A forum for the print and
digital publishing industries

• Why Valid Email Addresses Are Essential… And Invalid Ones Can Be Dangerous

‘Tis the season for making a list and checking it twice, so to ensure you know how to tell if an email address is valid as well as how to avoid invalid email addresses, Mirabel’s Marketing Manager will discuss the difference between invalid and valid email addresses. We’ll also list email verification tools that you can use to grow a healthy email list for future marketing campaigns.

• Here’s How Automation Can Help Your Email Marketing Strategy

Unlike mass campaigns, an automatic email is sent after a user reaches a trigger on your website. It’s a strategy to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time—without doing it individually every time. It’s done by linking website analytics with your email marketing platform and targets users based on web behavior, preferences, and previous sales.

• Powerful Engagement and Revenue Drivers, Newsletters Are at the Centre of the Fight for Publisher Influence

The endgame for publishers is wrapped up in a belief in the email newsletter’s superpower: building direct relationships with readers. With platform dreams dead in the dust, publishers are leveraging the intimacy of the inbox to connect with individuals, build media habits, drive traffic and in some instances monetize relationships.

• ‘Catalyst for growth’: GroupM’s Brian Wieser Bumps Up His 2021 and 2022 Global and U.S. Ad Forecast

The latest global ad revenue forecast from WPP’s GroupM is out — and if it’s accurate, media is going to have a pretty great 2022. Brian Wieser, GroupM’s global president of business intelligence, and a longtime prognosticator of media fortunes, revised his 2021 global ad revenue forecasts upward from 19.2 percent growth back in June to 22.5 percent. Wieser also bumped up his 2022 ad revenue forecast from 8.8 percent back in June to 9.7 percent. Both numbers exclude U.S. political advertising.

• No More Cookies: How You’ll Be Able to Survive Without These Dying Tracking Tools

That opportunity brought along digital tools and techniques now considered essential for many to conduct business, but renewed privacy concerns are inviting not only deeper, scrutinizing looks at those techniques, but sweeping changes by tech companies who essentially hold the keys to the toolbox. In this blog, we’ll look at some of the modern, more common tracking practices, the takeaway if these techniques are ultimately taken away, and what those working in the publishing industry can do to craft and execute even more effective outreach plans in their wake.

• Backlink to the Future: How to Move Your Marketing Strategy Forward

Anyone who’s ever created content marketing collateral knows to include internal and external links. This digital marketing best practice is in place because it lifts your content in search engine rankings. If you’re looking to improve your link-building strategy, take a look at how to create backlinks to your site, examples of a backlink, and more from Mirabel’s Marketing Manager.

• How Publishers Can Use Blockchain Technology

A lack of clarity around how blockchain technology can be deployed in publishing has stopped most publishers from experimenting with it. The majority of the publishers in a recent survey said that blockchain has the potential to transform news media but less than 10% have incorporated it into their strategy. Blockchain was developed as the infrastructure to support cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but it is now being used in many other applications, from music royalties to voter registration.

• ‘Exclusive is illusive’: U.K. Publishers Launch Plan to Mitigate Loss of Traffic When Sources Aren’t Properly Cited

In the absence of links to original sources, the significant impact on publishers’ traffic, and the associated revenues, are irrefutable. That’s the view of publishers in the U.K. who have come together via trade body the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) to back a standardized way to cite sources. The protocol revolves around an email process whereby those publishers who have registered for it are able to contact other publishers who have not cited exclusive content they’ve produced so that it can be updated.

• Talk of the Town: How to Use Events As a Supplemental Revenue Source

If you’re a magazine publisher, chances are you are constantly coming up with creative ways to make additional revenue. Chances are you have considered hosting an event. Hosting events is a way to supplement magazine advertising revenue. Additionally, events can increase your brand awareness and gain customer responses on how to improve your product. Events are costly but can reap huge benefits for both your magazine and your advertisers.

• How to Use Instagram for Business — A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram

While lead generation is more likely to be a marketing objective for B2B companies versus B2C, nearly any company focused on selling high-value products and services will likely become familiar with lead-based marketing practices, tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. In fact, companies that employ lead generation marketing strategies are also very likely to prioritize leads and assign them to sales teams for follow-ups (which are also important steps throughout the customer acquisition journey).

