part of your content marketing plan.

2008 CPC Content Conference a Huge Success

It's hard to believe that when the Custom Publishing Council first started to talk about having a conference, it would be this successful. Two days of excellent speakers, 135 active attendees, sold out exhibitors, and a lot of great conversation and learning.

Here is a brief summary of the conference from my perspective. Also, check out Newt Barrett's blog, who has some great takeaways revolving around the conference content. For those interested in some pics, here are a few. Not as many as I'd like, but the CPC team is putting together the more professional videos and pics as we speak.

Thanks to Lori Rosen, Mike Winkleman, Jackie Cook and the rest of the CPC team for doing an outstanding job.

Big thanks to the following organizations, who gladly supported this first year event. Premier sponsor Nxtbook Media, gold sponsor Fry Communications, and the rest of our supporters including BPA Worldwide, Convera, Creel, D Custom, Lane Press, Publishers Press, Readex Research and Texterity.

Q&A with Eat Media's Ian Alexander

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ian Alexander, co-founder of Eat Media, a content marketing company out of New York. You can check out the full interview on the Junta42 blog, but here are a few highlights relevant to custom publishing.

Joe Pulizzi, Junta42: Content marketing isn't easy to understand. Many marketers are just getting the hang of it. How do you communicate the benefit of your services so that marketers understand why they should hire you?

Ian Alexander, Eat Media: First off, I always tell prospective clients, “You could do what we do, the question is do you want to do it, and what else could you be doing with that time?” When we are communicating the benefits of our content marketing services to a client, we want them to look at Eat Media as an extension of their marketing team, and as a way for their company to execute more quickly and thoroughly on content. Once you add up the time it takes to find the writers, write the assignment briefs, line up interviews, respond to questions, maintain style guides, not to mention a round or two of substantive editing, getting sign-off from stakeholders and working with the design team on art direction and execution, it becomes very apparent that it would be more efficient to have us manage their corporate content.

Junta42: Do you think that marketers are starting to "get" that they need to distribute valuable and ongoing information to their customers and prospects?

Eat Media: I think the early adopters hear the call loud and clear that content equals trust and trust equal sales. The Sisyphus factor is how much content does it take to get the top of the hill, how much is it going to cost and what is the ROI.

Junta42: What are the biggest obstacles to selling your services?

Eat Media: I’d say the biggest obstacle we come up against is whether or not a company should hire us or bring in a full-time editor. The benefit to working with us is we’re a company, not just one person, and we come with backgrounds in advertising, marketing, high-tech and publishing. We’ve been professional writers and editors, and to hire us means capitalizing on all that experience, not to mention our network of writers and their experience. Also, when you look at employee turnover, bringing someone in-house isn’t necessarily going to have the long-term benefits you’re hoping for. Once we’re brought into a project, our clients begin to regard us as part of their team. There’s a high level of trust, and a couple of them really just want to be “cc’d” at this point. Plus, we’re not going to take up office space playing Snood while we search for the perfect adjective. But still, sometimes clients opt for the full-time employee. We’re hoping to get a call from them in a year or so…

Read the rest of the interview here.

Content Gone Awry from Michael Buller

Michael Buller from The Pohly Company (CPC member) has an excellent guest blog spot on the Junta42 blog. The core of the post can be summed up this line from Michael:

"It all comes back to one of the pillars of content, if you’re going to engage in content marketing, make sure it’s targeted and relevant. If not, you’re just adding noise to an already loud room."

Seems so obvious, yet relevant content is still an afterthought with even some of the leading brands in the world. Still more work to do.

Q&A with Custom Publisher MM Publishing

MM Publishing Inc. was founded in November 2005 by Mark Mayfield and Deborah Martin. Before turning to custom, Mark had a varied and prestigious career as editor in chief of House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Southern Accents and Art & Antiques. While at Southern Accents, Mark also became the founding editor in chief of InCircle Entrée, a custom magazine for the Neiman Marcus InCircle members. Before his magazine career, he spent 10 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. Deb Martin served 16 years at House Beautiful, including nine years as managing editor.

Merging Mark’s editorial talents with Deb’s expertise in magazine production and finance, the two formed their new company with a goal of producing high quality custom publications, using their experience from the traditional magazine industry.

MM clients include the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, the Chatham Bars Inn and Spa on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the National Space Society in Washington, D.C. The company is also planning to launch a major magazine in partnership with Chicago-based Mobil Travel Guide later this year.

How is custom publishing different from traditional magazines?

I believe custom magazines have a distinct advantage in that they are targeted to a specific audience in a controlled environment. A lot of traditional magazines have a difficult time sticking with their editorial mission because they have so many different constituencies to please. They also have more costs, particularly if they have newsstand distribution.

