BtoB Media Business - May 2012 - (Page 22)

Audience Development Grabbing email eyeballs AD execs look for creative ways to ensure newsletters get to the right people BY MARK J. MILLER A s email boxes continue to be overstuffed and spam filters get vastly overworked, audience developers have an increasingly difficult time making sure their email newsletters get in front of the right eyeballs. Whether used to have more contact with an existing audience or increase audiencebuilding and revenue, e-newsletters are still important tools for many b-to-b publishers. However, they don’t have the same kind of pressure on them as they did a few years ago. “Two years ago, there was a big push on products and services going electroniconly,” said Emelda Barea, VP-circulation and distribution at Jobson Healthcare Information. “I think that push has lessened a bit now that we know that procuring email addresses is not as easy as we thought.” Jobson’s core e-newsletter list comes from the circ lists of its seven optical publications. Because those email addresses come directly from the subscribers, the company doesn’t have a huge problem with spam filters—but still remains cognizant of their potential damage. In order to avoid those filters, the company limits the number of emails it sends each day. CIRCULATING McGraw-Hill Cos. simply removes an email address from an e-newsletter’s list if it hasn’t opened a communication over a three-month period to keep its open rates high, said Maurice Persiani, VP-business services at McGraw-Hill. He said that while it can be difficult to get new subscribers, one thing will keep them around. “If the content is good, they will use it,” he said, adding, “few people subscribe to newsletters because, for most, the last thing they want is to have more email.” Brad Mitchell, director of e-media and audience development at Babcox Media also noted the importance of solid e-newsletter content in keeping subscribers around. “My advice for circulators is to work with publishers and editors to ensure that the content being generated is relevant to the audience and appropriate in frequency,” he said. “We need to make our emails like the first present unwrapped at Christmas—the one that is met with eager anticipation, ripped open and heartily enjoyed.” McGraw-Hill builds its audience with a passive opt-in approach, regularly adding qualified new names to its newsletter lists from internal sources. The company also prominently displays subscription links on its website and in other newsletters. High Plains Journal, a regional agricultural title published by High Plains Publishers, uses e-newsletters to provide added value to its current subscribers. “We are a weekly, [which] used to be considered timely; but now, with the Internet, we find we have to have more contact with our customers,” said Jeffrey Keeten, circulation manager with High Plains Journal. “To be considered the primary source of news for our customers, we have to do more.” So, HPJ sends out regionally focused newsletters during the week as well as breaking-news alerts. Keeten said that he expects his email list to grow stronger in July, when HPJ begins to release a digital version of its publication. The brand plans to email subscribers a link to the new digital version the day before the printed version is set to arrive, as well as provide more issues of its specialty travel magazine, Journal GetAways, through the email list, which should help grow its database. Jobson’s Barea noted that e-newsletters aren’t going anywhere and audience developers should continue to develop ways to battle the constant challenge of procuring the most relevant email addresses. Even so, she recommended that audience developers keep a clean list. She also said that audience developers should “make sure opt-outs are processed immediately, study metrics, execute targeted email blasts and review the lists frequently.” That kind of diligence should pay off in solid open rates, some satisfied customers and good news for audience developers to take to the next staff meeting.  Integrating social outlets drives feedback A lexa Wriggins started out in publishing selling ad space in the back of a magazine for stock brokers and financial pros in 1996. Now she’s VP-audience development and analytics for IDG Consumer & SMB. MediaBusiness: What are some recent accomplishments of your department? Alexa Wriggins:The best thing we’ve done in the past six months is make updates to our registration and comment process. We took the first step last year by implementing social sign-on. Users have the option to log in to our sites—PCWorld and Macworld—using Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter or Yahoo. In the second phase, we simplified the comment process, requiring fewer steps to get a comment onto an article. And we added new features such as the ability for editors and users to recommend comments made by other readers. It was a joint effort between the product, editorial and audience teams. The results have been fan- BIO ALEXA WRIGGINS VP-audience development and analytics, IDG Consumer & SMB tastic. We have more comments on articles and a more meaningful dialogue with and between readers. MB: What industry issues are you following? Wriggins: I’m keeping a close eye on the impact of social and mobile because, as media consumption becomes more fragmented, it has implications for where and how we present our content as well as how we measure interaction. MB: What are the big issues on your plate? Wriggins:Working with the editorial team, we continue to evolve our social strategy, which is something that we think about a lot at IDG Consumer & SMB. We know our biggest fans follow our brands on Facebook, Twitter or any place that we spend time curating a quality social experience. The challenge is that the social landscape changes quickly, and we are always evaluating the best way to allocate precious editorial resources. 22 | Media Business | May 2012 | mediabusinessonline.com —M.J.M. AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - May 2012

BtoB Media Business - May 2012
Contents
Peter Goldstone returns to Hanley Wood
Our ninth annual selection of cutting-edge leaders
Building databases grows list rentals
Sales & Marketing
M&A
Audience Development
Events
Production
People
Benchmarks
Incoming ABM chair takes stock of industry

BtoB Media Business - May 2012