How to get editorial pros to contribute content to your house email newsletter
Per today`s Case Study, Lewis Weiss was able to trade on a long-standing advertising relationship in order to get custom-created content from a recognized industry expert in each issue of his email newsletter.
It’s a sweet deal, but other marketers can copy it if they swing the same kind of heft among trade magazines or vendors.
Some considerations:
— Are you a major advertiser in a trade magazine, Web site or email newsletter? We’re talking a regular contract for display ads of at least a quarter page in print or skyscraper-size online, not one-time deals, or co-op or classified ads.
The next time the publication’s ad salesperson comes around looking to get extra money from you to underwrite a special issue, ancillary program (like the audiocassette program for Weiss) or the like, see if there’s room to barter away some of the cost by picking up a key writer.
You should try to get the writer to produce something special for you. Failing that, try to negotiate the rights to rerun a column by a popular writer.
— If you don’t have that kind of ad-dollar pull, look at your own vendor relationships. Do any of them have exceptional knowledge to share that your customers would also appreciate?
Although he doesn’t have a separate contract with his writer — terms are covered under his ad contract with Purchasing magazine — I recommend that marketers who use talent from outside their companies work with a contract that specifies the following work conditions:
— Pay: How much, how often and how much if any should the company cancel an issue?
— Copyright: Does the marketer or the writer own the copyright to the material the writer creates for the newsletter?
— Editorial content and control: Who has the final edit on copy, the newsletter publisher or the writer/editor? Who determines the editorial calendar, solicits articles and artwork and works with the newsletter designer?
Here’s a link to a standard freelance writer’s contract template (modify for your own needs)
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