With custom publications, you know exactly who is reading the magazine and you can fine tune the message. And I strongly believe that the integrity of the editorial content is just as important for custom publications as it is in the traditional magazine world. Readers can always spot an advertorial, and if they think they’re just being sold a bill of goods, they’ll turn away from it. What readers want is to feel like they’re getting inside, credible information. They want to feel like they’re in the know, and a member of the club. That’s why custom publications are so important for great companies. If you spend all this time building your brand, you want to continue to reinforce the brand by giving your customers something they can’t buy on a newsstand, something that, certainly, underscores the importance of the brand, but does it with editorial quality and integrity. When they are produced with quality, custom magazines are very popular with readers.

Are the challenges different?

Yes, at a traditional magazine you might report, for instance, to president or CEO of the publishing company. With a custom publishing firm, you’re essentially reporting to your clients. To be sure, the clients are trusting you with their brand and saying, “Hey, you know more about magazines than I do, so go out there and produce a great magazine for us.” But you have make sure that you understand the client’s mission and you have to fully buy into it. For instance, with our Hotel Bel-Air Magazine, we not only produce the magazine for them, we also stay at the hotel when we’re in Los Angeles. And without question, it is one of the world’s great hotels.

These magazines require a lot of communication and teamwork between the custom publishing company and the corporate clients. That can be a challenge, depending on the personalities involved.

Where do you see the growth in your business? Are you targeting specific industries?

We’re targeting the luxury hotel industry, on one hand, and the aerospace industry on the other. In many ways they are similar in that we’re going after very high end advertising on all fronts. It’s fine to seek clients, and ads, on the lower end of the spectrum. But that’s not what we’re all about. No industry is entirely recession-proof, but I believe that at the luxury end, there is greater potential for growth. A good example, for instance, is the emergence of the private jet industry. Also, I believe in the luxury hotel market, there is tremendous growth potential right now in terms of ad dollars. The same people who stay at luxury hotels also buy luxury autos, travel first class, wear designer clothes, are usually interested in skiing or golf, and enjoy the finest things in life.

I’m also a firm believer in the long-term growth of the aerospace and space industry. And there are new players out there as well. Just last week I spent the better part of a day with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic group here in New York. Branson brought in 100 people who are spending $200,000 a seat to become the first passengers on his new SpaceShipTwo craft. By 2010 or so, Branson fully expects to begin flying these people into suborbital space. They will take a two-hour flight, spend five minutes of that time in weightlessness of space and come back having seen the Earth from a vantage point that until now, was only available to astronauts. (And Branson expects to fly as many as four missions a day when fully operational, each time taking up six passengers.)

Others like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, PayPal founder Elon Musk, and hotelier Robert Bigelow also have their own new private space companies. I look at all this and think, “hmmmm, it may be time to do a space-related magazine.” So we started our own consumer magazine called LAUNCH that is now in most Barnes & Noble stores, and, on a custom magazine level, we will begin in February publishing the National Space Society’s magazine, called Ad Astra.

The Full CONTENT '08 Conference Schedule is Here!

CONTENT ‘08: RE-THINKING BRANDED CONTENT
NEW ORLEANS-MARCH 9-11, 2008

Click image to enlarge

Saturday, March 8

7:30 a.m.- 3:30 p.m.

Optional volunteer opportunity with Habitat for Humanity. We welcome attendees to donate their time, from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm, to New Orleans' rebuilding efforts. If you are interested, please contact Jennifer Cohen at jennifer [at] rosengrouppr.com.

Sunday, March 9

6 PM

Opening Ceremonies
Dinner at the Marriott Marquis

Presentation by:

Patty Gays, Executive Director, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans
Presentation on Post-Katrina New Orleans

Monday, March 10

8:30
BREAKFAST

9:00 a.m.
Joe Duffy, Principal & Chairman, Duffy & Partners
Is it the design or the product? What role does design play in content and marketing? Hear from the design industry icon

9:45 a.m.
Robert Passikoff, Founder & President, Brand Keys
Passikoff shares insights on brand loyalty measurements

10:30 a.m.
Geoff Cook, Founder, MyYearbook.com
Creating a multi-million dollar social networking site in five easy lessons

BREAK

11:30 a.m.
Kenneth Neher, Sr. Manager, Interactive & Relationship Marketing, GlaxoSmith Kline
Hear how one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies creates consumer advocates

LUNCH

2:30 pm
Kent Nichols, Founder, Beatbox Giant Productions
Hear integrated marketing tips from the co-founder of the vlog “Ask a Ninja,” one of the top ten podcasts from iTunes

3:15 p.m.
Michael Höflich, Managing Director, Forum Corporate Publishing
How Europe is thriving – and in some ways surpassing the US in the digital age

4:00 p.m.
Joseph Plummer, Chief Research Officer, Advertising Research Foundation
A rare talk with the man who coined the phrase “engagement”

DINNER
Palace Cafe

Tuesday, March 11

8:30 a.m.
BREAKFAST

9:00 a.m.
Anil Dash, Chief Evangelist, Six Apart
One of the pioneers on blog and web technology shares insights on the relationships between blogs and traditional media

9:45 a.m.
Samantha Moore, Research Director, Ameritest

Research analyst to share brand new study on consumer behavior.

