Our email inboxes and social media feeds are overloaded with marketing advice. It’s easy to tune it all out. But small adjustments to your content marketing strategy can make a big difference in your results. In this blog post, you’ll learn about Downstage Media’s PAGER zine and how you can get practical, tactical ideas sent straight to your door.

Can the PAGER zine make your marketing so *beep*ing good?

What is a zine?

How the PAGER zine helps you

The PAGER zine explored

How to get the PAGER zine

A zine is a DIY magazine. It’s usually centered around one topic and distributed in small batches. According to Mental Floss, the first zines popped up in the 1930s. I remember them, though, in high school in the 90s. There, girls would create them and pass them around. They would be Xeroxed and have original poetry and writings, song lyrics, drawings, and photographs. Often, the topics would be about music, riot grrrl culture, and just growing up.

For Downstage Media, I thought I’d riff on that idea by creating a zine that was devoted to content marketing - specifically using the PAGER method. The grittiness and lack of polish in a zine’s aesthetic appealed to me, and would go hand in hand with the 90s nostalgia vibe that I was working with for the book Simple Social Media.

This zine is only available in print and is either distributed at in-person events or mailed by request. It costs nothing.

The tagline for the PAGER zine is to “make your marketing so BEEPing good.” In each issue - which comes out quarterly - you’ll get a quick bit of information that you can use right away to improve your content marketing - whether it’s a social media tip, an email marketing tactic, or a way to tie it all together.

The idea is that Simple Social Media the book gives you evergreen strategies. The PAGER zine gives you of-the-moment tactics.

I know that inboxes and social media feeds are filled to the brim with strategies that it’s easy to scroll on by quickly and forget what you just read. By having something tangible to hold - and have handy on your desk - you can easily pick up and put down the information to take it in.

Unlike the September issue of Vogue, the PAGER zine is not chock full of images and information. It’s meant to give you an easy-to-implement tactic that you can employ right away.

Also, who doesn’t love to get real mail? Like, when does that ever happen nowadays?

The first issue was designed to help the reader understand the PAGER method for social media, since it is a newer concept that is being unveiled. Each letter of PAGER is given an 80s or 90s song to help the reader remember the mnemonic device in their social media content.

In the second issue, current social media trends were looked at through the lens of another iconic 90s moment - Lilith Fair. Each letter of PAGER was given a different performer from the feminist summer rock festival in order to drive home the current social media trend being discussed. As I’m writing this it sounds kinda weird. It is kinda weird. That’s what makes it fun.

The images in the zine are created using AI. I would love it if I had an amazing visual artist on staff, I just don’t, though. Back in high school, the girls who made the zines would cut out images of their favorite musicians from Spin, Jane, or Paper magazines. I’m pretty sure that for me to do the same thing I’d have to pay for the photographs in some way. So instead, I played with Jasper, the AI tool, and used its Art feature.

Here’s the prompt I used:

Using a mix of mediums, create a photorealistic black and white portrait of 90s musician Sheryl Crow playing guitar With careful attention to detail, capture the raw emotion of the artist, evoking the 90s and inviting the viewer to reflect on the music that made the rocker famous. This ink portrait should be both deep and textured.

Also, for fun, I took a photo of myself from 1998 to give that 90s vibe as well. (See above)

The PAGER zine is distributed at in-person events like Content Entrepreneur Expo (note: use code DOWNSTAGE100 to save $100 on registration). The most recent issue is given to those who have purchased Simple Social Media directly from simplesocialmediabook.com. And it is given out to Downstage Media’s clients and prospects.

To have a copy of the most recent issue mailed to you, email info@downstage.media.