• “Potentially industry-changing technology”: Why Publishers Should Start Experimenting With Blockchain

Blockchain allows users to record information that is next to impossible to hack, cheat, or alter. Publishing digital content using the technology will help publishers enforce more accountability as they will be transparently traceable to the original source. “With more transparency comes a greater sense of control and security — both directly applicable in combating copyright and IP infringement,” the authors write.

• “The beginning of a trend”: Performance Metrics Begin Creeping Into Different Parts of Publishers’ Ad Deals

The media buying world’s obsession with performance marketing keeps growing, and it is starting to creep into publisher deals that were once focused on the upper half of the funnel.  As 2021 has worn on, more advertisers are asking that ad deals typically measured using upper-funnel metrics such as brand awareness or social lift — branded content campaigns, for example, or event sponsorships — be measured using lower-funnel metrics like sales, or deliver guaranteed numbers of sales leads.

• 6 Ways to Perfect Your Territory And Account Management Strategy

The territory fight: It’s the bane of every publisher and sales manager’s existence. All managers in the publishing industry have to deal with it, but there aren’t many who like to, and for good reason! The best sales reps are notoriously competitive, testing even the best manager’s patience, which is why having good account management rules is important.

• How to Choose the Best Sales Lead Management Software

While lead generation is more likely to be a marketing objective for B2B companies versus B2C, nearly any company focused on selling high-value products and services will likely become familiar with lead-based marketing practices, tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. In fact, companies that employ lead generation marketing strategies are also very likely to prioritize leads and assign them to sales teams for follow-ups (which are also important steps throughout the customer acquisition journey).

• Publishers: How to Monetize Communities

Publishers have sat at the center of communities of interest for as long as there has been a publishing industry. Print publications drew like-minded readers to their mastheads and now digital publishers gather their most loyal fans together behind paywalls. But how else can publishers monetize communities that grow up around their content?

• Why Apple’s ATT is Casting a Long Shadow Over Online Advertising’s Latest Quarter

Apple’s crackdown on in-app tracking so far has come into force more gradually than expected thanks to a protracted rollout. This has tended to obscure the impact of the new restrictions. But after a first full quarter, it has become clearer that it will rattle, squeeze and throttle the flow of ad dollars online. The long shadow Apple cast over the current earnings season for the largest online advertising businesses puts this impact into sharp focus.

• Everything You Need to Know to Start a Magazine Podcast in 2022

The technologically advanced, data-driven society we live in needed a face-lift when it came to presenting content in a user-friendly, accessible way. 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.

• 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?

• Will Facebook’s Plans for the Metaverse Impact Publishers?

Facebook is changing its name to Meta and with it, the future focus of the company. Meta’s long-term mission will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses. The change moves the company beyond its social media roots, but will its planned move to the metaverse affect publishers?

• Publishers Are No Longer Choosing Between Data Utility and Privacy to Increase Their Bottom Line

Publishers need to build relationships with their audiences that they can then connect to advertisers. Companies must also simultaneously architect internal systems around data custodianship to protect consumer data. In fact, consumer privacy and business outcomes are closely correlated in a complementary way. The companies that champion consumer privacy and work to create a sustainable omnichannel ecosystem that drives better results for every constituent will be the winners, now and in the future.

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

The technologically advanced, data-driven society we live in needed a face-lift when it came to presenting content in a user-friendly, accessible way. 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 Choose the Best Sales Lead Management Software

When it comes to organic or paid content marketing, it’s about figuring out how to use data to enhance and optimize your digital strategy. Utilizing this data has never been easier, thanks to the king of search engine analytics: Google Analytics. Understanding Google Analytics helps you produce content that your target audience wants to see. The platform provides actionable insights, like click-through and bounce rates, time spent on page, and more.

• Ad Economy Rose 10.2% In September, Expansion Continues to Decelerate

U.S. ad spending rose 10.2% in September vs. the same month a year ago, according to a MediaPost analysis of an updated composite of actual ad spending from the major agency holding companies. The composite, an updated version of the U.S. Ad Market Tracker launched in partnership with Standard Media Index in 2015, represents a more comprehensive pool of data contributed by all of the holding companies and was necessary to provide a more accurate view of the marketplace.

