Redefining Audience Development
The job grows ever more complex, areas of responsibility expand, and the need for web analytical skills increases.
Circulators are operating in a brave new world where the landscape is constantly changing. Five years ago, when the term of “audience development” began to appear, it had a much more limited meaning. It did—and still does—refer to developing audiences beyond the print product. But the number of products has proliferated and the Web plays a more important role, beckoning audience developers to understand search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social networking and much more.
The Web, with all its offspring, is no longer on the periphery. It is at the center of audience development.
And integrating all the data from the various channels to provide information that is meaningful to users with different requirements is a challenge.
“I’ve been in circulation marketing for 40 years,” says Al Fagen, director of audience development, Vance Publishing, “and audience development is one of the most exciting opportunities for circulation marketing growth to come along.”
What does it mean to be an audience developer today?
The mission CM takes on here is redefining audience development—finding out how those with audience development responsibility view their jobs and challenges today. We asked a series of seven questions to six magazine circulators. The questions, and their responses are below:
“The audience development position in any company today is in an ever-changing state and becoming broader in its scope—from the varied approaches that are now required to develop and qualify an audited subscriber file to the broadened base of responsibility that can come with online products,” says Julie Nachtigal, VP, audience development, Cygnus Business Media. “It’s much more than just managing for the BPA or ABC audit.”
“I think the meaning is still shifting, depending on the media company you work for,” says Christine Oldenbrook, director of marketing and e-media, Bobit Business Media. “It depends on the development of the brand extensions, the visions and strategies of the company and your commitment to expanding your role and skills to fit the true meaning of that title.”
For Oldenbrook herself, it means developing and using all available channels and converting them to subscribers, visitors, leads, buyers and attendees for Bobit’s products and advertisers’ products and services.
Audience development is all about engagement, according to Andrew Orlando, manager, marketing and audience development, 1to1 Media.
“It used to be about simply acquisition and renewal,” Orlando says. “Now you need to tie the readers into everything, and more importantly, advertisers demand it. They want quantifiable results from their ad investment, so that means you need your audience clicking through online ads, registering for webinars, downloading white papers, interacting on the blog and more.
“It’s no longer saying ‘Our statement’s done. We delivered the magazine to x number of people. Now you need to make sure you are optimizing your relationship with your audience across channels.”
Is being an audience developer a career advantage, a new job or just a new name with more work?
For those who truly embrace the concept of audience development, the consensus is this is a career advancement, says John Rockwell, VP, audience development, Chemical Division, Access Intelligence. “In some places it is the same old thing, but that’s a failure of imagination,” he adds.
Depending on the size and structure of individual companies, the position will vary, says Nachtigal. “Today’s circulator may or may not have direct responsibility for all online products, but it’s imperative that an understanding and knowledge exists for the brand(s) and its products that they are working to support,” she says.
“Exchanging ideas and collaborating on marketing/promotion efforts with others having responsibility for the various aspects of a brand is a key element to success as well.”
“It’s definitely a new job,” says Orlando, who also holds the title of manager of audience development, 1to1 Media. “It functions at a much more strategic level than simply executing promotion plans. You need an integrated communications approach that keeps every reader engaged and active over the course of the year.
“It’s about converting what was, in the past, a group of readers into an audience. This means they are an active partners in what we’re trying to do — the dialogue goes both ways.”
Lynn Bushell, executive director of audience development, Lebhar Friedman, says audience development is a new name with more work, but also a career advantage. “If a circulator doesn’t move into the electronic age and get involved with acquiring, maintaining and analyzing an online reader, their profession will not be secure,” she says.
“Because a circulator has the skillsets to successfully market all types of readers, it is essential to stay relevant by getting involved in this part of the business,” says Bushell. “In my opinion, adding ‘online marketing’ is an extension of what we do.”
“Being an audience developer is definitely a career advantage if you work toward making it an advantage,” says Oldenbrook. “Otherwise it is just a new title with more work. And yes, it is more work, but for me personally, it has been far more rewarding.”
Does management believe that audience development—even via the Web—is a circulator’s job?
The industry is still a little divided on who should do what in this world of audience development that is increasingly Web and email driven. It appears the thought process of management and circulators alike has not always kept up with changes in the business.
“Senior management isn’t always saying to circulators, ‘Make sure you are handling that,’ but we’re not raising our hands either,” says Rockwell.
“Circulators are trying to change, but because there was a little mystery to our jobs (which we might have encouraged), management didn’t necessarily think of us when the new jobs had to be done,” he says. “Management didn’t know we could do it because they didn’t know what we did before.
“Traditionally,” Rockwell adds, “in controlled circulation, the circulation director is the only person speaking to the user—sending content, renewals etc. Now we have entered into a world where we are more focused on Web sites and emails. And now we generate orders, renew subscribers every day in this new world.
“Too often the Web designers are whipping up forms for the reader, but they aren’t close to the reader,” says Rockwell. “Often the people in the circulation department that know what readers respond to are sitting in their office uninvolved in these processes.
Rockwell continues: “At many magazine companies the Web development team would be responsible for search engine marketing,” he says. “Typically the Web people would insure that the spiders can index their content. That’s a Web development thing. But search engine marketing is more than that. You use SEM to drive site visitors and grow your audience—so it’s the same as the things we traditionally do.
“We have to be on guard not to put ourselves in the corner,” says Rockwell. “We’re not pushing hard enough to be audience developers and management isn’t thinking of us in a broad enough way to lead us to it. Management is still going to the technology people and that makes no sense.”
