In the publishing industry, we see all sorts of trends and headlines. We write them, too. We get to shape how information is shared while trying to be as nimble as possible. Print isn’t dead, we aren’t all paying to read content on the internet as was attempted, ad blocking software is getting pretty savvy, and Facebook requires us to pay for you to see our posts…kind of like putting money in a slot machine and pulling the arm to see how many of you might see something at a given time of any day. Okay, it’s a bit more reliable than that, but the payout is similar to most pulls of the one-armed bandit.
Lavender’s been steadfast in what we’ve offered and how we’ve offered it. We’ve had a usable and predictable website for years, our online magazine and its identical iPad/iPhone edition is free and easy to access, we don’t have ad popups that make you want to leave our site, and we try to share as much information as seems reasonable to our budget as a free publication on the pay-to-play sites like Facebook. But, as with most forms of marketing, promoting ourselves through our own methods that we control is one of the most effective ways to get information to you. Our website is our biggest promotional tool. Go there and you can find everything we’ve got. Period. How can we tell you about what’s on our website that’s more of a curated selection? We’ve now got an e-newsletter, Lavender Link, that I put together on a weekly basis that is driven by editorial content that is both in the issue and exclusive to just our website. It’s got both the usual events as well as featured events for you to consider. What you may not know as much about but is a pretty popular part of our website: we’ve got contests. Our contests might be a new Cyndi Lauper album (this past issue) or tableware or tickets to a show or, recently, an All-Clad Slow Cooker. We’re digging up free stuff for you all the time. And we’ll now be holding a drawing every two weeks for a $100 gift card to Target for those who’ve signed up for our e-newsletter, Lavender Link. Sign up, get the curated list of the latest stories from me, and get your name in for the gift cards…you’ll only be ineligible once you’ve won. So, get in there and get winning (www.lavendermagazine.com/resources/subscribe-to-lavender-link-weekly-newsletter).
Thank you for being part of our steadfast readership as we navigate the publishing industry to best serve you. We’re not in this for the clickbait, our mission to serve comes directly from one of our meetings the other day (and our very beginning in 1995) and I am very proud of it.
With you, with thanks, and with your next e-newsletter,
Andy