• What Do We Mean by Innovation? And Why Is Implementing It So Darned Hard for News Organizations?

The pace of change in our industry means that even the biggest, most successful, companies need to continually innovate, refresh and reinvent what they do and how they do it. Those who don’t risk being left behind, overtaken by digital upstarts, or blown away by more established players with deeper pockets and a longer transformational runway. I asked 10 experts — leading media practitioners, researchers and scholars around the world — for their insights around what constitutes innovation, the barriers to implementing it, and how to overcome these roadblocks.

• What’s Your Mix of Six? Alternative Revenue Streams in Digital Publishing

Nowadays, no single revenue stream is enough to sustain, let alone grow, a digital publication. Instead, online publishers are relying on a combination of revenue streams to ensure they can bring in sufficient capital. And according to former head of Hearst magazines, David Carey, there just may be a magic number: “You need five or six revenue streams to make the business really successful.” While there are numerous potential revenue sources, most companies will find success by creating their own “mix of six” streams that are suited for their individual publications.

• Why Google Analytics Is Best For Data-Driven Content Marketing

When it comes to organic or paid content marketing, it’s about figuring out how to use data to enhance and optimize your digital strategy. Utilizing this data has never been easier, thanks to the king of search engine analytics: Google Analytics. Understanding Google Analytics helps you produce content that your target audience wants to see. The platform provides actionable insights, like click-through and bounce rates, time spent on page, and more.

• Dynamic Paywalls: The Latest Must-Have Tool For Publishers?

Over the past several years, subscription management and dynamic paywall providers have joined the ranks of must-have digital tools for media companies … Unlike a typical paywall that allows non-paying readers to access a set number of articles before walling off content for the rest of the month, a dynamic paywall is designed to help publishers monetize content through a number of methods. The methods used can range from audience segmentation to machine learning to depending on the paywall option you choose.

• System1 Plans to Roll Out Privacy Subscription Product as It Prepares to Go Public

The idea that companies can follow consumers around the internet based on data that someone else provides doesn’t seem like the best customer experience, according to Michael Blend, co-founder and chief executive officer of System1, a first-party data company. In fact, nearly all of its ad business is based on performance. “Google and Apple are making positive changes for the longevity of digital advertising and people, and the advertising ecosystem just needs to catch up with them,” he said.

• So Happy Together: The Must-Have Integrations Your CRM Needs

Publishing is an industry with a lot of moving parts. You have issues to create, articles to write, and above all, deadlines to meet. Not to mention, you have to keep readers engaged with your content. On top of this, if you’re looking to make a profit, you likely have to manage print and ad sales. 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 in a publishing CRM.

• Deeper Intelligence: How an Analytical CRM Can Benefit Your Business

When it comes to managing relationships with your business’s prospects and existing customers, a customer relationship management software, or CRM, is a must-have. In this day and age, it’s no secret that data is the key to meeting your company’s goals efficiently and effectively. CRMs are at the heart of every growing business. In fact, CRM software is the biggest software market in the world, and the growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

• Where Publishers Stand In Their Pursuit of Third-Party Cookie Alternatives

When Google announced third-party cookie deprecation on Chrome, the programmatic ecosystem went into a frenzy. Addressability, targeting, measurement and attribution all faced significant new obstacles and, most importantly, billions of dollars in revenue hung in the balance. Publishers had to reprioritize their roadmaps to accelerate alternative revenue streams while finding new ways to engage with their users directly… The delay won’t immediately solve these challenges, but it does provide some breathing room.

• How Publishers Can Engage and Convert Casual Readers: Key Insights From INMA Report

The demand for trustworthy information during the pandemic drove record subscriptions growth for many publishers. 128 news publishers across the world gained an average of 58% new subscribers in a year, according to Piano data. The market is far from saturated though. 100M people worldwide are potential targets for English-language news subscriptions, according to research from The New York Times.

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

Publishing is an industry with a lot of moving parts. You have issues to create, articles to write, and above all, deadlines to meet. Not to mention, you have to keep readers engaged with your content. On top of this, if you’re looking to make a profit, you likely have to manage print and ad sales. 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 in a publishing CRM.