Mequoda Systems

Membership Marketing Made Easy

Mequoda Systems partners with publishers to develop content-driven programs that maximize audience development, customer engagement, revenues and profits for membership marketing systems—and Mequoda is seeking additional partners with valuable content and strong databases to launch new membership programs in 2019.

Mequoda partners who have launched membership marketing programs over the last two years have seen revenues double, even triple, within 12 months. Mequoda publishing partners include Harvard University, Hearst Magazines, and Yankee Publishing.

Mequoda builds membership marketing systems for publishers with a proprietary seven-strategy approach known as CAROTME (Content, Audience, Revenue, Organization, Technology, Measurement, Economics):

Content Strategy

Mequoda develops a plan that leverages existing partner content, strategizes new content, schedules content publishing, and optimizes member contact frequency. Strategy includes clear identification of content purposing to serve both basic (free) members and premium (paid) members.

Audience Strategy

Mequoda develops plan for acquiring basic and premium members for partner that also leverages existing databases and other media assets. Strategy includes Google keyword research and website navigational taxonomy development to support membership programs.

Revenue Strategy

Mequoda reviews partner products and pricing and develops 12-month price, offer, and incentive testing plan to be executed with Six Sigma Marketing discipline. Strategy includes conversion and renewal pricing plan, membership positioning, copywriting plan, and member-retention tactics.

Organizational Strategy

Mequoda reviews partner organizational structure and identifies roles and responsibilities for integrating partner and Mequoda teams, in support of successful membership marketing systems. Strategy includes leveraging existing structure and resources to optimize performance.

Technology Strategy

Mequoda leverages for partners its proprietary state-of-the-art Haven Content Management System (CMS) in connection with Mequoda’s Customer Experience Management System (CXMS) that has the ability to integrate all web, email, social media, and fulfillment activities—including third-party systems. Strategy includes development, maintenance, and upgrade plans for new membership marketing systems and shared resources that make Mequoda’s platform a cost-effective choice for publishers of all sizes.

Measurement Strategy

Mequoda identifies partner key performance metrics, used to both track and forecast performance of new membership marketing systems. Strategy includes industry and system benchmarking, variance reporting, in-depth analysis, and recommendations and action plans for optimizing audience, revenue, and profits.

Economic Strategy

Mequoda develops for partners a 5-year financial model that combines key metrics, marketplace trends, and partner-specific situations to provide a forward forecast of basic membership, premium membership, revenue, costs, and margin.

If you’d like to schedule a meeting to talk about a new or additional membership marketing program for your organization, please click the button below.

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Our Team

Don Nicholas, Chief Executive Officer

Don is Chief Executive Officer of Mequoda Systems and has served as a subscription marketing advisor for virtually every major U.S. magazine and newsletter publisher during a decades-long career. Under Don’s leadership, Mequoda Systems has launched more than 300 complex subscription publishing and membership marketing systems that include websites, email, social media, and fulfillment-integration functionality. Don is the author of numerous books on subscription marketing, technology, publishing, and journalism.

Kim Mateus, Chief Content Officer

Kim is Chief Content Officer and an experienced marketing professional who oversees strategic planning for all Mequoda partners, having guided the development of more than 20 subscription and membership marketing systems. Kim and her team maintain a robust best practices database of marketing techniques and business processes that helps power all Mequoda partner marketing programs. Kim’s focus on client content strategies is a natural extension of her journalism education and background.

Bill Dugan, Chief Copywriter

Bill is Chief Copywriter and a publishing industry veteran with over 30 years of membership marketing expertise. With experience in consumer and business publishing ventures, Bill brings classic direct-marketing expertise to Mequoda-powered technology in support of membership marketing systems for publishers. An accomplished and award-winning copywriter, Bill has recruited a six-member world-class copywriting team to assist with creating compelling, engaging, and successful content for Mequoda partners.

Eileen Shea, Content Marketing Director

Eileen is Content Marketing Director and a seasoned, top-notch direct-marketing professional with a wealth of experience in planning and managing successful programs. Eileen’s breadth of marketing experience covers both consumer and business publishing—from U.S. News & World Report to Harvard Business Review—and marketing strategy and best practices. Eileen’s keen and timely data-analytics capabilities help Mequoda partners stay on top of current trends to maximize revenue and profits.

Nancy Horan, Chief Systems Officer

Nancy is Chief Systems Officer and an experienced manager and executive. Nancy and her team oversee the technology for Mequoda partner systems, with a strong focus on optimal user experience and system operator ease-of-use. Nancy also manages all research and development for Mequoda’s Haven Content Management System which supports more than 150 operating components, application protocol interfaces and integration with third-party fulfillment systems. Nancy is a Certified Scrum Master and a Professional Scrum Product Owner.

Laura Pittman, Chief Operating Officer

Laura serves as Chief Operating Officer and oversees accounting, financial forecasting, and business plan development for Mequoda’s partners. Laura is chief architect of the Mequoda Subscription Marketing Model and the Mequoda Audience Development Analytics Suite. Laura and her team create custom operating forecasts for Mequoda partners, to quantify and explore the impact of creating new—and expanding existing—subscription and membership marketing systems. Laura has served as a senior executive for Blue Dolphin Group and MagazineWeek.

Who We Serve

Testimonials

"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society

"We have used the Mequoda Method to create two successful online magazines that generate subscription revenues that are completely independent of our advertising driven legacy business model."
- Stuart Hochwert, Founder and CEO, Prime Publishing

"We have used the Mequoda Method to increase our revenue by more than 60% while completely eliminating direct mail from our marketing mix. Unsurprisingly, this has allowed us to dramatically increase profitability and our ability to fund our mission-driven programs."
- Gail Odeneal, Director of Marketing, Program on Negotiation Harvard Law School

"We know there’s demand for individual subscriptions based on our limited marketing efforts, but we needed the resources of a top-tier marketing organization to effectively and aggressively scale our individual subscriptions business. Mequoda has the best business processes we’ve seen for getting the job done."
- Hampton Stephens, Publisher, World Politics Review

"We have used the Mequoda Method to deliver a real-time online magazine that features individual issues and our amazing archive of premium content."
- Paul Belliveau, Vice President New Media and Production, Yankee Publishing

"With more than 3.2 million monthly unique visitors, Mother Earth News has increased its revenues 39X over the past 10 years, using these strategies.”
- Bill Uhler, Publisher, Ogden Publications