Events:
Past Event Summaries

April IABC/Triangle Program:
Starting a Publication for Women in Business
by Tracy Needham

"The magazine world is not very threatened at this point by the digital world — people still really want to hold a magazine," said Slee Arnold, CEO and publisher of the new Women's Edge magazine at the IABC/Triangle chapter meeting in April. Arnold and Gary Tomlinson, who serves as the magazine's president and director of sales, shared their lessons learned in founding a publication for women in business as well as marketing to women in general.

The first question they sought to answer: Was a print magazine still viable in this electronic age? Research proved that it was. Despite the proclaimed death of paper publications a few years back, many people like the convenience a magazine offers — a size and format that can be read anywhere and interesting content that isn't stale if you read it a week or even a few months later.

Second, could the Triangle market sustain a publication specifically for women in business? No others existed at the time, and the demographics looked strong. More good news-research revealed that regional publications have a 60 percent higher chance of being successful than national ones because of the innate relationship with the audience created by the local focus. Arnold and Tomlinson conducted three focus groups with diverse Triangle women last spring, which provided invaluable information for developing the mission and format of the magazine.

As a result, Women's Edge aims to serve as a voice for professional women in the Triangle, a vehicle for mentoring and an advocate for women supporting women. It will target women at all levels of the working world — from work-at-home moms to Fortune 500 executives. And, surprisingly, about 6 percent of the initial subscribers are men.

Of course, they also explored the best ways to market the publication to women — and learned lessons that would be valuable to any type of business. While many refer to women as a "niche market," Tomlinson says nothing could be further from the truth. Women comprise more than 51 percent of both the population and financial assets in the U.S. They also make or influence 80 percent of all decisions made — both in the household and in business. To understand this market further, Tomlinson highly recommends Marketing to Women by Martha Barletta. "I don't think I've read another book that I've spent as much time with," he said.

The bad news is that 91 percent of women polled said that advertisers just don't get them. According to Barletta, that's because most marketing is traditionally male-oriented and not designed to accommodate women's communication patterns, preferences and approach to purchasing decisions. Other tips Tomlinson cited include:

Men are looking for an answer — women are looking for a great or the perfect answer. So just listing the top three or four benefits won't get you far with women. They want to know all the benefits of a product or service before making up their mind. And put them in tangible terms. For example, women aren't impressed that a Lexus can go from 0 to 60 mph in 6.1 seconds. But they do care that this can make it safer to merge onto a highway. They also care about a DVD player in the back seat to keep the kids quiet and heated seats for cold winter mornings.

Women take longer to make purchasing decisions, but they are more likely to remain loyal customers because they did put so much time and effort into the decision. They're also much more likely to recommend your business to friends and colleagues.

Marketing to women does not exclude men. Research shows that strategies and techniques that are more effective with women work with men as well.

Tomlinson offers a free book report on Marketing to Women at his web site www.gary-tomlinson.com. The inaugural issue of Women's Edge was published the third week of April. More information is available at www.womensedgemagazine.com.

Tracy Needham is a marketing copywriter and consultant specializing in financial services and other service-based businesses. You can reach her at (919) 829-1539 or tracy@tracyneedham.com