When Second is Best
In the world of controlled-circulation magazines, postage costs have a huge effect on a publisher’s bottom line. The difference between mailing third class (or first class) and second class can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Every publication wants to mail at the less expensive second-class rate, but not all qualify—or even have the ability to find out if they qualify!
Postal regulations stipulate that in order to get the second-class rate, controlled-circ magazines must prove that at least 51% of their readers have requested the journal. Problem is, many publishers don’t have that data on hand. Which is where DMD comes in.
We can collect valuable circulation information through a number of different avenues:
- telemarketing
- BREs and other reader-response vehicles
- client websites
- eMarketing
We then compile the data from all sources, carefully key-code it, and perform the analysis to justify the second-class postage rate. We even store the data for clients until it’s time for requalification (which happens every three years).
Customer Insight
Beyond just asking readers if they want the publication, DMD can—and does—collect a great deal more information on behalf of our publication clients. Thoughts and opinions about the journal, purchasing habits and preferences, and deeper demographics (e.g., email addresses) are just some of the types of data that we gather. All of which provide the publisher invaluable insight into their customer to continually improve their editorial and for more targeted, and profitable, marketing campaigns.
Best of all, the responder data collected can be integrated with a client’s own customer information and/or with outside lists like the AMA’s to form a complete picture of their readers. And all of this data is “live,” meaning we continually update the reader records so all the information is current, complete, and accurate. Finally, DMD can also track the results of your campaigns, showing what marketing tactics are working, and why.