The digital publishing market is under pressure. There’s a battle going on for pageviews, but its sustainability in the long run is being questioned. The traditional online business model of putting ads on your website is ripe for change, I wrote in a previous blog. I now think publishers should think and be more like brands if they want to regain control over their relationship with visitors. Here’s how they can become more like them.
Focus on brand awareness
First thing to take into account is your brand awareness as a publisher. Content these days is increasingly distributed on multiple platforms. Take social media, for instance: 6 in 10 Americans get news from social media according to Pew Research, but 43% don’t know where the stories they read originally appeared. Brand awareness is even more important as social platforms not only take over distribution from publishers but also start hosting their content, Facebook’s Instant Articles being the prime example of this.
Your branding should always be consistent, no matter where your content is being read. The masthead used to be how readers recognized a newspaper. The same principle applies to the digital world. Readers should be able to recognize you in the blink of an eye. Include a subtle logo on images for instance, and use the same colors and typography. Don’t forget consistent language and tone of voice. Whenever readers see an expression, being it online or offline, they will recognize it is you and eventually remember the next time they read one of your articles.
Know your audience
Secondly, publishers should do more to know their audience. Many publishers use tools to gain insight in how many people are visiting and reading articles. But this should go beyond data on articles. In his weekly Monday Note, Frederic Filloux calls on publishers to become more like a gaming company. He thinks publishers should use a simple set of metrics (or KPIs) in three different stages: acquisition, engagement, and monetization. While this is specifically for news apps, I think this should apply to all publisher’s properties.
Brand marketers look at where their prospects are in their journey. Are they just looking for information, do they want to do a comparison or are they ready to do a sales call? The (potential) transaction is the key focus in this journey. Why not apply this to readers, too? It should make a difference whether someone’s a first time reader or has visited you repeatedly.
Readers visit publishers because they want to be informed, to be humored, etc. Consuming content has traditionally been the transaction between publisher and reader. Except, the abundance of content available today – often repetitive – has led to content becoming merely a commodity. Having visitors consume more content shouldn’t be a goal in itself. Building a relationship and converting them in loyal readers should be.
Build communities
You should even go beyond a direct relationship with your visitors and try building (micro-)communities around shared interests. To tie back to the visitor’s journey outlined above, the experience could be different for first time readers and those who visit repeatedly. Include some form of personalization or Netflix like recommendations to provide a tailored experience. For instance, by incorporating social media – most of your visitors use social media to discover news – directly on your properties.
Through our own research – coming soon; sign up below to receive updates – we were able to show consumers are not only open to such a ‘socialized landing’ but they will likely stay longer on the page they’re visiting and even visit others. Moreover, prior research showed more than half of respondents would be interested in some form of personalized social media content associated with news articles they’re reading.
Start monetizing
Of course there’s one important aspect left: how do you make money as a publisher? There is no clear answer on this, but the old ways aren’t working as well as they used to. Change is certainly required. Filloux pointed out something interesting on this is as well; reward your most loyal readers: “I spend more than a thousand dollars per year in various digital subscriptions — which should qualify me as a loyal reader. But… I never had the impression of being considered as such, whether when struggling with a billing issue, or being spared from the most invasive advertising formats.”
Another possible solution: make it easier for your readers to pay for your content. Offer a one-click purchase, for instance. I highlighted pay-per-article platform Blendle in one of my previous blogs. Blendle shows if the experience is right, people will be more likely to pay a small fee to read an article. Especially since about half of people who signed up for the service in the Netherlands and Germany and read articles, are actually under 35. They have recently started collaborating with Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland where they allow users to pay for editions or articles within a separate app. Additionally, they offer a pay button publishers can implement, which allows users to pay for any article in a whim. It’s all about the execution.
Do you want to learn how you can apply the above principles to your own business and how social media curation can play a role in this? Contact us below and we’ll get in touch with you.