A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• CRM 101: A Crash Course on Customer Relationship and Marketing Automation

Many companies have difficulty organizing, analyzing, and acting on the data these users provide. The data could be their clickstream across your website or social media, email communications with salespeople, or basic demographics and contact information. It seems like a daunting task to organize and nurture every user according to where they are in the buying process. Fortunately, a specific marketing automation software exists to make it possible.

• ‘It’s not a peanut butter spread approach’: How Advertisers Are Adapting to a More Nuanced Social Landscape

The days of the one-size-fits all social media approach are seemingly over. Advertisers say the way people use social media is changing, pressuring brands to abandon broad campaigns and instead create content for each individual platform.

• Affiliate Revenue: Still a Publisher’s Best eCommerce Bet?

Globally, the affiliate market – which encompasses cashback and reward sites, as well as publishers and other content creators, social networks and other delivery mechanisms – is worth over $12 billion a year. In the U.S. alone, affiliate marketing spend is projected to reach $8.2 billion in 2022, up from $5.4 billion in 2017. Put simply, with values like these, this is too big a market for publishers to ignore.

• The Highs and Lows of Publishing CRM, and How to Embrace the Complications

Keeping an exact score is difficult, as the CRM failure rate has been measured to be anywhere between 18% and 69% over the years. Even if you look past the bewildering gulf between those numbers, you still have a technology that carries endless promise for all, yet still somehow fails one out of every five attempts.  So when there is a failure, should blame be put on the system? The answer to those questions may not be simple, but the solutions to overcome the larger contributing issues are entirely too easy.

• Perfect Timing: How Automation Can Help Your Email Marketing Strategy

The exponential rise of digital marketing required companies to embrace new methods of reaching current customers and potential leads. Email marketing quickly proved itself as one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. Today, the marketing strategy goes beyond sending monthly digital newsletters and product or service updates. Automating these emails is a valuable upgrade to your marketing strategy.

• With the Future of Third-Party Addressability on the Open Web Hanging in the Balance, the Ad Industry Divides in Two

A decision on guardrails to help the ad industry gain consent to track people across the European Union was meant to leave everyone with no doubts about one thing: whether the tracking and profiling of people across the web by a swarm of vendors is legal. Instead, it’s done anything but unify opinion.

• Advertising’s Next Top Model: Exploring the Cookie Alternatives

Google’s decision to phase out cookies has left advertisers searching for a suitable replacement identifier solution. Additionally, the European Publishers Council (EPC) filed an antitrust complaint against Google with the European Commission (EC), claiming the company favors its own online display advertising technology services. Where does this leave publishers? Is the industry too hung up on identity solutions? Or is there another way?

• Your Guide to the Best Magazine Software for Publishers

When it comes to magazine media and digital publications, reliable software tools are a necessity. From publishing CRM and magazine design, to circulation and subscription management, this ultimate guide to magazine software is an overview of the most popular software tools in the publishing industry.

• In With The New: How to Build an Engaged Audience With Inbound Marketing

Your business’s growth relies heavily on the lasting relationships you develop with your prospects and customers. Enter inbound marketing: the foundation for your audience-building and audience-engagement efforts. Inbound marketing involves forming a strategy to create brand awareness and foster long-lasting relationships with your customers. In contrast to outbound marketing, which involves marketers’ attempts to find customers, inbound marketing values the attention of customers and makes the company easily recognizable and accessible.

• With Google’s Latest Privacy Sandbox Update, European Publishers See Silver Lining

Pity the publisher commercial exec. Every time they get a handle on how Google sees advertising without third-party cookies, it changes. Sometimes a lot, other times a little — always enough to prevent them forming a persistent opinion on what’s happening. The tech company’s latest proposal for targeting without third-party cookies — Topics — is no different.

• What Might Web3 Mean for Publishing and Advertising?

Last year saw the first real web3 experiments from publishers and advertisers. From NFT drops to purchasing metaverse real estate, companies started to at least think about what web3 might mean for them. For some it’s a simple branding exercise, but for others it will be about building new customer experiences.

• Conquering All Media: The Best Ad Sales Software in Every Industry

At its most basic, an ad sales management program can track all stages of a sale through a customer relationship management (CRM) system. At its best, it’s a proactive tool that ensures work is done efficiently, effectively, and in step with every move that both your team members and your valued clients make.

• Work Smarter: Measure These 16 Lead Generation and Sales Pipeline Metrics

When it comes to making smart business decisions, using data and metrics to guide your sales strategy is key. But, there are countless sales-related metrics and KPIs to look at when evaluating the success of your lead generation and sales pipeline efforts, so which numbers should you be really focusing on? This blog will help you determine the best sales-related metrics for tackling your company’s lead generation and sales pipeline goals and practices.

