Every media company has different business challenges and business models, but certain strategies can help almost any publisher grow the e-media side of the business. Are they flashy, new strategies? No. Most are boring fundamentals. But in media, as in football, those who best execute the fundamentals are the ones who win.
1. Sell what you already have.
If you sell advertising, take a hard look at your unsold inventory. If you're less than 75-percent sold-out on your primary positions, you're leaving significant money on the table. This is by far the easiest way to grow revenue with virtually no expense and risk. Actions to take:
- Improve your ad sales team (e.g., e-media training, focus, incentive, better personnel).
- Educate your advertisers (more on this below).
- Improve the ROI of your deliverables. (Look at your resell rate for clues here.)
If you sell content, don't be in a rush to sell digital content. Instead, use online to build out your direct sales channel and sell existing print content (subscriptions, single issues, books, etc.). If you do this well, product sales revenues and profits will grow rapidly. For digital content, start by disaggregating or repurposing print content into one-off digital projects and e-books rather than creating completely new content.
2. Don't underprice yourself.
This is still a cardinal sin at most media companies, and addressing it is another easy way to grow online revenue. If you sell print advertising or sponsorships, consider how much you would charge for exposure to a comparable audience in print. How much would you charge for comparable leads at an in-person event? Use fewer, larger ads that cost more; then get advertisers to compete with each other for the limited inventory. And don't let your sales team tell you the market won't pay anything higher. Anyone can sell a brand-new BMW for $5,000, but it's worth a lot more than that.
The same is true for content. Back issues, books and even subscriptions are often sold at a discount online compared to cover price, but that doesn't have to be the case. Treat your back issues and backlist books as "collectors' items." I have seen consumers pay more for a back issue or backlist book than the original cover price. Likewise, I have seen people pay more for a single digital article that can be immediately downloaded than for an entire magazine issue with 20-30 articles.
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