Digital Discourse / Content

SIPAlert Daily – Managing renewals means managing relationships

September 4, 2013 By

In the past, we might have talked about renewals only in terms of a series of letters or emails with expiration dates, and post-expires and special covers with big letters, ONE ISSUE TO GO! Laurie Hofmann, the group marketing director, cable division, for Access Intelligence, did mention those things during the session, Renewals: Keep the Engine Running, at SIPA’s recent Annual Conference.

But the two stories she told near the end illustrate a new reality for increasing renewals—the value of audience engagement and staying in touch with your subscribers throughout the year. “Conceptually we’re looking at the relationship build,” Hofmann said. “Once you have the relationship in place, renewals are a very profitable business. Even our CEO replies that it’s the most profitable thing we do.”

First story. “For the past five years I [covered] the chemical industry,” she said. “Dow Chemical was undergoing a lot of breaking news stories. They tried to form a relationship with the Kuwaiti government, get financing, but it was at a time when the chemical industry was imploding. I started doing a strategy where I was looking at what we were reporting on Dow Chemical, and then send it out as breaking news stories. You should have seen the spikes. And when I looked through Google analytics [to see] who was reading it—it was Dow. I went to Dow and said your people are really following us; they’re interested in this. You need to pay us more. And it worked.”

The second story Hofmann called “listening tours” and she was just getting started with them. It involves “going into a subscriber’s company, talking to the administrator but then also to the people who are actually reading your publication and finding out their opinions about your publication and the industry, and what they’re worried about. What should we be focusing on to better cater the content they want to have?…This should increase our renewals.”

Hofmann pointed out that a renewal does not just mean another $300 for the following year, or whatever the subscription costs. There are ancillary products and seats at your events that have to be figured in. To this monetary end, she puts forth up to 11 varied efforts in the typical cycle, starting eight months prior to expire and continuing at least two months after.

“We mix up efforts with email and print,” she said. “People respond differently. We found that print seems to work best for us because people see a notice and they think ‘Okay, I’m going to respond to that right now.’ I have a sense that emails are getting lost right now. I don’t know about you but I go through them every morning and can automatically delete, delete, delete. ‘Oh, maybe here’s one I can look at.’ [Of course,] they still get some traction—we link directly to the fulfillment house so they can pay quickly.”

Hofmann said they also use telemarketers, though Access has the advantage of putting their client services people to the task. “They can answer questions better than telemarketers,” she said. But if telemarketers can be briefed and given referral information, then they can be successful.

“At the end [of the cycle,] we do a double, email and print,” Hofmann said. “We change copy on a regular basis. The first one is always the softest offer—two extra months of CableFAX free. We don’t use it any other time. [That agrees with what copywriter Robert Lerose used to tell me about going with your best offer first, so that subscribers will never think they should wait for a better offer.]

“The next month we’ll print out the statement for them and mail that—and maybe we’ll offer $100 savings on a two-year subscription of CableFAX Daily…I will try to include the expire months—practical information that accounts payable appreciates seeing. At the end, we’ll offer a last chance to reinstate.” Her letters are on smaller than 8.5 x 11 paper because she feels that size looks more “invoicey” and uninviting.

Hofmann also pointed out that your subscribers are interested in what your editors think. So push them forward. “Use promotional emails from the editors with personal salutations,” she said. “Solidify those relationships. Editors should be connecting with readers, engaging them and reaching out for story ideas. Your coverage should have direct interest to that company.”

She also believes in:

- email alerts between issues;

- special offers;

- stepped up pricing – “Use with caution,” she said, but she will always increase the rate by $50. “If they call you on it, then they obviously get whatever price they respond to.”

- price increase campaigns. “The price will go up at the end of the year. Lock in this price now.”

- access to additional platforms as incentive;

- If all else fails, one-issue-to-go cover wraps—It’s time to renew!

Her conclusion: Manage relationships all the time by providing what the readers want/need/desire, and they will keep coming back. And mix up the approaches and touch points to allow response to the efforts that resonate the most. She also mentioned awards and webinars, two other reasons that people renew. The goal? “To continue engagement with the reader and keep things going.”

To subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily, create or update your SIIA User profile and select “SIPA interest.”

Ronn LevineRonn 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

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SIPAlert Daily – Proposed college digital curriculum has strong resonance for us

August 28, 2013 By

Up until now—or at least a short while ago—the talk for small businesses focused on adding digital into your product mix. This has to be rephrased, and Cindy Royal, an associate professor at Texas State University, has done just that.

