SIPA (Specialized Information Publishers Association) has been making the most of sharing experiences for over 30 years, so when I had the opportunity to attend the Washington DC SIPA Conference and pick the collective brains of over 250 niche publishers, I jumped at the chance.
I was struck by SIPA’s sharp focus on real, actionable ideas that had been proven to work in publishing businesses and delegates’ willingness to share their experiences with their peers in open Q&A sessions and roundtable discussions. While there are some differences between US and UK markets, there were definitely plenty of good ideas to test out back home.
Here’s my top ten insights from the event for UK publishers…
1. Learn from analytics
Digital media offer a brand new opportunity to learn what content is most popular. Whilst this may at first be threatening for journalists, it can unlock great value.
As the century-old Christian Science Monitor made the migration to digital, they brought analytics into the newsroom, so journalists could see what content was read. Yes, there was a cultural challenge, but soon they were working on on-page optimisation, adding quizzes and lists, resulting in traffic doubling over a two-year period, and reaching a new high in profits.
Spotting high-performing topics has led to developing new sections – for example DC Decoder is a premium product with quick explanations on political jargon, concepts and issues that now reaches one million people a month.
2. Get your audience involved
Readers can be expert contributors in many niche markets.
The Christian Science Monitor has also created a reader feedback loop. DC Decoder regularly asks its readers which tricky political debates should get the Decoder treatment. Polls and surveys lead to articles, and readers get emails with customised content.
Thomson, a B2B publisher, which has recently made the digital transition, pays close attention to which blogs get read and which generate comments and finds that many readers are happy to feedback on new product ideas or even contribute blogs.
3. Design mobile around experiences, not content
People are now terrifyingly dependent on their mobile devices, wanting to be connected at all times. According to Terry Waters of Yankee Group, successful mobile apps are built around enhancing experiences not just providing content. Publishers need to design a mobile experience that encompasses marketing, has transactional capability, builds loyalty and offers excellent customer care.
The key elements in a successful mobile experience are the convenience of a simple process, seamless connectivity across multiple platforms, and context or relevance to a user’s location, situation and preferences.
4. Make life easy for your readers
Everyone feels time-pressured, so make your products easy to use and share. Yankee Group listened to customers saying they didn’t have time to read long research reports, and developed succinct news alerts and a visually driven tablet interface with charts and video content. Content has to be practical and actionable: how you can save money, make money, mitigate risk or avoid making a bad decision. It is crucial to keep it relevant and simple to navigate.
5. Launch niche products around your expertise
Even a general news publisher can identify niche markets for new launches. Using their understanding of the political situation worldwide, the Christian Science Monitor has launched several segmented premium products: World Report for senior executives, Risk Report for risk and operational managers and Global Security Forecast.
6. Use content for lead generation
Use your content to get targeted new leads for potential new subscribers.
Val Voci of CQ Roll Call suggested discussing a story that’s behind the paywall on a LinkedIn group to generate interest and peer pressure and sell more subscriptions.
But be aware that people who sign up for free content are less likely to subscribe to paid services than those who purchase a one-off report. In one campaign, BVR (Business Valuation Resources) saw a 35% conversion from first-time report buyers and zero for free-loaders. Make sure you can track where leads and conversions come from to identify the best marketing activity. Special reports tended to attract new customers, not just existing subscribers.
And it doesn’t all have to be your own content – many publishers can add value to third party content with a little human intervention, and establish themselves as a source of quality information. Barry Graubart recommended tools like Flipboard, RebelMouse, Feedly and Delve to make the curation job simpler.
7. Grow ARPU (average revenue per user)
Publishers can do well by borrowing a concept from the telecoms industry: average revenue per user (ARPU). In niche markets, where the absolute size of the available audience is limited, the key skill is growing ARPU.
BVR has just 6,000 in its audience but has driven ARPU to $5,000 by developing data, training, books, guides and reports. Adding webinars and video to subscription packages reinforces the value.
8. Nurture subscribers from birth
Carol Brault of Access Intelligence believes that renewing and retaining customers starts on the first day: “Don’t let any customers be strangers. Have a new member orientation, give refreshers, stay in touch, nurture and monitor them. So that when you do ask for renewal, it’s not coming from left field.”
It’s good practice to offer new members orientation or tours so they start to use your service, and offer refresher sessions to light users so they don’t lapse. Have a nurturing programme throughout the subscriber lifecycle to support renewals.
Thomson uses analytics to identify subscribers who are light users of the service, or haven’t visited for 60 days and targets them with an email highlighting what they have missed.
Since embarking on a programme of engaging subscribers via email and social media, Thomson have seen a 10% point improvement in their renewal rates.
And Denise Elliott of Kiplinger advocates paying your sales reps as much commission for renewing subscriptions as you do for a new subscription – they are equally valuable.
Plus, trading up individual subscribers to corporate packages with multiple logins was a recurring theme.
9. Test sponsored content
Advertisers are rushing to develop content for web and mobile, but they can slip into overt selling and omit the compelling stories.
Brand marketers often lack core publishing skills – the ability to create content that is authentic, powerful, relevant, useful, tells stories and solves a problem. So there is a great opportunity for publishers to provide this service for brands.
The Christian Science Monitor has developed sponsorable content around the popular topic of energy and environment. They also work with advertisers to find ad placement in relevant subject areas.
10. Repackage, reuse, recycle
There’s great value to be had from repackaging and re-selling content.
Jefferson Communications repurposed data and directories from their free, ad-funded web content to create new paid-for products, such as education guides for parents.
Thomson repackages subscriptions content as slide shows, podcasts, webinars, quizzes and video. They also re-use paid content to create blog articles
A good tip from BVR is to allow editors to focus on creating first-time content, publishing to the web, plus re-using for e-newsletters and social media then have a separate team of product managers who repurpose content for new products such as special reports.
Forms, checklists, questionnaires all worked well as incremental products. And webinars originally for subscribers can be repackaged as one-off products.
So the focus is on diligently farming your content and endlessly looking out for new ways to repackage, either to use for lead generation or to develop new revenues for premium products.
And also nurturing customers to trade them up to buy more services, and encouraging them to make good use of these services so they are more likely to renew.
Many of the SIPA delegates had started out as print newsletter publishers, but over the last few years, they have migrated wholeheartedly to digital content and are now highly expert in SEO, email marketing, database management and adept use of social media. As largely self-taught entrepreneurs, they have learnt by experimenting and are happy to share what they have learnt with their peers on the assumption that they will get back far more than they give away.
SIPA has recently merged with SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association), while retaining its grass roots, practical character. The new series of London-based events for SIIA UK draw on this heritage of experimentation and sharing.