• 50 Ways to Make Media Pay: Other Established and Emerging Ideas

In this section, we explore examples of well worn wider business practices that can support revenue growth and new income streams, as well as look at areas that are growing in popularity.  Some of these emerging ideas are newer than others, but as publishers look to reduce advertising dependency, so a number of older ideas are being looked at again, or benefitting from more effort and resources being allocated to them.

• Key Challenges Google Must Face in What Is Arguably the Most Pivotal Year in Its History

“One-size-fits-all products don’t spark much desire any longer” in the new world of journalism, suggests WAN-IFRA’s new report, Understanding your audiences in a deeper way. The report, based on the Table Stakes Europe program, shares case studies of several regional publishers who are using newsletters to reach and grow specific audience segments.

• Why Integrated Marketing Tools Are a Sales Rep’s Best Friend

If you work in ad sales and depend on your CRM, some tools are absolutely essential. At the bare minimum, you will want your CRM to integrate with your email account. After all, if you spend all day in Outlook or Gmail, why not take advantage of it? However, there are plenty of other marketing tools out there that a publishing CRM can offer. And just because you aren’t using them now doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be.

• Buzz Off! The 10 Most Annoying Buzzwords in Marketing Today

For those in the marketing industry, there’s no need for an introduction on this topic. It’s as if every year, marketers establish a list of words that will entice customers, words that perfectly encompass everything they want and need … Then they overuse them. Or, worse, misuse them. Read on to see the contenders for 2022’s marketing buzzword blacklist.

• Understanding Google’s FLoC Replacement Topics, and Its Unanswered Questions

There’s a new addition to Google’s plan for life after the third-party cookie: it’s called Topics, and it replaces one of the more controversial aspects of its original plan — Federated Learning of Cohorts. It works by identifying five topics that represent a person’s interests for that week based on their browsing history. To start, there are currently 350 available topics, although that will grow over time.

• How Publishers Are Growing Subscriptions With Newsletters: Insights from WAN-INFRA

“One-size-fits-all products don’t spark much desire any longer” in the new world of journalism, suggests WAN-IFRA’s new report, Understanding your audiences in a deeper way. The report, based on the Table Stakes Europe program, shares case studies of several regional publishers who are using newsletters to reach and grow specific audience segments.

• Here Are 8 Key Qualities to Seek in a Publishing CRM

One of the easiest ways to streamline these everyday tasks is by implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you’re in the publishing industry and looking to optimize your processes and boost profitability, read on. Here are the key qualities to seek when looking for the best publishing CRM.

• Are Your Marketing Emails Illegal? How to Comply (and Thrive)With the CAN-SPAM Act

As of 2021, 89% of marketers use email as their primary channel to generate leads. It’s a great way to reach audiences directly with multimedia and catered calls to action. And, it allows a business to remain at a customer’s top-of-mind while gaining traction in a calculated way that can be measured and analyzed … The only catch? Compliance. Many marketers and content creators remain in the dark when it comes to the legalities of email marketing content. In fact, most are unaware that some pretty strict email laws exist, limiting what can and can’t be done.

• Google Readies New Interest-Based Advertising in Next Phase of Privacy Sandbox Experiments

After years of speculation, setbacks, and criticism Google is trialing a new proposal in its Privacy Sandbox initiative called “Topics” which it claims will facilitate interest-based advertising long after it sunsets third-party cookies in its Chrome browser in 2023. The online giant confirmed the planned rollout of Topics Tuesday after it claimed to consider feedback from its earlier Privacy Sandbox proposals which raised concerns from third parties around the potential for Google to self-preference its own ad stack.

• Metaverse: Opportunities for Publishers

Over the last year, performance marketers have been feeling the squeeze on all sides with mounting data privacy changes, an increasingly crowded digital marketplace and a new era of pandemic-induced shopping habits.  The changes have pushed many of them, from small to midsize brands, to reconsider full-funnel marketing strategies, striking a more concerted balance between brand building and direct response marketing. That means rolling out more marketing touchpoints, like out-of-home and streaming video, in addition to performance marketing tactics like social media and paid search.

• The Great Recruitment: How to Hire Great Ad Sales Reps

The good news, as many are forecasting, is that 2022 is shaping up to be a promising year for advertising growth. GroupM is calculating the growth rate to continue to rise by 9.7% — up almost an entire percentage point from its own previous forecast … Coming out of the last few years and following what many were calling The Great Resignation, perhaps there’s no better time to embark on what I’d like to call The Great Recruitment — an opportunity to bring great, available talent together with 2022’s promising opportunity for the good of your publication.

• Here Are the Best Strategies to Get Leads on LinkedIn in 2022

Marketing CRMs track digital interactions on websites and social media, send automated emails based on sales readiness, and so much more. They’re undoubtedly a necessity of every business to nurture leads, retain clients, and everything in-between. Moving beyond utilizing the basics of the software, what’s in store for the marketing CRM in 2022?