Her article, on the PBS site, is titled We Need a Digital-First Curriculum to Teach Modern Journalism. It reflects the idea that the traditional journalism school isn’t teaching the kinds of skills that modern journalists need, like HTML coding, building an audience on social media and mobile delivery. But for me, what makes it so effective is that what she recommends for colleges applies to businesses as well—that our focus on digital must be resolute.

Royal writes that we must no longer approach “digital in a piecemeal fashion—injecting digital topics into existing courses…I think there is a better route, another way to conceptualize an entirely new curriculum around Digital and Data-Driven Communication.”

She is writing about a whole new way of thinking that must be adopted—not how an article will look in a print newsletter or magazine on a Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon but how that article or webinar invitation or blog post will look on a tablet or smartphone at 5:30 a.m. on a weekday or 3 p.m. on a Saturday.

Let me interject here that this is what the new bloc of content providers that SIIA has assembled—SIPA, The Association of Business Information and Media Companies (ABM) and SIIA’s excellent Content Division—has set out to do. The new Mobile Essentials series got off to an amazing start a couple weeks ago and continues in September. The Content Division’s thought-leading Data Content Conference takes place in October in Philadelphia and then SIPA’s Marketing Conference visits Las Vegas in December.

The comparison of business to academia works here because most of us are to digital what students entering college are to journalism: novices. Royal has three guiding principles:
1. Flip the Curriculum;
2. New Concentrations;
3. Experience Learning.

In Flip the Curriculum, she wants students to take courses in which “digital is the foundation, and the basic skills of writing, reporting and editing are injected into digitally focused courses, as opposed to inserting a digital lesson or two into traditional classes.” The courses include Multimedia/Mobile Writing and Reporting, Digital Media Law and The History and Culture of Digital Media.

Already, students in Advanced Online Media at Texas State University learn Web development, responsive design, data visualization, Web scraping and content management system customization. Think most of us couldn’t use those courses? Her point in knowing the history and culture of digital is that’s where innovation often comes from. “This approach offers a mindset that encourages students to think innovatively about what could or should come next.” Sign me up.

For New Concentrations, Royal would like to see a visual emphasis where graphic design would focus on Web and mobile delivery. “Courses would introduce more advanced programming concepts, Web [and] mobile development [etc.],” she writes. “This concentration could be supported by collaborations with other departments or with local professionals or organizations, with the goal of ultimately co-opting these skills with a communications context.”

And, of course, social media. She wants students focused on “engagement and “advanced social media implementations, like the use of analytics and the creation of comprehensive social media campaigns.” Again, I‘m there.

The third principle Royal puts out there is Experience Learning. The key here, she writes, might be getting a faculty that is more digitally clued in. Similarly, businesses need to find those people as well. At SIPA’s Las Vegas Conference, you will meet some of them. My fellow track chairs include digitally-oriented folks like Nancy Brand of Chartwell and Jenny Fukumoto of Ragan, in addition to Tom Gale who runs a company, MDM, that is ahead of the digital curve in almost all areas.

Here’s Royal’s last sentence: “It’s time that curriculum reflects the future of media, rather than its past, creating a comprehensive framework and courses that establish an innovative mindset amongst our students and ourselves.” Just substitute “our businesses” for curriculum, “atmosphere” for courses, and “colleagues” for students, and you have what should be our mantra moving forward.

Join us as we lead you down this intricate but necessary road. We can’t put you back in college unfortunately—sorry, we’re not that good—but we can help you put forth this digital-first mindset in everything you do.

 

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Talk, Don’t Run: First ‘Mobile Essentials’ webinar yields firm but guarded business case

August 28, 2013 By

You would expect “communication” to be the buzzword for a panel on relationships, public policy or workplace harmony. But mobile optimization?

Yet, talking meaningfully to your subscribers/members was one of the keys that came out of Making the Business Case, the first webinar in SIIA’s new Mobile Essentials series titled The Guide to Creating a Mobile Business.

“Talk to readers to see how they’re using your content,” advised Greg Krehbiel, director of marketing operations for The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. “Communicate with your customer service rep to see what he or she is hearing. How are your readers accessing your information?”

The webinar laid the groundwork for content providers to get started with mobile. Although the majority of B2B websites are not optimized for mobile, a growing percentage of your audience is connecting with you via a mobile device. In addition, an ABM study found that 75% of respondents would engage more with a mobile-optimized version of your website.

But Matt Kinsman, vice president of content and programming for ABM, and the webinar’s first speaker, cautioned publishers to take that extra step. “Before you spend all that money on mobile, understand what your customers want and how they want it,” he advised.

