[epub] Marketing to niche and minority audiences

[KKhalife@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 1/22/01 1:43:44 PM, editor@planethomo.co.uk wrote:

>Can anyone give some guidance on reaching minority audiences or on how
>we
>could better market our publication as announcement lists are just simply
>not working.

Hi Richard,

I don't know if general-interest ezines can rely solely on announcement lists 
to build an initial subscriber base or not. But I'm certain that those of us 
with publications directed at minority or small niche markets have to use a 
variety of methods to jumpstart our circulation numbers. 

If it makes you feel any better, my Museum Marketing Tips newsletter only 
received about 100 subscriptions total from the two top announcement lists. 
(And heck, one of those announcements generated more spam than that!) But 
unless I'm the poster child for bad description writing, I suspect that there 
are a few other small-niche publishers out there whose servers weren't 
groaning under the weight of all their responses either. 

Non-promotional postings to museum-related discussion lists have worked quite 
well for me. Even posts to non-related lists have sometimes brought 
subscribers, much to my surprise. Someone on this list, in fact, saw the URL 
in my sig and kindly passed it along to a client in the museum field. (Thank 
you again!)  The recipient not only subscribed, but also recommended my ezine 
to a number of colleagues across the country.  

Another thing that's been a big help are links to my website from major sites 
and portals (in my case, those in the nonprofit sector). Not only do links 
from major sites seem to provide credibility in potential visitors' minds, 
but they're now also generating more visitors and subscriptions for me than 
my hard-won search engine rankings. Getting featured (or even mentioned 
briefly) in popular nonprofit ezines has been a huge godsend too, especially 
since I'm promoting this thing on a very short shoestring with no ad budget. 

I make it a point, in my newsletter, to thank each of those impressive sites 
and ezines by name for helping me spread the word -- immediately followed by 
a suggestion that readers can help too, by forwarding my ezine to colleagues. 
The tie-in must help, because I get a lot of new subscribers that way as 
well. 

For me -- and maybe for you, too -- spending a few hours a week writing 
e-mails to appropriate webmasters is the best promotion investment I can 
make. It's drop-in-the-bucket marketing, I know, but those drops do have a 
neat way of adding up.

Sincerely,
Katherine
-- 
Katherine Khalife
Museum Marketing Tips
http://www.museummarketingtips.com


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