How can you find out what works in mobile publishing? A great place to start is to listen to the experiences of people who have experimented already. The attendees at the SIIA UK Issue brief got an inside track on what’s working for Lexis Nexis, British Journal of Photography and other publications. I’ve picked out 15 real world tips from an information packed morning session for UK publishers at the Dow Jones offices in London.
Our speakers were Marc Hartog, CEO of Apptitude Media, publishers of BJP, Fade to Black and Popular Science UK and Michael Ellis, MD of Newstex.
1. Tailor content for smartphones
PR Newswire learnt that people only spend 3.5 seconds on each page of their smartphone app. So they moved to a simpler headline only listing plus infinite scrolling. CQ Roll Call’s first app loaded far too slowly and search was slow. It’s important to follow navigation conventions to make apps easy to use and allow users to customise content. BJP’s iPhone app has fewer images than the tablet edition, as users are often offline.
2. Tailor content for tablets
PR Newswire has a more visual, Flipboard style navigation for tablet. BJPs tablet edition is laid out landscape and has extensive galleries.
3. Build > measure > learn
Michael Ellis advises starting with a minimum viable app product, analysing user feedback and releasing multiple iterations. And frequent updates on the App Store tend to boost downloads.
4. Make apps sticky
Free apps need to be sticky to get used. Allow users to customise content, add favourites, and register to have their preferences synched across phone and tablet, and receive alerts. Expect about 20% of users to provide emails.
5. Bring in third party content
Lexis Nexis app combines their original content with relevant blogs, twitter and Facebook updates.
6. Open door to international and new readers
Lexis Nexis has had impressive international downloads, with more in the UK than US in January, and a strong growth in Kuwait. Apptitude’s recent launch 125 fashion has had as many downloads in China as in the UK.
7. Customise ads
Ads can appear intrusive so customise them to be relevant to audience and content, eg Boeing sponsored content in CQ Roll Call app.
8. Treat an app launch as seriously as print
Apptitude created a full launch campaign for digital only launch Fade to Black, with event sponsorship, bespoke ads, custom content.
9. Hold your nerve on price – and study the matrix
Marc Hartog advocates matching print prices for digital editions. But it is worth studying the Apple pricing matrix in detail, and picking a price that works well in key territories. For example BJP is £6.99 in UK which translates to $9.99 in the US.
10. Educate advertisers
Advertisers may get fixated on click throughs and need publishers to demonstrate the branding value of ads. Apptitude showed an advertiser that readers were engaged with the content of their ad for 2 minutes.
11. Start with Apple but don’t ignore android
iOS still delivers most of the paid sales, but android is growing. Although it is more complex to develop for android, Apptitude is testing it out.
12. Experiment with digital bundles
BJP now have a print edition, monthly ipad and weekly iphone edition. All have been sold separately but are now testing bundles, and the iphone and ipad editions are in the same container. Other publishers have discovered that print only, digital only and bundles are popular with different readers.
13. Watch the metrics
Michael Ellis advised deep analysis of metrics on subscription apps to work out what content is read.
14. Use your web site to promote apps
A simple tool to promote apps via mobile editions of website is smart app banners – this has tripled downloads for PR newswire.
15. Accept low conversion to paid
Conversion rates from free download to paid subscriptions can be as low as 5-10%. So building the reach of free apps is essential.
Big thanks to the speakers for providing so much insight, and to the attendees for asking such great questions.
Watch out for our next SIIA UK Issue Brief on Successful Live Events, on 4 September.
More about the benefits of SIIA membership
If you found these tips helpful, just think how much you could gain from attending the SIIA Digital Content & Media Summit 23-25 Sept in London, with over 30 speakers, open panel Q&As, interactive workshops, roundtable discussions, and speed networking.
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Carolyn Morgan has launched, acquired, grown & sold specialist media businesses in print, web and events. She launched the Specialist Media Show in 2010 and grew a community of ambitious publishers keen to grow their digital activity. SIIA acquired the Specialist Media Show in 2013 and Carolyn is now Programme Director for SIIA UK. Follow Carolyn on twitter at @siiauk.