Old School Social Media
The Secrets of a $100 Million Dollar
OFFLINE Business Unit
BUILT on User Generated Content
Back Before Al Gore Invented the Internet
Dear Business Builder,
Before the Internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, one offline magazine publisher was making a mint through user-generated content.
Just more proof that the same marketing principles apply across advertising media. In 1965 when Roy Reiman founded his publishing company, he didn’t need a buzzword like “Web 2.0” to see the value of getting customers to contribute content.
The Reiman publishing empire was bought in 1999 by Reader’s Digest for $764 million.
I discovered Reiman’s story from Gordon Grossman’s Confessions of a Direct Mail Guy.
Grossman, by-the-by, is a legend in direct mail. He’s right up there with Dick Benson and Eugene Schwartz. Ever hear of sweepstakes? That was Gordon Grossman; he pioneered them for direct mail during his 17 years at Reader’s Digest.
So what does Reiman publish?
Magazines like Taste of Home, Country Woman, Reminisce, Country Handcrafts and more.
For six publications they had 8,060,000 paid subscribers. They were pulling in $100 million just from their magazine business. They also have an extremely successful book business, travel business (country tours!) and fund-raising business.
Social Media for Country Folk
While it’s true you’re not going to find too much on YouTube from the rural, senior population of America.
It’s not because older generations would never participate in social media.
Most of the Reiman magazines were almost entirely composed of user-submissions. How do they do it? Grossman points to the editor’s constant encouragement in Country magazine:
- Candidly Country – ‘favorite family photos and the stories behind them.’
- The My Country Fantasy contest – every issue on subscriber wins the chance to live out his or her country fantasy, and all subscribers are encouraged to submit their fantasies.
- Overheard at the Country Café – Reader jokes.
- Down-Home Advice from Country Grandparents – Old folks write in to give parenting advice.
- Can You Help Me? Reader submitted questions.
- The Number 1 Country Character Contest – There’s a winner every issue! All entries are reader submitted.
The variety of ways they use to get their readers to submit content is staggering. There’s a Pig Pun section where readers submit … pig puns.
Every issue has a Needle in the Haystack contest where a needle is hidden in the magazine somewhere. Readers send in postcards when they locate the needle and 50 winners get their names in the magazine every month. (The prize? A box of wild rice.)
Another Major Marketing Principle Displayed
Reiman publications have a world view, a nostalgic world view.
It’s a point of view that resonates deeply with their readers. In Grossman’s words:
Anyone who’s ever visited one of the big Disney theme parks knows they celebrate the memory of a world that never was. It doesn’t rain on Mickey’s parade, and there are no winter drafts in Snow White’s castle. Except possibly for Sneezy, the dwarfs show no ill effects from their long hours in the mines, and Dumbo’s flights always leave and arrive exactly on schedule.
In the same way, the pages of all Reiman magazines celebrate the joys of a happy planet that never existed. It’s the gentle world of the pseudo past, where folks (always folks) …
… are cooled by soft breezes that never blew,
… sniff rustling white snowball hydrangeas never planted,
… are delicately warmed by fires never lit,
… and keep time with grandfather clocks that never ticked.
In Reimanspeak, “yesterday” is very good indeed.
Point of view in marketing is exceptionally powerful.
In the financial newsletter industry, it’s pretty common knowledge now that an investment newsletter’s renewal rates have little to do with his track record.
Isn’t that fascinating?
Presumably, if I’m paying for a subscription to a newsletter that is supposed to tell me how to make money with my investments, I should consider how good that advice has been before re-subscribing.
But people don’t.
Editors with strong personalities and a clear point of view that resonates with their customers always have high renewal rates. Their track record has almost no bearing on whether customers decide to re-subscribe.
People want to see the world really is the way they believe it to be. And they are willing to pay to have someone to agree with and tell them how to see the world.
The Format Changes but the Principles Stay the Same
Sure, Reiman’s contests and entries can seem a little ridiculous to those of us not in their target market.
But it’s no more ridiculous, than well, just about everything on YouTube.
People, in every generation, like to be part of communities.
But the Internet itself isn’t the driving force behind this need for community. It’s not even the source of using community as a marketing tool, it just fantastic facilitator of it.
Human behavior is human behavior.
And when marketers discover ways to leverage human behavior in one media, you can be sure there’s a way to translate that marketing principle to another media.
That’s one of the reasons I love reading books by direct mail giants like Gordon Grossman, Dick Benson and Gene Schwartz.
These guys studied and innovated so many things in direct marketing that simply reading their war stories and insights generates hundreds of solid marketing ideas even if you’re not in direct mail.
This Reiman story for instance is just a side note in Confessions of a Direct Mail Guy.
The book is a goldmine of real world direct mail tests, results and marketing stories from companies like Reader’s Digest, Rodale, Boardroom, Playboy, Avon Products, Time Inc. and others.
What about your business?
- Do you have a point of view that resonates with your readers? And is it clearly defined both to you and your readers?
- Have you ever let your customers create content for you? You might be surprised with how willing they are to give you useable content that people will pay for.
Shameless Tease Ahead:
This $100 Million Magazine Business
Was Built on a Single Sales Letter
That I’m NOT Going to Show You
Before Reiman was bought by Reader’s Digest, they used the same sales letter to promote every one of their magazines. It was a 22 year control for ALL of their magazines.
The mailing format was a combination of letter/order form attached to sample of the magazine. Everyone’s tried acquiring customers with a trial magazine, but no one else could make it work.
Grossman says the whole thing hinged on a single, deceptive sales letter. The offer didn’t sell it, in this market it wasn’t an attractive offer. The sample magazine didn’t sell it either.
It was the sales letter and how it presented the offer that was the key.
When Reader’s Digest ponied up $764 million for the business, they stopped using it because they felt it was too deceptive.
If you really want to see it, you’ll have to get Gordon’s book and decide for yourself if it’s deceptive or not.
Why don’t I reveal the secret? Because Confessions of a Direct Mail Guy has a hundred secrets like that in it. And you’ll be a better marketer for reading it.
I’m in the happy position of not having to be an expert or a guru. I’m just a working copywriter and direct marketer surrounded by exceptional people and businesses.
But there are pseudo-gurus everywhere. And that’s why it’s nice to find the REAL gurus, the ones who’ve been succeeding on a large scale for decades.
Click here if you want Gordon Grossman’s Confessions of a Direct Mail Guy.
This is NOT an affiliate link – we don’t get anything from it if you buy it. Except the satisfaction of knowing we pointed you in the direction of an exceptional resource for direct marketers.
To your faster success,
John Newtson
Editor, Life in the Fast Lane
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
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Comment by SHARON UMPLEBY — November 10, 2007 @ 8:12 am
I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORRE ABOUT THINS BEFORE I PURCHASE IT