Kinsman pointed to Farm Journal Pulse, a magazine that has enjoyed great success with targeted mobile messaging. “They are doing a lot with iPad apps and advanced mobile strategies,” Kinsman said. “They have developed one of the aggressive mobile platforms in B2B by understanding what their customers want and how they want it. Because 97% of farmers take their cell phones with them every morning, the company recently launched text-driven mobile solutions, including text message updates and coupons delivered through text.

Both Kinsman and Andy Swindler, president of Astek Consulting, spoke of the importance of business plans and talking to your subscribers—instead of trusting generic statistics. “There is a pressure to go mobile, a fear of being left behind” that motivates some publishers, Swindler said. Instead, there should be a business plan that tells exactly what you are attempting to accomplish. “It’s really easy to go in the wrong direction,” Kinsman added.

Greg’s 10 Rules of Thumb

“What’s the purpose of your mobile product?” asked Krehbiel. “What’s mobile about it?” Here are 10 rules he believes you should abide by in weighing your decision to go mobile:

1. Be careful with generic stats. They show us there’s movement in a certain direction, he said. But it may not be your direction. “You want to look at what your customers are doing in the mobile space. The average mobile behavior probably doesn’t have and never will have much to do with your business.”

2. Pay close attention to what you do. What’s your behavior on mobile? Look at how you use different devices and what you use them for.

3. Data is not the plural form of anecdote.  Do not confuse the two. Learn from your own experience and listen to other people.

4. Get your own stats. How many of your people are reading your emails on a mobile device? Look at time of day.  Measure your traffic from mobile devices vs. paid subscription.

5. Going mobile doesn’t happen overnight.  It happens in stages. Are your marketing emails or product delivey being opened on mobile?

6. How and when do your customers use your content?  What’s particularly mobile about farmers? “That was genius what Farm Journal did,” Krehbiel said. That’s meeting your customers where they are.”

7. Distinguish mobile web vs. apps. Apps give readers a better experience, but you have to jump thru Apple’s hoops. And it’s not just about the experience; it has to fit in with your business model.

8. Tablet vs phone-sized screens. Know how they’re consuming your content. An iPad allows more engagement. Are you on an open-source platform that has mobile plug-ins?

9. Don’t listen to the geniuses. Remember the paperless office, the flying car.

10. Where are you earning your revenue?  Don’t major in minors. Make sure you do a cost-benefit analysis. Increase that revenue to serve your customers better.

A case study

Swindler then presented a case study that Astek undertook for SIPA member EB Medicine. The goals were to get in touch with EB Medicine’s readers, understand what the true value proposition of mobile would be for them, and finally separate the mobile buzz from reader reality.

“Overall, they showed good growth in mobile traffic,” Swindler said. But he questioned if that was enough to justify a huge financial outlay. “Don’t let fear guide a critical decision. Anecdotes, buzz, a couple survey responses, is that enough to say this is a direction? They had done quantitative research.” But Swindler decided that they needed some qualitative research as well.

Astek spoke in-depth with five emergency room physicians—the EB Medicine audience—to truly understand what they needed, “rather than just get answers to survey questions.” They wanted to know “how they think, how they are using this technology. How are they using their iPhones in the emergency room? Would a quick reference guide help them do their jobs better?”

The findings were critical in guiding EB Medicine’s next steps. It made them think about their content differently. It helped them understand that they had more than one kind of reader. “It’s not enough to just say this is our readers,” Swindler said. “We needed a deeper understanding of that core value of EB Medicine.” They found that the best way to spread the word about their app would be one doctor telling another—and, if possible, hooking the residents, even if they couldn’t pay yet.

Engagement gets better

The final presenter was Jeffrey S. Litvack, senior VP & chief digital officer for American Lawyer Media. He said that with sales of smartphones overtaking PCs in 2012, 2013 would be the “tipping point” for mobile.

‘How did we approach mobile? We looked at what our users are doing,” Litvack said. “How are they interacting with us? Is it through the mobile Web, e-newsletters, mobile apps, digital editions for mobile devices?” He spoke of the decision to go either with responsive design—a scaling down of your site—or native—an all new-for-mobile site. ALM chose native. They were able to launch from Day 1 with a positive ROI by selling the ad rights to a sponsor.

Litvack said that with more readers opening email on their smartphones, the importance of optimization increases. That view may determine if the reader saves or deletes. Since the launch of ALM’s mobile optimized websites, click thrus have increased 120%. “That’s hockey-stick growth,” he said. “Very rare. We’ve had 144% more traffic coming from mobile and 40% in average click-thru rates for advertisers.” The mobile breakdown has been 2/3 smartphone and 1/3 tablet.

