Whether custom publishing is a component of your promotional strategy or the foundation of your long-term marketing goals, measuring its success is a tricky matter. The ROI in custom publishing, as with many marketing initiatives, has always been elusive, but that doesn't make it any less critical to the program.

Custom publishing products, such as magazines and newsletters, are usually part of a long-term strategy to build brand awareness within a specific market and foster customer loyalty. While we all love to see dollar signs at the end of every endeavor, these types of goals are not as easily measured. Yes, incremental sales will follow brand enhancement, but there's also a relationship-building aspect that takes time. In many programs, measuring the long-term payoff isn't a simple case of calculating response after a piece drops; it requires a bit more patience and trust in your company's mission and message.

"When clients ask us about what they can do to measure the results of their pieces, we explain the many options available to them, from business reply cards to published URLs and 800 numbers to brand awareness studies to creating qualified lead lists," says Bruce Cuthbertson, director of operations at Freedom Technology Media Group. "In the technology industry, for example, companies are scrambling to show that their technologies have staying power and that their technologies solve actual business problems. Nothing makes that point better than a case study, which is a valuable selling tool. Oftentimes, if a case study or insert helps our client make one sale, it has paid for itself."

Aspect Communications, a software company specializing in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, is such a client. The company ran a series of inserts in Customer Relationship Management, published by FTMG to serve the CRM market. "Our main objective [for the inserts] was to increase our visibility as a CRM player," says Suzanne Jansson, senior director of marketing communications at Aspect. "Within the whole CRM space, there are a lot of players out there that are all saying the same thing. [The inserts] give us the ability to show that we have real customers that are using our products and are getting results. They give us more real estate than a typical ad to tell our story and the ability to control the message."

The success stories that Aspect incorporates into the inserts allow the company to show its products in action within an informative editorial format. "When it comes to technology, you need to show people that these products are actually solving real business problems," says Jansson. "People like to see how other companies are dealing with similar business challenges."

To monitor the success of the program, Aspect includes an advertisement with a call to action in all of its pieces to phone an 800 number. This helps generate sales leads while providing some indication of the effectiveness of the message. However, Jansson points out, the overall goal of the program was not simply to generate immediate response. "These inserts are part of a long-term goal of increased brand awareness," Jansson explains. "So we're not looking to measure the results of each piece. We do try to determine the cumulative effect of all of our marketing efforts by looking year over year at our awareness ratings against our competitors'."

Get Out Your Rulers

For those who have a hard time embracing the long-term concept, there are ways to measure the immediate impact of a single piece. Binding in a reader survey or business reply card can be a simple yet powerful measuring mechanism that generates tangible information about the effectiveness of your pieces. In 1998, Baan, a developer of software solutions for the enterprise, began publishing Enterprise Business magazine. Under the direction of Kevin Cancilla, director of marketing for Baan at the time, the company's initial objective for the magazine was to educate readers on the technology while highlighting the company as a major CRM player.

"CRM was budding with opportunity," says Cancilla, "and we wanted to distinguish ourselves in the market as a thought leader. We chose the magazine format because it allowed us to accomplish this in an educational, less self-promoting format. We hardly even promoted our products within the editorial."

With the first mailing list of about 600 recipients, comprising Baan's A-list of customers and prospects, Baan aimed to increase readership, while keeping to the targeted audience of decision makers. The company developed a business reply card, along with an ad for their Web site that encouraged recipients to subscribe. The measurement mechanism was built in — track responses to the BRC and hits to the Web site and then calculate the number of new subscribers. The response was overwhelming. By the second issue, Baan had quadrupled its subscriber base. "The ROI was phenomenal," says Cancilla. It became our primary promotion vehicle, generating sales and promoting education. We also solicited ads from our partners, which offset the cost."

Eliciting a response to an article or ad within the piece and publicizing a dedicated toll-free number or Web address, as Aspect did, is another easy way to gain feedback. When tallying visitors to the Web address, make sure to count the first-time visitors to avoid re-counting people who may visit the site more than once. Surveying a sample of your readers over the phone is another great way to accurately assess your custom publishing piece. Most custom publishing houses will provide the service and other types of follow-up research for an additional fee. Finally, reader focus groups, which may provide more qualitative data, can be an effective way to measure change in customers' perceptions of the publication, your brand or your company.