A Primer on Social Media & Email Marketing
Promoting your publication is an ever-changing prospect in the digital era. Social media platforms come and go, new tools and theories are introduced every year. Fortunately, there are experts out there who are willing to share some of their knowledge and a powerful example of success.
Episode 10 of the Paywall Podcast is an interview with Wally Wallace of 50Fish, a digital design and ecommerce marketing agency. Wally shares almost an hour’s worth of great tips on promoting a digital publication across social media, email, and organic search, using Small Boats Magazine as an example.
The Highlights
The key takeaways include:
- A quick rundown of the many reasons to build on the WordPress platform: simple to set-up and infinitely customizable.
- A profile of a successful, (almost) entirely digital magazine, including how the right site re-design and marketing strategy increased their traffic 100% year-to-year.
- As ever, the most important tool in selling subscription is quality content.
- The overarching strategy for any social media marketing effort is to show readers enough content they like. Eventually they will subscribe.
- Don’t blanket every social media outlet with the same messaging. Curate your posts to match the platform.
- Every publication is different. So, every social media approach should fit the publication. (For example, Small Boats Magazine is a highly visual, hobby-based publication. It performs well on Instagram and Facebook, but it gets the most traffic from Pinterest. The platform matches the readers.)
- Top tip for Pinterest: There are ways to optimize the boards, but great images will win the day.
- Top tip for Instagram: Use Stories to promote your issues, archives, and premium content.
- Top tip for Facebook: Post images and descriptions, rather than articles.
- Don’t underestimate the efficacy of a free registration level for your publication.
- And, again, creating great content is the lynchpin of every successful marketing strategy. (It bears repeating.)
While these tips are the ones that worked for Small Boats, the whole interview provides general explanations and strategy for organic search, social media, and email marketing outreach. And if you have more questions, don’t be afraid to ask.
Did you miss an episode?
Our past episodes answer common publisher questions, provide explanations on making the most of your paywall, show off how other unique publishers have found success, profile the growth of a successful publication, and provide a wealth of tactics for growing your subscriptions:
- Why have a paywall?
- How to set up your paywall to convert more paying subscribers,
- 6 examples of successful publication & product launches,
- An interview with Street Photography Magazine,
- How to generate more paid subscriptions with promotions,
- An interview with Greg Wolfe on magazine renewals and gift subscription strategies,
- An interview with Todd Moen of Catch Magazine,
- Local News Publishers: Subscriptions v. Memberships v. Donations,
- Exciting Things We’ve Been Working On.
Stay tuned for the next episode of the Paywall Podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Pandora.