Though valuable, Litvack said that apps can be very expensive to build and maintain. He warned of going the Apple route, where you have to abide by their timing for both launch and updates. Apps can be effective, he added, but with almost a million apps in the app store, “getting noticed is very hard.”

He believes that engagement and the number of times people come back will always be higher through an app than on the desktop. “The users will be more interactive with that content. People will look at more pages, because it will download the information [easier] and make [the process] more a seamless.”

Lastly, Litvack stressed the opportunities that mobile offers for attracting print advertisers. “Digital editions resonate with print advertisers. They allow interactivity. You can sell them at print rate. Smaller screen sizes mean less content,” but less can be more. He also spoke of the importance of taking a different approach with mobile—from headlines to delivery. “Organizational and process changes are needed,” Litvack said. “Mobile is not a standalone channel; it’s part of the entire customer experience. And it’s becoming the predominant way for accessing your sites.”

The next big thing, Litvack pondered. “How mobile will be connected to cars.”

The second webinar, The Guide to Creating a Mobile Business, will take place Sept. 19.  Sign up here.

Ronn LevineRonn 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

 

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Digital Content & Media Summit will Address Trends in Mobile Magazines, Multiplatform Publishing, Content Paywalls, and More

August 27, 2013 By

SIIA will hold its Digital Content & Media Summit – the premier conference for digital media and publishing executives – on September 23-25 at One Wimpole Street in London. The Digital Content & Media Summit will feature presentations from leading media pioneers who are tackling digital content in innovative ways and will examine how major media businesses are creating digital content for international audiences.

The conference will bring together industry-leading executives, prominent analysts, publishers, media owners, and members of the media to discuss key trends and practical tools to survive in the rapidly changing world of digital content.  Topics will include adapting content for multiple platforms, using free content to extend market reach and convert users to paid services, and more.

Keynote speakers at the Digital Content & Media Summit:

  • Natasha Christie-Miller, CEO, EMAP
  • Benedict Evans, consultant, Enders Analysis
  • Julie Harris, CEO, WGSN & Planet Retail

Other speakers of note include:

  • Adrian Barrick, Chief Content Officer, UBM
  • Tim Brooks, CEO BMJ Group
  • Ben Heald, CEO, Sift
  • Paul Lomax, CTO, Dennis
  • Richard Londesborough, CEO, Business Monitor International
  • Tony Macklin, Director of Product Development, Immediate Media
  • Audra Martin, VP, Advertising & operations, The Economist
  • Alex Martinez, CEO, Sigaria
  • Colin Morrison, Non-Exec Director, Centaur, Travel Weekly
  • Peter Phippen, Deputy Chairman, Immediate Media
  • Andy Rice, MD Sport & Music, Future
  • Julian Turner, CEO, Electric Word

The Digital Content & Media Summit will also feature SIIA’s Previews Program, which showcases the next generation of digital content innovators that are transforming the information industry. Several companies selected for the Previews Program will present at the conference.

Read more about the SIIA Previews companies here.

For a complete schedule of events, visit: http://siia.net/london/2013/schedule.asp

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.

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Do not be Embarrassed

August 26, 2013 By

Russell Perkins, ICG

Post by: Russell Perkins, ICG

”If you’re not at least a little embarrassed by something you just launched, you probably waited too long to start it.” So says Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit and a number of other high profile web media products.

This statement, provocative as it is, actually is little more than a smart synthesis of the current state of play in the world of online product development. You no doubt hear variants of this theme regularly, sometimes expressed as ”minimum viable product,” ”rapid iteration,” and even ”fast fail.” They all embody the philosophy that it’s more important to launch a new product quickly than launch a really good new product. I credit Google for raising this practice to high art by teaching users that the word ”beta” appended to any product name excused the product from delivering much value, or even working properly, for an often extended period of time.

I certainly agree that there is an imperative for speed in the world of online content. We’re surrounded by hordes of competitive start-ups, many of them explicitly attempting to disrupt market incumbents. But before we decide to emulate these companies, it’s important to note their typically distinctive business models.

Read more here

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Learn more about Data and Content  through the following activities and upcoming events:

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Serious Business Challenges Posed by NSA Surveillance Revelations

August 20, 2013 By

Recent revelations about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance efforts have clearly changed the privacy landscape for the remainder of 2013, if not much longer. This is a complex policy issue with very broad implications.