• Publishers Benefit from Growth in Consumers Paying for Content

In 2020, at the peak of the global pandemic, more people were paying for content from trusted news sources or hobby and entertainment magazines delivering much-needed distractions. In 2021, subscriber retention became the primary focus for publishers. For Media Voices annual Media Moments report, Esther Kezia Thorpe has been looking at what publishers were doing to make sure people paying for content stick around.

• ‘There’s only so much low-hanging fruit’: Why Advertisers Are Ramping Up More Full-Funnel Marketing Strategies

Over the last year, performance marketers have been feeling the squeeze on all sides with mounting data privacy changes, an increasingly crowded digital marketplace and a new era of pandemic-induced shopping habits.  The changes have pushed many of them, from small to midsize brands, to reconsider full-funnel marketing strategies, striking a more concerted balance between brand building and direct response marketing. That means rolling out more marketing touchpoints, like out-of-home and streaming video, in addition to performance marketing tactics like social media and paid search.

• How to Start a Magazine in 2022

We’ve come a long way since the very first American publication in 1741. Who knows if Benjamin Franklin and his chronicling competitors had any idea that their budding industry would blossom into something that, just last year, had an annual global revenue of approximately $67.56 billion? Thanks to both their centuries-long resilience and progressive nature to adapt, magazines continue to be a worthwhile project to embark on.  If you’re looking to start a magazine or pivot to digital editions, read on. We’re outlining the basic steps of how to start a magazine in 2022.

• Is Your Business Taking Advantage of All Available Email Marketing Tools?

Marketing CRMs track digital interactions on websites and social media, send automated emails based on sales readiness, and so much more. They’re undoubtedly a necessity of every business to nurture leads, retain clients, and everything in-between. Moving beyond utilizing the basics of the software, what’s in store for the marketing CRM in 2022?

• Strong Advertising Recovery Sees Subscription-Only Publishers Reconsider ‘All Ads Are Bad’ Mantra

For a couple of years now, we’ve been talking about how subscription revenue is more stable than advertising revenue and chronicling the rush to reader-pays models… So why are we doing a dedicated Media Moments advertising chapter for 2021? Well, the scale of the ad recovery last year was pretty remarkable. Growth after the COVID crisis crushed 2020 ad sales was to be expected – the only way was up. But the numbers are impressive.

• ‘The real issue here is around publisher trust’: Advertisers on Alert as Cookie Consent Concerns Rise

There are many things advertisers don’t know about how cookies — the backbone of programmatic advertising — work. One of them being how they’re obtained. It turns out pretty sneakily on occasion. According to a recent audit, a large number of cookies used to target audiences on the 1,000 biggest publishers in Europe are done so without the consent of the person who would see the ad — a problem because this shouldn’t be happening since the arrival of a wide-ranging privacy law four years ago.

• How Publishers Can Take Full Advantage of Their CRM

Using a CRM for ad sales management is a fantastic step in fixing one of the biggest problems that ails publications. But using it for that reason alone is like using your smartphone just to make calls — you’re missing out on so much more! According to one report, 43% of CRM users use less than half of the features that their CRM offers …  and I’d say that number is conservative. And no matter if that comes down to difficulty in understanding the system or ignorance as to all its capabilities, it’s an issue worth addressing if only because there’s so much potential on the other side.

• Where is the Marketing CRM Headed in 2022?

Marketing CRMs track digital interactions on websites and social media, send automated emails based on sales readiness, and so much more. They’re undoubtedly a necessity of every business to nurture leads, retain clients, and everything in-between. Moving beyond utilizing the basics of the software, what’s in store for the marketing CRM in 2022?

• The Easiest Way for a Publisher to Make Money Online

Over time it gets harder and harder to grow subscriptions, and everyone ends up discounting. What happens is that, as you grow your subscription numbers, your revenue goes down. Coupled with this, publishers have found that advertising is no longer a dependable revenue stream. And there continue to be many publishers who struggle to monetize their presence online, where free content has long been an issue. The solution, many acknowledge, is for publishers to train their audiences to pay for content.

• How Publishers Experimented with NFTs in 2021

Many publishers closed out 2020 in a better financial position than they expected early on in the pandemic, giving them the flexibility to experiment with new revenue streams and launch new products in 2021.  One of those experiments involved dabbling in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which rapidly caught fire across a wide range of industries this year, including the publishing space.

• Let’s Get Digital! Why Now is the Best Time to Embrace the Shift

It’s time to stop thinking about digital editions as a sidekick. They’re the superheroes we deserve, and they can help your audience connect with your content moving forward. Here’s a closer look at why now is the time to shift to digital.

• How To Increase Brand Loyalty in 2022

Brand loyalty is the automatic association of a company with positive characteristics. When people associate a company this way, they become brand advocates (or evangelicals, as some marketers coined). It begins with quality content, products, and/or services all with the same mission in mind: To tell a story and put the consumers’ experiences first.