Success? It's in the Mail

Success magazine is hoping to see at least a 3% response from a subscription-building mailing tied to its relaunch this month.

The Dallas-based bimonthly sent out more than 1 million pieces to a mix of lists including former subscribers and past purchasers of self-help products and services, according to publisher and editorial director Darren Hardy.

Many of the names are from Success' new parent VideoPlus L.P., which bought the magazine last year. VideoPlus publishes such titles as Success From Home and Empowering Women; creates, produces and replicates CDs and DVDs; offers DualDiscs (double-sided CD/DVDs) and provides printing services.

“Our parent company also owns Your Success Store (www.yoursuccesstore.com), the largest online seller of personal-development products. That's a several-hundred-thousand-name list we're mailing to,” Hardy says. Sub offers will be sent to VideoPlus' other partners as well.

Success' basic offer is six issues for $19.99; a 12-issue sub runs $34.99 (the newsstand price is $5.95). Each copy includes a DualDisc with content from a success trainer and extended interviews drawn from profile stories in the magazine.

Success also is testing a premium, the DualDisc “Success' Defining Moments.” “It would sell for $24.95 and that's free with a six-issue subscription,” Hardy says.

If readers opt for 12 issues they get “Success' Defining Moments” plus a DVD series of one-on-one interviews with noted success experts. Hardy reports that so far most prospects have chosen the 12-issue sub to get both premiums.

The premiere issue features interviews with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” as well as stories about cyclist Lance Armstrong and tennis star Andre Agassi.

Hardy notes that Success' current incarnation aims to make readers more prosperous by providing content from respected names in industry as well as leading CEOs and entrepreneurs who exemplify success through personal-development principles.

Success was started in 1891 by Orison Swett Marden as a personal-development title and has gone through many owners.

“The last couple of publishers thought they were going to be smart and make it a business-only publication,” he says. “[As a result,] they really lost their audience and struggled to find their uniqueness in the market.”

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