Six Modern Marketing Ideas for Niche Printing Business Growth
In the niche printing business, finding new ways to market and grow can be difficult. Competition has never been greater, with more people relying on digital content mediums for consuming information.
However, niche printing will always have a place because of its permanence within loyal communities who know and love the produced content. Major advertisers still see the value niche newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and other analog mediums have in the world. The key challenge for printing businesses is finding modern ways to connect with and develop their communities to sustain growth. Consider these six modern marketing ideas for niche printing to grow your distribution and increase advertising revenue for your niche newspaper or magazine.
Key Takeaways
- Social media networks and other digital mediums are useful tools for understanding and growing your niche publication.
- Identifying and partnering businesses whose customers might overlap with your demographic can help expand your reader base.
- Incentive programs and other opportunities for reader interactions are creative methods for fueling the devotion of current readers while growing your network.
1. Use Social Listening to Better Understand Your Community
Contrary to popular opinion, social media and other digital forms are not necessarily the competition for niche printing companies. Rather, social media is a modern tool that you can leverage to understand your readers and your community better. One such method is the art of social listening (i.e., gathering and analyzing data – both qualitative and quantitative – from various digital networks).
Before social media networks, many niche printing companies were reliant on word of mouth of sales figures to evaluate the success of their product. Now printing companies have unlimited access to their community, feelings, and thoughts on your content. You quickly learn what works and what doesn’t, along with other metrics, such as identifying influencers and other super fans who can further uplift your newspaper or magazine.
2. Tease Content Through Short-Form Digital Mediums
Before digital mediums and social media, publications relied on their headlines and cover pages to draw in readers and make sales. The determiner for sales was the impression from the passersby at the local newsstand who skimmed the front page and table of contents. That’s no longer the case.
You can expand the scope of your advertising to infographics, quotes, and other teasers displayed through social media pages. This gives you more options over pieces of content within a publication you can advertise. Niche publications with greater page counts can greatly benefit from this idea, primarily through expanding the reach of stories to audiences that might not have discovered or purchased the publication based on the front page alone.
3. Partner with Businesses Whose Customers Intersect with Yours
The value of a niche printing business is the monopoly it has over a certain demographic’s interests. One way to continue growing that demographic and increasing revenue is finding new opportunities to discover and join. Creative partnerships with businesses whose customers may overlap with your base is a good start.
The nature of the partnership can take a variety of forms. An obvious option would be displaying or selling the print at a storefront whose customers might find it interesting. An example could be a travel and adventure magazine that displays its publications in a local outdoor apparel store. Another idea would be features within the print specific to the partnering company’s products or services. Follow that up with advertising those features to the partner company’s customer base to increase the odds of discovery opportunities.
4. Use Modern Incentives to Drive Sales and Grow Distribution
Incentives in marketing are not an old concept. We all understand that customers and clients generally operate out of self-interest. Niche print businesses can tap into the self-interest of their current customer base to expand distribution to new individuals or organizations.
Good incentive programs are a transaction between the reader and the print company. Oftentimes, the reader will receive merchandise, a free subscription, a meet and greet opportunity, or some other reward for taking an action in the best interest of your publication. Publications should consider the actions that will provide sustainable growth, such as:
- New referrals to email newsletters or other channels
- Following social media pages
- Interacting with social media content (e.g., shares, likes, retweets, tagging, and posting original content featuring the publication).
5. Find Opportunities for Reader Interaction
Technology has given us more chances to interact with readers than ever before. Niche print businesses can interact with their readers in new ways to cement their devotion to the brand by making them a part of it. Some popular methods for getting more involvement from your reader base include:
- Calls for submissions of articles or other content ideas
- Inviting the readers to submit questions the publication can answer in subsequent releases
- Install games that give the reader a reason to buy (e.g., a themed crossword puzzle, trivia questions, etc.)
6. Understand That Exclusivity Creates Value
The last idea we will leave you with is understanding one of the true powers of a niche publication. That power is the value of its exclusivity. In other words, know what makes your print unique. It might be exclusive access to interesting personnel or a perspective that only you can replicate. If you can’t identify elements that make your publication exclusive, then consider how you can develop an asset that readers can only find by purchasing your print.
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg3cJhABj_o&t=225s
Alt Text: A keynote lecture from Bo Sacks at the Magazine Innovation Center acknowledged that niche print thrives in the digital age because of its exclusivity and ability to create stronger emotional responses.
Boom Communications Group: Opportunity Creators for Marketing Ideas for Niche Printing Business
Readers still find value in the emotion and stimulation that only physical print can provide. As a niche printing business, the job is to continue pushing boundaries and discover new ways to insert this timeless medium into the modern convention.
Boom Communications Group can be your trusted advisor along the journey of growing your publication’s distribution and generating new revenue. We help companies handle all aspects of their print media in thought-provoking styles that don’t sacrifice the trust of a professional touch. Our services include:
- Business growth, sales, and strategy
- Customer and client acquisition
- Publication and niche printing
Contact Boom Communications Group today to discuss how our niche printing services can instill modern trends to grow your business.