Rockwell won’t find any disagreement from Dave Newcorn, VP, emedia, Summit Publishing. “I think developing audiences for online properties should be the job of the audience development department.
“We in the digital media department can help with tools, but there has to be someone in circulation to take on the mantle of audience developer. I shouldn’t be the one worrying who signs up. That should be the job of the audience developer, who also worries about magazine circulation.”
Newcorn says a lot of circulators would like to take on audience development online, but management doesn’t give them the time and resources they need. “It takes a tremendous amount of time to do it well,” he stresses.
What skillsets and tools are required to succeed in this brave new world?
“We all have the basic but critical direct-marketing skills already (or we wouldn’t be in audience marketing),” says Oldenbrook. “But really learning all of these new options will make more sense to us as we experience new media ourselves. We need to really use and observe the benefits and opportunities of Facebook, Linkedin, RSS, blogs, video, Web seminars, MySpace, search and more.”
“Many of the skills we have learned and developed as circulation marketers are easily applied to the online world,” adds Bushell. “However, it is important that the audience developer adds SEO and SEM knowledge to their skillset.”
A solid understanding of metrics (Web and newsletter analytics, trends, benchmarks) is increasingly important, Orlando stresses. “Knowing how engaged your audience is as important as making them engaged in the first place. Metrics has become a critical part of my function as we’ve moved into cultivating a responsive and engaged audience.”
Oldenbrook notes that this learning curve takes time and patience. “The job requires that I motivate other veterans to learn new media and be patient with myself and the folks I work with. We can’t do every new idea that comes over the transom.”
How are circulators handling the move into other areas for their brands, in terms of online, enewsletters, webinars and events?
“New media has presented us with new sources,” says Oldenbrook. “I think we are entering into the next phase where we really figure out how these new sources can work for us (from all the trial and error we’ve endured the past few years) and will now truly be able to maximize our campaigns and Web sites for optimal results and cross-promoting.”
The goal is get the audience interacting with all of these channels, says Orlando. “More than ever, this requires a much greater level of collaboration across disciplines,” he says.
“At 1to1, we rely on the editorial team to create content and additional offerings that drive our print readers to our online channels. In this way, our circulation efforts are intertwined somewhat with the editorial content on our Web site, blog, and podcasts.
“For us—it’s got to be about the content,” he stresses. “Our audience knows that if we are offering a webinar or a piece of content available online, there is value in that information.
“As executives are bombarded with more and varied communications, it’s critical that every experience they have with the brand—in any channel—brings value. So, while circulation and audience development is heavily involved in planning and promoting the various offerings, the whole team must play a role in delivering value.”
What does audience development mean in a practical sense—what are the specific additional tasks and responsibilities it entails?
A veteran in circulation, Oldenbrook says she has had to learn to work with new marketing channels, benchmark, and test and measure new types of metrics.
“In our strategies for 2008 we are including strategies for e-newsletter development, Web registrations, Web seminar attendees, leads, etc.,” says Oldenbrook. “We will work with cross-functional teams so we have a better understanding of the needs of the events, editors, sales and other departments. Research will also be key.
“We just surveyed our subscribers and visitors to find out how they get their information from us—Web, print, e-newsletters or what combination of the three,” Oldenbrook adds. “We now have a benchmark and can monitor migration from one channel to another. Circulators must now have the broader marketing skills of a brand or product marketer.”
From a practical day-to-day point of view, says Access Intelligence’s Rockwell, being an audience developer is so much more complicated because you are working with so many vehicles, says Rockwell.
“Social networking sites and similar communities are really important to the future of a lot of our businesses,” he says. “That’s how people connect and make decisions today. It is probably more important in the consumer part of the business because so many consumers have MySpace profiles and millions of friends.
“In this new environment, where we have to justify site analytics and BPA statements, we’re having a hard time meshing everything,” he says. “If you ask what is the best practice for dealing with Web site statistics vs. the audited numbers, you’ll find it’s a gray area.
“We’re having a real hard time from both a work process standpoint—providing information that works for advertisers—as well as understanding site traffic and readers in a way that works for everyone.”
What is the chain of command for growing audience in the new online and events channels? Who is really doing the work? What departments are they in?
“At Lebhar-Friedman, responsibilities still fall in various department,” says Bushell. “Audience development is responsible for getting the right online readers to the site. Currently, we have another marketing department that handles the participants for live events, but I handle participation for certain webinar events.”
At Bobit, all staff involved in all areas related to subscriptions and Web activity report to Oldenbrook. “This does help,” she says.
“We, as a team, can make a real impact on the strategies and execution,” she says. “I’m not directly responsible for the marketing of our events, but my group provides the promotion lists, Web development and emarketing they need.”
Oldenbrook recently reorganized the audience marketing department. She has three managers that are essentially business managers for groups of publications/newsletters, responsible for budgets, plans, reporting, audits, fulfillment and publisher contact.
And she now has a promotion manager who collaborates with the business managers and is focused on the execution of traditional promotions like cover wraps, e-promos, direct mail, renewals.
She also has an emarketing manager responsible for driving and converting traffic to the appropriate Web sites through search engine marketing techniques (organic, paid, linking, partnerships and landing pages). And she has a Web analyst who is responsible for all Web reporting.
“The team must work together to get the job done, and as a result everyone is learning about the other’s specialty,” says Oldenbrook. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
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