Managing the Source Mix in Today’s Economy

With so many sources—both new and traditional—to choose from, b-to-b audience developers are constantly testing to see how to get the most bang for their buck.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Monday, June 1, 2009

B-to-b audience developers are feeling the pressure as sources such as direct mail and telemarketing, which used to effectively bolster new business and retention efforts, get more and more expensive.

According to this year’s B-to-B Circulation Benchmarking Study conducted by AD, 58 percent of respondents expect to mail fewer than 25,000 pieces this year and 21 percent expect to mail between 25,000 and 49,999 pieces with direct mail being the highest cost-per-name source followed by outbound telemarketing.

“This past year, the economic slump has certainly taken a toll at the reader level as many locations have been harder to reach and some have gone out of business,” Brad Mitchell, director of circulation and IT, Babcox Publications, told AD. “Response rates and conversion have taken a big hit and we are challenged more than ever to keep the subscriber levels up.”

For new business efforts, Mitchell says, direct mail has “long since died” and his company is using more email promotions then ever before by borrowing prospect names from related online and print properties. And for retention, while response rates to cover tips are eroding, response to fax and email has remained decent.

Like Babox, Advanstar has been using a lot less direct mail, according to corporate circulation director Joy Puzzo, while email and fax remain successful. “For email, we still have the same amount of orders, if not more, because we have so many more products,” she says. “We’re not only trying to get people to request the print magazines, we’re also trying to get them to request the digital editions too. And fax has really jumped for us. We’ve increased our response by over 10 percent using that source.”

The economy has forced b-to-b circulators to find other ways to reenergize their efforts. For Babcox, this includes turning to advertisers. “Partnering with some of our advertisers to obtain their customer lists has been an increasingly helpful way to obtain good prospect lists,” Mitchell says. “Some advertisers are very cooperative since they want to ensure that their customers are going to see their ads.”

Getting the company’s subscribers to renew earlier has also kept response rates steady. “Our e-newsletter subscribers, who are also long-term magazine subscribers, are the true loyalists,” he says. “Converting the new subs to a renewal in the second year and getting them to opt-in to newsletters is they key to building the long-term loyal readers we all crave. Instead of looking for the magic bullet to renew them, we look to deepen and broaden the readers’ awareness to our product offerings at the beginning of the cycle.”

Puzzo says that her company also does a lot of cross-promotion between the e-newsletters, digital editions and print magazines, but they’re also experimenting with social media. “We’re in the process of trying out a lot of different sources,” she says. “We’re using Facebook to drive people to our shows and we’re also Twittering. It’s surprising how much there is out there to try."

She adds that Advanstar is working on using Facebook and other social networking tools to get people to subscribe to their print and digital products, as well as mobile messaging. “I think we’re all on the same boat right now where we’re trying to figure out what the new sources will be and how we can stay ahead,” she says.