The Prescription for a Healthy Marketing Campaign

… We are only beginning to embrace multimedia formats with our products. We are releasing an interactive DVD for EEG training this fall. We currently carry exercise DVDs, and we recently released one of our books in a limited PDA format. We do offer our titles as e-books as well and sell them through companies like ebrary. But these initiatives are all just beginning. We are going to continue to experiment with different formats, platforms and electronic sales channels.

What else is key to a successful marketing campaign?
Henson: The key to a successful marketing campaign is to take advantage of as many marketing channels as is possible for the product you are introducing. A good direct mail campaign consists of clearly laid out pieces highlighting the titles, lucid, benefit-oriented copy, clear design that leads readers through the piece logically and systematically, simple and easy ordering forms, with specials on older titles or package price for complementary titles. Mailing lists are key, as is timeliness.

The majority of our e-mail marketing is done through our in-house “e-zine” subscriber database. To build this database we have run many promotions over the past few years. We have offered book giveaways through outside organizations that are relevant to the title we are using. We encourage our customers to sign up when ordering our products and when using our Web site. We do raffles at book shows and exhibits, again for book giveaways, and collect names for our e-zine. We advertise that certain specials and promotions, including book discounts, are only available to our subscribers. We have run blurbs about the e-zine in other health-related e-newsletters.

Can you detail a specific example of one of Demos’ marketing campaigns?
Henson: The book we are most excited about this year [to be released this fall] is “Brain Injury Medicine: Principles and Practice” by Nathan D. Zasler [and others]. It is a high-end medical book that we feel will become the standard in its industry. We introduced the book in direct mail pieces last year. We continue to hone in on both the neurology and rehabilitation market for this book through direct mail.