Importantly for SIIA members, it is one that poses the following serious business challenges:  (1) enhanced privacy concerns among customers around the world, (2) policymakers around the world seeking to restrict the cross-border flow of data and enact technology localization requirements, and (3) conflation of private sector data collection with government surveillance as an inseparable public-private partnership that necessitates strict new commercial privacy legislation or regulations—FTC Commission Julie Brill has recently made this connection in an op-ed, which has also come from influential thought-leaders such as former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.

As a preliminary assessment, the Information Technology Innovation Foundation (ITIF) estimates that the U.S. cloud computing industry alone could lose up to $35 billion over the next three years if foreign customers decide the risks of storing data with a U.S. company outweigh the benefits.

SIIA has been very engaged in policy debates surrounding this issue for several months, and we expect to remain highly engaged to combat these challenges for months to come.  Recently, SIIA President Ken Wash was invited to a meeting at the White House in early August, which was one of several consultations leading up to the President’s call for reforms to NSA programs on August 9.

As a follow-up to the discussion with Administration officials and the SIIA this week joined with other leading technology trade associations in sending a letter to Administration officials urging that discussions about national security must be kept separate from conversations about commercial privacy issues, as the policy considerations in these two areas are distinct. In the letter, SIIA and industry partner organizations made the following recommendations for action that are likely to frame our priorities for the remainder of 2013:

  1. Implement transparency with respect to national security programs – in order to separate fact from fiction regarding the intersection of private sector IT companies and the U.S. Government, it is critical that the Administration enhance transparency and enable companies to share information publicly about the scope and frequency of Government inquiries;
  2. Promote policies that allow for unimpeded cross-border data flows such as the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework – We are already seeing that longstanding and effective cross-border data mechanisms are being questioned in light of the recent disclosures about the U.S. government surveillance programs. For instance, recent statements by government officials in the EU indicate a lack of “trust” in the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor framework, which allows for the transfer of information from the EU to the U.S. for participating companies. This is one of many critical policies that facilitate digital trade for U.S. companies, and it is critical that U.S. government must vigorously engage with the international community to promote cross-border data flows while addressing privacy and civil liberties concerns; and
  3. Support reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to enhance privacy in law enforcement investigations – SIIA has been a leading supporter of ECPA, seeking to update the outdated statue by correcting the double-standard that inappropriately provides for a lower level of privacy for communications stored remotely, or “in the cloud.” Currently, the law provides for a challenging legal environment for industry and a disincentive for customers to embrace hosted information and communications technology solutions as an alternative to on-premise solutions.

SIIA believes that these are critical steps to ensuring that concerns about U.S. Government surveillance do not impose an unnecessary impediment to U.S. information technology businesses.  We are also closely monitoring a range of proposals in Congress that would seek to enhance transparency surrounding U.S. Government surveilance.  The  Surveillance Transparency Act of 2013 (S.1452) was introduced by Senator Al Franken on August 1st, 2013, and the Surveillance Order Reporting Act of 2013 (H.R.3035) was introduced by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren on August 2nd, 2013.  SIIA has not endorsed any bill at this point, but the Lofgren-Franken approach goes in the right direction by allowing companies to reveal how many national security requests they have received, how many they have complied with and how many users or accounts are affected.

We will continue to focus heavily on this critical issue to promote the ability of U.S. businesses to thrive in the U.S. and markets around the world.  To that end, we will provide further updates regarding new developments.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.

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Registration Now Open for the 2014 Information Industry Summit (IIS)

August 20, 2013 By

There is a reason that IIS is called the summit for information industry leaders, IIS explores breakthrough strategies, ideas, case studies and tactics to help them lead their information companies. It draws leaders from media, publishing and information services companies as well as the technology, private equity and other organizations serving them, including:

  • CEOs, COOs, Presidents, and Division Heads of global and mid-sized information, publishing and media companies,
  • Managing Partners from top private equity firms, and
  • CEOs of emerging companies transforming our industry

We just opened up registration and I welcome everyone  to reserve their spot now at the Summit.  This year will be a bit unique in that NYC will be a LOT busier than usual due to an event on February 2nd in the NYC/NJ area.   So, if ever there was a year to reserve your Summit tickets early as well as get your plane tickets hotel room early (while they are still cheap and available) , this is the year to do it!  We have already reserved room blocks at TWO separate hotels in anticipation of the lack of Hotel space.  And, we have already made reservations for dinners a number of NYC venues for IIS attendees in anticipation of lack of availability that week.

Here are some key links:

I look forward to seeing you in January.

  Kathy Greenler Sexton is Vice President and General Manager for the SIIA Content Division. Follow the Content Division team on Twitter at @SIIAContent

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