Custom Publishing

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Custom Publishing Defined
Custom publishing is the delivery of editorial content from a sponsoring company to a targeted audience. Whether in print or electronic form, custom publications provide intrinsically valuable information that moves the perceptions and behavior of the audience in a desired direction.

For over 17 years Creative Selling® magazine has been delivered to subscription based readers around the world. During this time, Creative Selling® has developed a number of niche industry publications for leading manufacturers like Intel, Sandisk, Buick, Godfrey Marine, Nexxus Hair care and within industries such as photo retail, technology integration, paintball retail, music retail, travel and tourism. As a “insider” only hybrid, many of these publications create competitive advantages for a single branded products and services or spur industry growth within an industry where manufacturers, distributors or service providers have a limited ability to influence the behaviors of the salespeople responsible for generating the actual sale of their product or service.



Corporate America produces more than 50,000 unique custom publications annually and spends $15-20 billion each year doing so. Custom publishing, as an industry, is similar in size to these media sectors: consumer magazine publishing, radio and network television. The size of the industry often surprises people. Unlike consumer magazines, radio and television, which are broadcast and available for all to read, see and hear, most custom publications are never seen by the average consumer.

That's because custom publications, almost by definition, are highly targeted vehicles aimed at narrow audiences, such as a company's customer base, and other select groups. In fact, the average custom publication has a circulation of 18,587 copies.



The growth of the custom publishing sector has outpaced that of other marketing tactics with regularity. Last year 13.2% of the average corporate marketing budget was spent on custom publishing, up from 11.1% the prior year. Forty percent of companies plan to spend more on custom publishing next year.