Tips and Quick Hits from the 2009 Audience Development Show

Key takeaways from the show on making the most out of new digital roles and tools.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, July 6, 2009

In June, Audience Development held its annual conference, drawing 250 attendees. Much of the event focused on the best practices circulators need to apply to a job that—like almost every publishing discipline—is becoming more focused online.

Here, we offer a compilation of some of the tips and best practices heard around the show. If you couldn’t make it to the event, you can download most of the presentations at: http://audiencedevshow.com/presentations/.

Managing Paid Content

• Clearly identify content tiers. “This has been a big departure for the Network, which purposely kept content levels vague,” said Wall Street Journal Digital Network president and keynote speaker Gordon McLeod. “Now, visitors can tell at a glance what content is premium and what is not. It’s really helped make subscribers feel more comfortable because they’re seeing that most of the site can’t be accessed and it’s the most valuable content. On the other hand, as we bring in more free users, it gives them a sense of the quality of the paid content and our upsells are easier.”
• Keep registration easy. “Our first attempts at registration were four pages long,” added McLeod. “Successful registration conversion has depended on quick and easy registration forms—‘light registration’—customized product offerings, and additional benefits such as community functions that can only be used if you register.”
• Don’t skimp on the back-end e-commerce system. “A lot of people haven’t figured out how to charge for content yet but for us, the e-commerce part was harder,” said McLeod.

Lead Generation

• Bring advertisers into the fold. Questex circulation director Heidi Spangler said advertisers are given access to audience files on a limited basis. “This would have been totally taboo five years ago and today we set strict limits on what they can see and how they can follow up.”
• No special deals. Spangler advised publishers to set an ad-spending requirement for lead generation programs and stick to it. “We always have salespeople say, ‘Can we offer this guy a break, I think I can get them to sign up for a new program,’ but if you do, it devalues the program.”

Tracking Newsletter Open Rates

• Watch out for HTML-to-text conversions. Spangler also advised that if a newsletter recipient converts the newsletters from HTML to text, it won’t register as an “open.”

Aud Dev and Editorial Working Together

• Have a direct channel into the edit group. Circulators should help make editorial decisions, including cover decisions, according to Time Inc. executive vice president of consumer marketing and keynote speaker Brian Wolfe. “Circulation needs to serve as the voice of the customer to editorial,” he said.

Partnership Marketing

• Don’t devalue partnership copies. “Never refer to partner copies as ‘free,’ they should always be included in your purchase. Small partners are just as much work as big ones, make sure it’s worth it,” said Stacy Sass McAnulty, partnership director, The Parenting group, Bonnier Corporation.
• Don’t forget to charge for the subscription. “The sponsor must pay at least one cent per subscription or it won’t count,” said Kate Lowry, partnership coordinator, Time Out Chicago.

Social Media

• Established social networks can be a better option than homegrown. Paul Thomas, said that Playboy builds its own on third-party platforms on services like Ning, but these days, Facebook is more cost-efficient. Playboy is putting more resources toward Facebook and getting more response there than with its dedicated social media efforts.
• Facebook is also paying off for b-to-b publishers—including Bobit Business Media, which publishes Police. “Our editors didn’t think having a Facebook page would be worth it, but we did a search and found 600,000 users with law enforcement in their profile,” said director of marketing and e-media Christine Oldenbrook. “We set up a page and had 100 fans over night. Our editors will use it to push content while we market subs through it.”
• Social media is changing communication habits. “Because of Twitter and Facebook, how people interact with email is different, so you need to step back and think about how you are using these other mechanisms and how email fits into that,” said Lou-Ann Sabatier of Sabatier Consulting. “Email used to be quickest, the cheapest and the most personal—that’s not true anymore. It’s still the preference, but you need to be aware that the expectations your customers have with email will change. So don’t be surprised—even in b-to-b markets—if you see responses go down.”

Fulfillment

• Online documentation and reports is a game-changer. “The most important feature is the highest visibility of all activities, and having data delivered so timely that it changes my role from being reactive to proactive,” said Heather Holmes, vice president, circulation and consumer marketing, Technology Review.