Three of my favourite magazines have ceased publication in the last nine months, with the problems of Covid-19 and lockdowns identified as the cause. It brings the total over the last 14 months to four. Casual purchases, it would appear, by people browsing in newsagents was a significant proportion of their sales, plus the drop in advertising income was too much to cover.
I know I shouldn’t complain as the closures have hurt those who worked for the magazines, not to mention the investors, a lot more than me but I did so enjoy reading them. On the bright side, it has left a gap in the market, one that can be exploited for email marketing purposes.
I have since subscribed to three newsletters which have gone some way to filling the void and I’ve got to the stage where I look forward to their publication in the same way I used to await magazine appearances on the shelves of local newsagents. It’s fair to say they are generally inferior. It would be wrong to suggest they are mere pale imitations because some publishers have used a high degree of ingenuity to make them attractive.
All the newsletters are used to gain subscribers to email marketing lists. One is overt, with buttons included after every couple of paragraphs, and these tend to irritate. The one that impressed me most has a subtler approach.
A significant source of the copy for that particular newsletter is almost certainly social media. I subscribe to their Facebook page and, if there’s a post, or better still, a question that generates a few responses, it often gives rise to a click-through headed, ‘More Information on our next Newsletter’. The landing page contains a form for signing-up to the newsletter, and a further click-through for those who wish to join the email marketing list.
The newsletter is published monthly in the main, although they do have the occasional ‘Special’ to cover a particular subject, one that normally has, oddly, a connection with their next email marketing campaign.
The newsletter is informative, has a slightly humorous note in the main, and includes the occasional comment, but not quite an interview, with a particular Facebook poster. Or, to put it another way, they are trying to build a community. It’s all very slick.
One clever little trick, almost to the level of ‘I wonder why everyone doesn’t do it’, is to have an archive of previous newsletters, but with the addition of adverts for products the company sells, and also those for other companies providing products not supplied by the publishers. The assumption is they are filling the gap left by printed magazines.
However, if you do not subscribe to the newsletter, you will have to wait a month before it is available.
Magazine closures have left a significant hole in information and entertainment for those following hobbies and pastimes, and this gap is just asking you to fill it. If you think it might support your form of email marketing and product, it could be worth investigating.
