The need for targeted penetration has led Questex to back off on the “more is better” philosophy epitomized by e-mail blasts. Hoping for a certain percentage of returns is not worth risking unfocused database oversaturation, and advertisers today are less likely to be dazzled by big numbers. “I go to a smaller audience, but it’s more attractive,” McMahon says of his company’s switch to an opt-in e-newsletter model—a platform more appropriate for clients interested in quality rather than quantity.
“[The future] is going to be lead-gen and data collection and market intelligence,” McMahon says. “If I can target travel agents that book the Caribbean in New York, and I go down to a client in the Caribbean and their big feeder market is New York, then they’re more likely to spend money with me than anyone else. In the old days, you’d say, ‘I can give you an East Coast split east of the Mississippi,’ and they’d be happy about that. So that’s the way it’s going.
“It’s a two-way street now,” he continues. “You’re not pushing an ad out for someone and hoping you can grab some eyeballs. They’re trusting you with their media spend, and you’re expected to come back with quantifiable data and, in some cases, transactions. You can’t hide anymore.”
The Web has forced new standards of transparency on media companies, McMahon says. “We used to do [general] reader surveys. Quite frankly, [today] a supplier can … go into Survey Monkey, send out 2,000 e-mails to an audience we reach, and ask ‘Do you use this [product]?’ It’s real. There are a lot of publishing companies that are falling off the radar because they haven’t made the turn. It can be a dangerous thing if you are just treating this as: ‘Give me your money and let me push this out for you.’”
To be sure it’s getting full credit for the reach it provides, Questex has opted to use Verified Audit Circulation (VAC) for its audits, because VAC audits audiences across multiple platforms. “It’s about your audience, and my audience is no longer just who gets my magazine,” he says. Out of 120,000 contacts, 40,000 might get the print product; 20,000 might use the Web site; and another 60,000 might be reached through other means, such as education and training, webinars or live events.
The Direct Approach
The new emphasis on actionable data should not obscure the very real benefits of an integrated approach to revenue generation, says Jim Roddy, president of Jameson Publishing Inc., publisher of a number of business-to-business publications in IT, business solutions and life sciences.
“One thing people have to realize is [that] print is the best driver of Web traffic,” he says. “We’ve seen that, our advertisers have seen that—we did a reader study, and almost every single person uses our magazine to go to either our Web site or the advertiser’s Web site for more information.”
Jameson has seen a great deal of success—both in revenue generation and audience building—with online videos and e-newsletters. Much of the publisher’s digital offerings are built into online “resource centers,” which feature a targeted combination of educational materials such as sponsored podcasts, video and white papers, and industry news updates. The resource centers are designed to dovetail with articles appearing online and in print, providing more in-depth looks at particular topics. Jameson plans further expansion of functionality and digital options to allow for greater customization of integrated packages.
Roddy believes that the fact that the benefits of print advertising are not easily measurable does not mean they do not exist. Once online, readers may come to an advertiser’s Web site because they clicked on an ad or Googled a name—but understanding the whole process requires appreciating the name recognition and brand association previously built up through print ads, Roddy says. “People have to recognize the whole funnel to figure out ROI—not just the last touch point. Print pushes them down the funnel. At least, that’s what we believe.”
Carine Roman, vice president of online operations at Ziff Davis Enterprise, believes advertisers are at a low point for appreciating the value of a brand-centered campaign. “There is a definite benefit to branding, demonstrated by a lot of research that shows that people who are exposed to an ad are more inclined to do a search around the brand that they saw in the ad. But, still, at the end of the day, if you are giving the choice to an advertiser between paying every time someone clicks or paying every time someone sees an ad, they will go with the click,” she says. Ziff Davis’ answer to this is ContextClicks, which leverages editorial material by generating ads most relevant to online content through sophisticated keyword tracking. “It returns an ad that matches the keyword density,” Roman says, “so the chances you, as a reader, will click on that ad are higher because this ad is exactly what you are interested in.”
Advertisers provide Ziff Davis with the keywords they wish to use, and ContextClicks matches ads to editorial content on any one of five high-traffic Web sites, such as eWeek.com, BaselineMag.com and CIOInsight.com. The ads feature a textual call to action and links to a registration page or Web site, and can include a client’s logo in one of two ways: in the bottom corner of the ContextClicks module itself, or bundled with other branding opportunities, such as a banner ad built around a topic also targeted by ContextClicks.
Other keyword-based features that have been successful for Ziff Davis are the popular double-underlined-word ad pop-ups, and a feature called the Island, which takes this concept to a new level by conjuring related internal content along with an advertisement when a reader clicks on a small magnifying glass located next to words in an article.
Roman says advertiser response to ContextClicks, which was launched in May, has been “extremely positive.” For Ziff Davis, keyword-based programs address what Roman calls the “double challenge” of finding a straightforward way to monetize content and satisfying advertisers’ desire for maximum ROI. By drilling down to subjects known to be of interest to readers, the system generates both a higher click rate and a higher conversion rate.
In the consumer world, where content tends to be digested by larger numbers of people in smaller chunks, higher click and conversion rates can be a matter of timing and packaging. While some publishers are focused on filling their Web sites with vertical categories targeted to reader interests, Atlanta-based Pink magazine has distilled its online revenue-generating strategy into a supplemental product called the Little Pink Book. Topping out daily at about 150 words, the success of the free e-note has surprised even the magazine’s management team.
Launched in February, the Little Pink Book had 60,000 daily readers by late May. According to Media and Marketing Director Kimberly Barnett, read rates were, at that point, at 21 percent and growing, and click through rates were so high—12.5 percent—that the product had become a primary revenue driver and “focus of the whole company.”
“I think we are really on to something here,” Barnett says. “To reach so many people daily is very powerful, and it’s also a way to drive people back to our [main Web] site. Daily e-notes are a trend you will see more of.”
The Little Pink Book features advice, products and helpful links geared to professional women, skewing toward business news in the beginning of the week and moving into lighter topics, such as fashion, as the weekend approaches. The product is opt-in only, which, as with Questex’s e-newsletters, helps ensure reader interest and ad-click conversion. Unlike newsletters, however, it is designed to be a quick read, and its target audience is younger—a median age of 28 compared to the mid-30s for Pink’s print magazine. The different demographic and daily updates has allowed Pink to expand its advertiser pool and opens up marketing strategies, such as offering coupons, that do not work as well in the print magazine or on the Web site.
Another surprise for the Pink staff was seeing the direct impact of Twitter on its bottom line. When Pink held one of its periodic events for businesswomen, The Winning Formula, on May 4, it found the majority of ticket sales came from its Twitter audience of 1,800. “I don’t think we expected that, not knowing exactly where our Twitter audience was located,” Barnett says.
When products or efforts seen as supplemental (like e-notes or Twitter) are unexpectedly primary revenue drivers, it may seem like a case of the tail wagging the dog. In this period of upheaval and Web experimentation, maybe herding cats is not far behind.
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