The keynotes, sessions and speakers for the SIPA 2013 Conference, June 5-7 in Washington, D.C. have all been carefully selected to deliver the most relevant and timely information possible. Here are some excellent tips from speakers pertaining to their sessions or keynotes. (Check here for the current list of more than 200 attendees.)
1. “Perception of value is extremely important with webinars…” said Leslie Davidson, a top webinar consultant. Webinars help not only to drive revenue but also establish your thought leadership to members and customers. But how can you take those webinars to the next level? The expert panel will share best-practice techniques as well as creative new approaches to event development, pricing and marketing. Learn how to resell your webinar content, increase price points and profits and build your marketing value proposition. “I’ve had at least two clients who insisted we lower the pricing on their webinars and in both cases, it suppressed response,” Davidson said. “Make the regular price higher, then discount down from there. That way you show the true value but can still offer lower early-bird pricing. And it also makes it much easier to charge more over time…”
Davidson, Novella Green, director of learning, Thompson Media Group LLC, and Lindsay Konzak, vice president, Gale Media will present Make Even MORE Money With Webinars, Friday, June 7, at 10:20 a.m.
2. “Is content marketing another kick in the stomach for publishers?” asks Joe McCambley, co-founder, The Wonderfactory. Everyone’s talking about “brand journalism,” “content marketing” and “native advertising.” But in a world where advertisers create, aggregate, curate and syndicate their own content, he wonders, is there still a role for publishers? Will advertisers compete with publishers for consumer attention, or will the bonds between publishers and advertisers grow stronger than ever? McCambley will discuss the path that led Coca-Cola to become one of the world’s newest specialty publishers. He’ll also give a glimpse of what advertising might look like when advertisers think like publishers and publishers think like advertisers.
Joe McCambley of The Wonderfactory, will deliver a keynote address on Thursday, June 6 at 8:30 a.m.
3. Both Andrew Elston, CEO of iCopyright, and Andrea Broadbent, director, eBusiness development and licensing for McGraw Hill Financial, used the phrase “content gone wild” in a recent webcast. “[Because of this,] there are new types of licensing agreements that we need to understand,” Elston said. “The web spawns new business models and license types. Licensing professionals need to stay on top of it. [Things are] changing from cut-and-dried agreements to limited agreements. Now licensing professionals need to be ready for anything—no more one size fits all agreements.” This session will cover the full landscape of revenue opportunities in publishing and republishing in aftermarkets, and what key risks exist in the publishing life cycle. You’ll also get advice on how to protect your company from the risk of losing control of your content in the aftermarket process. “How do you keep up with all the new products?” asked Broadbent. “I go to all the SIIA Conferences.”
Elston and Broadbent – along with Angus Robertson, will present Stretch Your Content to the Limit: Rules, Risks and ROI in Content Licensing, Thursday, June 6, 9:30 a.m.
4. You want to charge for access to your online content, but there are many ways to do that. Do you charge by the drink, after some pre-determined number of views, or do you only wall off certain content? Do you give people a preview of your for-pay content? (Even an entity as big as The New York Times seems unsure of their paywall—they’re now making videos available free to everyone.) How do you integrate the paywall with your fulfillment system? Can you bundle the paywall with print subscriptions? What are the best pricing strategies? This session will cover the waterfront on successful strategies for paywall sites both with and without advertising.
Minal Bopaiah, editor, Subscription Site Insider, will speak on Strategies for Successful Paywalls, Thursday, June 6 at 2:15 p.m.
5. “We offer the why of the story and solutions, and then tailor that for a specialized audience that cares about a higher level of knowledge,” said John Yemma, editor of The Christian Science Monitor. “So we took our human relations people and other brainy people in the company and turned them to web first. We learned web practices and search optimization, developed quizzes. We’ve been able to increase unique visitors tenfold.”
John Yemma, editor, and Jonathan Wells, managing publisher, The Christian Science Monitor, Luncheon keynotes, Thursday, June 6, 21, 12:15 p.m.
Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline