What's your current challenge?

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on July 7, 2008 at 8:06pm

Hi Erika

I would also be interested in hearing what advice and sugestions our digital experts; Marcus, Philip, David, Mark, Pierre and Michael can offer to your question.

Personally speaking, all the data, statistics and 130 page reports on the planet is not going to convince advertisers. It is not them that need educated. It is us.
As publishers we need to start using the platforms that are available to produce publications that offer advertisers and readers a far better product and online experience. And that is a challenge for all of us.

Ian

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Permalink Reply by Marcus on July 8, 2008 at 4:35pm

Hi Erika & Ian,

Getting advertisers on board with digital editions is certainly a critical step (particularly if your publication is 100% digital). Here's what we've seen:

In the "old days" of web advertising, publishers and advertisers got very used to selling page views. Page views offered everyone big numbers and page views could be increased through mediums like SEO.

Most recently, though, advertisers have become frustrated w/ the page view metric and have learned that page views don't always equal click-throughs or leads. To do this, they need to be advertising to engaged readers.

The digital magazine, however, is a different animal. Unlike a website, readers won't generally interact with it UNLESS they're willing to spend some time with it. (This sounds odd until you think about the paper magazine on your desk. You don't pick it up when you're busy.. You pick it up when you want a break.) This key fact leads to what I've come to call the three rules of digital magazines:

1) You will have fewer visitors in your digital magazine than you have on your website (assuming you have content on your website).
2) Because the readers have self-selected themselves to interact w/ your brand, they will inevitably stay much longer inside the digital edition than they do on your website.
3) Engaged readers inside a digital magazine click-through at a rate four to six times that which you'll find on your website.

These three rules have almost always proven to be true for our customers and lead into specific ways to sell:
1) Most advertisers (aside from those seeking brand exposure) want website traffic and leads... Because the digital magazine will have a click-through rate of 4-6 times your website, you can offer your advertisers the same ROI as a product with 4-6 times the traffic.
2) Smart advertisers know that your most engaged readers are the ones they're more likely to sell to... the "3 rules" is a way to isolate your most highly engaged readers.

Here are some specific things some of our customers have done:
1) If your content is locked down (paid), have a single advertiser with prominent position "sponsor" an open copy... I really like this because open content will get you a lot more readers.
2) If you have a print edition, charge the advertiser 15% more for the the URL in their ad to be live. Personally I HATE anything that's not in the reader's best interests. However, it works well for one of our smartest publishers, so who am I to argue?
3) Use single sponsors for supplements and special editions.
4) Instead of just using ads -- use lead gen. forms. Keep in mind - most advertisers don't want website visitors... they want LEADS, and they think they need to send people to their website where they'll be turned INTO leads. Using a lead generation form bypasses this step (where most visitors will abandon anyway).

M

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Permalink Reply by Ian Hunter on July 10, 2008 at 9:39pm

Hi Marcus

Thanks for the in depth reply.
Marcus, would you mind clarifying a couple of the points you have made?
Possibility exists that I may be misinterpreting what you are saying.


1) Most recently, though, advertisers have become frustrated w/ the page view metric
Are you saying here that companies/advertisers are moving away from SEO and are there evidence from the U.S. to show this?
Seen as the Holy Grail over here, personally speaking, small businesses are on a hiding to nothing when it comes to SEO they just don’t have the budgets to keep in touch with the big boys. Which in my opinion explains why you find the usual subjects (those with large budgets) dominating most of the first page on a random Google search.


2) An open copy... I really like this because open content will get you a lot more readers.
Are you advocating that all digital publications should be free?
If so, I would be the first to agree and as the industry develops and grows I believe paid for subscriptions will be a thing of the past 5 years from now.
Digital Publications of the future will not only offer a satisfactory web experience for their readers, but also offer advertisers opportunities, unavailable not just too traditional publishing but opportunity's that will outperform web site advertising techniques and concepts.

Ian

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Permalink Reply by Michael Biggerstaff on July 17, 2008 at 4:00pm

Hi Erika,

I believe deciding what you want your digital edition to be is an important element for discussion. Are you looking for something that is a stand-alone publication, a supplement to your print, a print replica or an honest to goodness unique element that strengthens supports and enhances your print product by providing more information that the reader of your magazine would be interested in.

They love your articles and your content. You know that because they are subscribers to your magazine. So help them out, give them more. Why not offer links in the article to some of the article research, let them drill down and get more information that you already have done. It doesn’t cost you anything in that you have already created it but you are letting your readers find this additional material. This is a real win for a reader and sets the digital edition off from the print . That is really what you should be doing, making the digital edition worth more to the reader than just an exact copy of the print.

When something is more worthwhile to the reader then it makes all of the difference to the advertiser as well. As Marcus touches on in his note, there are good statistics to use when it comes to ad sales and making it statistically better for the advertiser in the digital publication. I do think the challenge is to train your ad sales staff to be able to not only understand digital metrics and what they mean but to really understand the possibilities for growth in their ad sales world and that advertisers need to be involved in print and digital both, don’t forsake one for the other. Readers are different; you want to touch them all as a reader. You can only do that if you are involved in many things, print and digital being two of those.

A great deal of reader’s love their paper magazines but there is an ever growing number of people that are a bit disenchanted with the printed product. Whether it is a “green issue”, deliver problems that digital solves, like foreign subs or the ability to archive and search those archives. These are just a few of the many reasons to do both well. I believe for a growing number of publishers there will be a separation of print and digital as they go forward so digital can get the attention that it deserves.

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Permalink Reply by Erika Geiss on July 19, 2008 at 1:25am

Thanks Marcus and Michael for such great and in-depth information. (Marcus, I too ... and I'm sure others as well ... would love for you to clarify your points as Ian requested, when you get a chance.)
I apologize too for being "off the grid" for a bit ... it was production time. And, well ... everyone in here knows what that's all about.

Michael, we actually are a digital only publication right now, but now that I've found a "green" solution for offering a printed edition, it's something that I am seriously considering, but with reduced content from the digital edition, since that's our primary focus. I realize that it's a bit backwards from the usual route of having a print edition first and then offering a digital edition, but it will give me the opportunity to give the readers of the digital edition something more. We are building in additional features that offer many of the things that you suggest. We just launched the 4th edition, and already, I've received a lot of compliments on it, which is wonderful, especially since it's such a huge issue being our Back to School issue. As for sales staff ... there's the rub. So far, the sales staff has been me, so I have an active search open for a dedicated sales person because focusing on creative and sales is way more than one person can handle and do both well. And of course, you've got to have a great product that a sales person can actually sell.

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