"We've used Mequoda's strategies and techniques to sell thousands of books, videos, and subscriptions."
- Charlie Spahr, Executive Director, The American Ceramic Society
The technology behind digital video has come a long way. Now, the ability for publishers to use digital video as an audience development tool has reached new heights. Today we look at how publishers are using video more, and the changes coming to the medium.
Publishers are constantly looking for new options for an audience development tool that leads to trackable changes.
Today we’re looking at Google AMP as an audience development tool for Condé Nast. This story is coming directly from an article at Condé Nast.
Many online business professionals have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. Some love the audience development opportunities from the social giant. Others are discouraged by the marketing response from it. Today we’re looking at a variety of news stories involving Facebook and how these may impact digital publishers.
Our first story looks at the expansion of Facebook’s Marketplace categories, an act that appears to be an appeal to content publishers. Search Engine Land reports, “Facebook launched its classifieds site Marketplace in October of last year. Now the company is rolling it out to more countries and adding new categories and content from (local) business owners.”
Organic SEO, email, syndication, social and video still among top audience development strategies
Change constantly occurs, but not all change is drastically different from what was. Take audience development, for instance. Audience development has evolved through the years, but some of the most time-tested strategies are still successful and being used today.
We begin today’s news with
Snapchat’s value as part of an audience development strategy is debated by marketers; The Boston Globe embraces Facebook notifications; Mashable bets on premium video as the future
The best audience development strategy is tested over time. The elements of the strategy are proven to be successful, and anything not working is re-examined. We take a look
Facebook offering more audience development strategies; Snapchat effectiveness in question; Twitter broadens live video scope
We’re seeing more publishers partnering with Facebook for distributing content as part of an audience development strategy. Part of this content strategy is focusing on Instant Articles and how more advertisements can be placed within Instant Articles. MediaPost reports, “Unveiled in
Audience development is a major umbrella term online. There are a variety of ways online publishers develop audiences online, from content partnerships and social media to email and press releases. Today we’re taking a look at the use of digital video as an audience development tool, and media brands that are engaging with it.
How to use direct mail campaigns as an audience development tool that builds email lists and primes email subscribers to become paying magazine subscribers
Direct mail is a traditional marketing channel for publishers, but it also has a lot of value for audience development. Although the ROI for direct mail will be lower than for some
Our friends at PubExec.com provide an online digital publishing forecast for next year; plus, what some magazines aren’t getting about Facebook
If there’s one thing we know about online digital publishing, it’s that the industry never stops changing for even a moment.
But we wouldn’t have it any other way, of course. And, yes, we definitely know
Yesterday, we relayed MediaPost’s news about the Movable Ink study finding that mobile email marketing has eclipsed desktop open rates, which is great news for multiplatform publishers who have Email Marketing Systems. As email shrugs off the greatly exaggerated reports of its demise and re-establishes itself as a strong audience development tool, newsletter open rates have become a more important area of focus for digital magazines and other brands.
The Mequoda Method has long emphasized newsletter open rates as a key strategic point of multiplatform publishing, but even we were taken aback by The New York Times’ success when it comes to the art of email. So, we were interested to learn more in Digiday’s recent article about the Old Gray Lady’s staggering 70% yield.
Twitter is an influencing agent, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve seen numerous digital publishers use the social platform as a main audience development tool, and now DB5 is releasing data on how Twitter helps retailing during the holiday season.
3 major focal points for digital publishers
Website traffic remains fundamental to digital publishers’ success, regardless of the Internet business models they utilize.
What are you doing to drive website traffic? How are you converting this traffic to more manageable relationships?
There are three major methods digital publishers are actively using to drive website visitors and convert them to subscribers.
Do your audience development tools help produce a more effective workload?
If social media has become a significant part of your audience development efforts, here are three tools that can help you find audience members, competitors, and conversations easier on Twitter.
-TweetCharts. Amanda MacArthur wrote a comprehensive article on what to expect while using TweetCharts. This audience development tool allows you to enter hashtags or keywords in order to find the top content and users associated with it. In man cases you will find conversations where users are seeking answers to their pressing questions.
Image SEO is an additional tool for getting ranked in search engines
Image SEO has relevance in ranking. If you are optimizing your headlines, body copy, and metadata, you should also be paying close attention to image SEO.
Beyond the additional SEO help, optimizing your images helps users make a visual connection with the content you give them. Below, I’ve listed three of the top reasons for image SEO. Following these guidelines will help you serve your readers with related imagery, while improving your content’s level of optimization.
Three ways to generate free subscribers
The digital subscription is an interesting audience development tool. It can be used to build an email marketing file, and it can help develop free and paid subscribers. There are three subscription website archetypes that particularly target free subscribers,
In many circles, blogging is still misunderstood by many. However, as more knowledgeable people come forth to share information on the topics they are passionate about, the value of blogging becomes more apparent.
How do you reach your audience development goals?
It’s not difficult to understand the point of audience development. It is pretty explanatory. The actual processes and the reporting methods may be a bit harder to understand and act on.
It especially hard to get a grasp on an actionable audience development strategy with all the changes that take place online. Pinterest, for example, turned into a valuable audience development tool for some brands and publishers in a fairly short time.
As the managing editor and lead audience development professional of a digital publication, I’ve come to utilize a variety of audience development tools. Search engine optimization, in particular, has been very beneficial for me. However, the most valuable audience development tool is something I only recently started using.
This tool is inherently for professionals who have a hand in managing overall content strategy; the topics being targeted and the keyword phrases being used in the process. It also relies on the content marketers favorite product – the free report.
A step-by-step tutorial on how to find new followers in your niche using Advanced Twitter Search
The problem that some publishers have with Twitter is that they see it as place to obnoxiously tell everyone what you’re doing and where you’re going. Yes, Twitter is filled with noise, but once you realize it’s full potential, you’ll learn how to tune out the noise; Or better yet – you’ll learn how to turn that noise into revenue. Do you remember when Neo starts to see the code for the first time in The Matrix? It’s kinda like that.
Twitter is an excellent audience development tool. What do I mean by that? People are asking questions all the time on Twitter. When you start finding that other people’s “noise” is really your opportunity to come in and comment, or answer an open question, you might be more inclined to listen, rather than judge.
"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 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
“We’ve used these techniques to boost sales of our higher-priced products, and dramatically increase our multiplatform subscription revenues.”
- Susan Laden, Publisher, Biblical Archaeology Society
"Adoption of the Mequoda Method has produced three benefits for us. First, we are seeing sustained growth in subscription revenue. Second, we monetized a content archive with two decades of news and information. Three, our new customers have immediate access to the content they seek."
- Robert Michel, Founder, The Dark Intelligence Group
"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 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 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
"Mequoda’s knowledge of the fundamental practices and technologies at the core of the media business is unsurpassed by any other group of consultants I know. If you’re in the media industry, Mequoda would be a valuable ally."
- Bryan Welch, Publisher
“The team I worked with at Interweave successfully transitioned a leading print enthusiast media business into the digital age. The folks at Mequoda were an important part of this team and the company’s most valued strategic advisor. We could not have done it without them.”
- Clay Hall, Former CEO, Interweave
"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