10:30 a.m.
David Polinchock, Founder and Chairman,Experiential Advertising
As the creator of Experiential Advertising™ programs, David will speak about creating experiences that allow consumers to enter and interact with a marketing message at conferences both in the US and abroad.

11:30 a.m.

CONFERENCE WRAP UP

5 Steps to the Custom Publishing Sales Process - Getting to Yes!

Sometimes money falls in your lap, but most times it doesn't. Custom publishers/content marketing providers just love it when a project drops in like manna from heaven. A call comes out of the blue, or a contact you've worked with for years requests your services for a specific project (custom magazine, newsletter, website project) that is just for you. And, it gets even better...no one else is quoting on it. You've now died and gone to heaven.

Now, back to reality. The majority of time, significant custom sales don't just happen. They must be searched out and cared for. The good news is that there is a predictable set of steps that you can define in your sales process that can lead to a custom opportunity and sale. The bad news is that most small custom publishing organizations have no set process for custom sales. When an opportunity presents itself, the entire organization runs around like chickens with their heads cut off in preparation for the close, often dismissing important middle steps that actually lead to the close of business.

Finally, before we get to the actual list, we should all realize that there is no perfected way to get custom business. Some custom organizations have been very successful using extremely diverse ways of selling. That said, here is a starter list that will hopefully get you thinking a bit differently about your custom publishing sales process. (NOTE: I'm under the assumption that you know your key customer target and have a good idea where to find them. If not, you should be working on your overall business strategy.)

1. Ask THE question to discover an opportunity
   There has always been one question that has opened more opportunities than any other. That question is, "What are your most pressing communication challenge(s) for this year?", or more simply put "what's keeping you up at night?"
   
   I have a list of sales questions that is readily available, but usually it only takes this one question in a call to get the information you need to uncover an opportunity. Let's face it, marketing professionals love talking about the challenges that keep them up at night...well, because it keeps them up at night. They can't stop thinking about them. Talking to you about them is much-needed therapy. Once you can listen to these challenges, then you have the data that you need to redirect the conversation in your favor.
2. Asking for help
   The goal of asking the question above is for your prospect to actually ask for help in some way. So, as a custom media salesperson, it is your responsibility to insert case studies, key testimonials, and possibly helpful solutions that are VERY relevant to answering their questions. Only go into detail when asked...this should be part of the flow of conversation. This is NOT a sales pitch. What you are doing is relating to their challenges, and that you are a professional at solving customer challenges in unique ways. If done correctly, you should get responses such as "You can do that?" or "I didn't know you could do that" or "can that be done?" or "we couldn't possibly do that" or "we don't have the resources or expertise to do that."
   
   At the end of the call, you want them to ask for a proposal from you. Be sure not to just say you'll go back and research the situation. They have to ask for help. If, by the end of the conversation they have not asked, then ask the question, "Would you like a proposal on XYZ initiative/problem/challenge?" Get this as specific as possible, and follow up specifically in writing.
   
3. Present the proposal
   This is the perfect sales position. They have asked for your help/your expertise in marketing and communications. You have positioned yourself as a marketing and communications expert. They will be very willing to take your call and meeting. At this point, you are their free consultant.
   
   In your proposal, I wouldn't be so specific as to have exact products and pricing. Your proposal should be more concept in nature. The goal here is to get them interested enough in the concept that they WANT to see the pricing. In this call, if they latch on to a certain idea or component, you can get enough specifics such as printing specs, editorial content issues, design specifications, distribution strategy, etc. in order to properly price out a proposal. Again, you want them to ask for more...giving them everything at once actually makes it too easy to say no. Buying into a custom plan is a love affair...it can't be rushed. You are creating many small yeses that will lead to one big yes at the end.
   
4. Present pricing proposal
   In this step, you may have enough information that you actually comp a design for a print or web product. Get them to visualize how this product can help their customers. This is also the meeting where you need the key decision makers present. PowerPoint is fine, but be sure to have print outs. If you are pricing a print magazine, have a comp there (if the business is worth enough for you). If it's web, working up a website will sell. If that's not possible, similar examples may also help.
5. The agreement
   You'll hopefully receive a ton of feedback in step 4 to modify into a final agreement. Be sure not to rush this stage. This is the last point that you have any flexibility to negotiate at all before you marry this client. Take time and carve out a win-win scenario for both parties.

For large custom projects, the sales cycle can range anywhere from three months to 2 years. By getting your customers to ask for your help in the early stages of the sales cycle will make the pricing and the agreement steps that much smoother. Good Luck!

>>Joe Pulizzi is chief content officer for Junta42, the leading online resource for custom publishing and content marketing. Joe is also president of Z Squared Media, LLC, a content marketing consulting firm. For more on Joe, read the blog.