Editorial strategies to supercharge your FFT campaign.

We've talked a lot about strategy and design of forced free trial campaigns from the marketing viewpoint, but there is also an important editorial component to the package.

Basically, if you are going to give the prospect a four-or-five issue look-see at your newsletter, you want to make sure those are four or five of your very best issues.

* Time the FFT for the period when the news you cover is the hottest--and when your prospect audience is ready to read your newsletter. That could mean timing your FFT around major legislative action, or the giant industry annual trade show, or an important product announcement in the industry.

Also, you want to avoid times of the year when your prospects many not have the time to pay attention to your issues--tax time for accountants, for example, winter for funeral directors, summer for academics, late July and August for almost everyone.

* Reality check. If you have any reservations about the quality of your editorial content--say, it's a cyclical downtime in your news cycle, or you have a relatively new editor on board--don't do a forced free trial.

Wait until you are certain your editorial is at full speed before you do an FFT; let the marketers do other types of packages. You want those FFT issues to be the best you have ever done.

* Send a reader survey at least two months before the start of your FFT. Your subscribers will supply you with an arsenal of good story ideas and current industry hot topics.

A salary survey can be gold here. Everyone loves knowing what other people are making in similar positions. You could schedule publishing it so it runs over several issues in the FFT (and somewhat beyond).

* Get your Freedom of Information Act requests into the hopper at least two months, and preferably more, ahead of the FFT. FOIA requests to federal and state agencies can bring up hot, won't-have-seen-it anywhere-else grist for your FFT issues:

+ EEOC statistics on discrimination trends for your industry,

+ Contracts from public facilities with hard-to-find details on products you cover, such as street prices,

+ OSHA inspection records from firms like those you cover, filled with real-world compliance slips,

+ SEC reports on insider stock sales from important industry executives.

Just remember: Government agencies are notoriously slow to produce the requested information. Give yourself as much lead time as possible.

* Plan each issue of your FFT three to four weeks before the campaign begins. Think compression. Compile a listing of the most important editorial topics you normally cover during a six-month period. Then schedule a story on each one to appear at least once during the FFT.

Sure, your story lineup will change because of news developments, but you're better off starting with a plan. FFTs run on the fly tend to be less successful than those thought out ahead of time.

* Look for opportunities to repackage existing editorial for your FFT prospects. (I know, I know, this is something of a gray area.) Consider folding some of the very best stories you've done into the issues of your FFT. This does mean sending separate FFT and regular issues to the printer, which is a logistical pain, but it's sometimes worth the hassle.

Even easier, if you include periodic mini-special reports as an editorial bonus, make sure one occurs during the FFT. Or include a recent one with one of the FFT prospect's issues--or welcome letter.

The idea is to give the prospect a benefits-laden look at the whole range of what you offer subscribers, beyond the newsletter itself.

Follow these tips and insure your newsletter has the best possible opportunity to "sell itself" during the campaign.