Downloadable Premiums Also Work

What is the best way to use premiums to increase sales on the newsstand?

While almost anything will do—I once saw a teabag used to increase sale of a magazine, and yes it was demonstrated through a split test—an editorial
premium is the best.

Premiums don’t necessarily have to be polybagged. A premium inserted into the pages of the magazine can also do well: a chart, a poster, a guide or some sort of editorial insert can
increase sales significantly. This is something that’s worth testing alongside
polybagging.

I once tested the two for The Old Farmer’s Almanac Gardener’s Companion and found that in on both sides of the split sales increased—but the increase was greater for the polybagged
premium than for the inserted premium.

Both premiums added value to the magazine. Both were announced on the cover of the magazine. But it was the addition of the polybag, despite the fact
that this was the version that the browser couldn’t thumb through, that tipped
the scales in the test. The increase in
sales for the polybag version over the increase for the insert version paid for
the cost of the bag itself.

Ziff Davis used to do a lot of inserted premiums in the Official Playstation magazine; tracking total sales, it appeared that the inserts performed quite well, perhaps as well as a
polybagged premium would do.

Downloadable premiums have become good ways of boosting sale as well. A couple years ago, you could barely move the needle by promising a code
for a free download to the newsstand buyer.
Perhaps the quality of the downloadable premiums is better nowadays;
perhaps the ease of downloading has improved; perhaps the whole process is just
less “glitch” than it used to be. Or
perhaps the newsstand buyer is now more savvy, more wired, and just enjoys a
good download more. Whatever the reason,
downloadable premiums are no longer the exercise in futility they once were. A
good download offer can increase your newsstand sale significantly.

Remember, it is just as important to announce the free download boldly on the cover as it is to announce an inserted or attached premium.
It is just as necessary to identify the offer and the benefit. It is just as necessary to get the newsstand
customer excited about what you have to offer.

The result can be worth it—an increase in newsstand sales, the increase of visitors to your site, and at a cost significantly lower than that of a physical print premium.