When I formed my business in 2002, I essentially acquired a B2B title called Comms Business which I had launched late in 1999 whilst working for Peebles Media Group. The title which serves the telecoms and IT trade channel was just starting to find its feet with our third editor in place and myself on the sales side.
At the time, I was strongly advised by a friend in the print business not to invest my home’s equity in a publishing business as it was a dying trade…
Part of the acquisition was a new event called The Convergence Summit launched off the back of Comms Business and which was running for the first time as the acquisition took place. My strategy was to build a niche event offering great value for money and an all inclusive package including the stand space, shell scheme, lighting, electrics, broadband and an advert in our show guide. At the time, the industry’s main event took place at the NEC and was receiving criticism from the market for being too expensive and exhibitors were fed up of competing on the basis of who had the biggest stand. Our limited stand size and shell-only approach appealed to them en masse and the event was an instant success.
The event has now grown into two separate shows each year, one in the spring in Manchester and the other at Sandown Park in Esher in the autumn. Both events attract a unique audience with only ten percent crossover of visitors meaning the regional approach is working. Our visitors love the venues as they can easily drive to them and park right outside the front door.
When I look back now, it amazes me how the event got off the ground as we had no event website and did no email marketing to deliver visitors! Crazy!
Of course, I quickly developed our version one website which was very low cost and really not much more than an online media pack. Monetising the site was the key issue but this would require a significant investment, which in year one of the business I could have done without. Needless to say, version two came along pretty quickly and at a reasonable cost.
Like most media houses, we now deliver daily content through the news sections of our sites and also send regular email newsletters to keep our readers informed and updated on what’s going on in the market. We never really carried much recruitment advertising in the magazine, so the internet didn’t affect our business as much as those trade titles which relied heavily on job ads.
So, with our website came the opportunity for our clients to advertise their vacancies online for free, driving traffic to the site and gaining some customer loyalty. There are of course feature articles and other sections providing information on our other products so the website also acts as a sales lead generator for my sales team.
I am gobsmacked that there are still some publishers with really poorly designed websites and a real lack of investment in content delivery. They seem to think that a basic off-the-shelf website, updated once a month, is enough for their readers! Of course it’s not and their readers will simply go elsewhere to get their information.
The investment in our websites has really paid off over the past few years. We generate around 25% of total advertising revenue for our monthly magazine via web advertising (banners and towers). Whilst some publishers are seeing their print revenues drop as their web revenues increase, we are actually growing our print revenues at the same time. I believe this is because our print magazine brand is strong and our clients see real value in the printed product.
Publishing and events synergy
A real bugbear of mine is those exhibition companies who look down their noses at publishing the magazines which serve their sector. I have spoken with a good few over the past months and their attitude has amazed me. In short, they want to run once a year exhibitions which can yield great revenues and profits but without the hassle of having to put together a monthly magazine! I think they are massively missing the point.
As the media owner with a range of products serving the sector, you have far more invested and are more respected by your clients as a result. I don’t believe that contra deals between exhibition organisers and publications are ever that beneficial to either party as both deliver the minimum required under the agreement.
As publisher / owner, I can determine how much editorial support we give our events through the printed (or digital) pages of our magazine as well as online and electronically. If an outside agency wanted to utilise the volume of marketing activity that I support my exhibitions with, they simply wouldn’t be able to afford it… or their profits would drop to a big fat zero. But as the media owner, I can make it work. To get the level of attendance that our events attract, we have to really work our database and connect with our market on many different levels. I don’t believe that exhibition-only companies can do that purely through media partnerships with third parties.
I have seen firsthand how powerful the cross-media approach can be for my business but equally as importantly for my clients. Typically, they want to engage with their market on a number of different levels; so we might suggest they run a campaign which will include a series of adverts in our print title which are repeated in the digital version, some web advertising around specific key times in the year such as product launches, some tailored ecasts to our readership base and possibly some telemarketing.
This type of approach tends to be the most effective in delivering industry awareness, sales leads and ultimately business for them.
Another massive advantage of adopting a cross-media approach is that the investments you make in one area often impact another. For example, as an ABC audited magazine, we work really hard to ensure our readership is right up-to-date. We aim for 100% requested readership with at least fifty to seventy percent registered in the past twelve months. This in turn ensures our database is clean and this has a positive effect when marketing our events.
We gain a lot of magazine registrations via our websites and also through telemarketing. When we commission a telemarketing agency, we usually pay on a per registration basis, so it is far more cost effective to gain a registration for the magazine if done in conjunction with an event registration and it allows us to really sweat our best asset, our data.
Servicing our clients
My sales team work across all of our products which means that they approach clients in a far more consultative way, understanding their needs first and foremost and matching them to our product portfolio. If they do not want print advertising, we can sell them online or if they prefer the direct approach, they can utilise our database for email marketing or direct mail.
We often find ourselves being given a budget figure to work with and a number of activities that the client wants us to include. We then put together a package which we believe will deliver results and meet the client’s expectations. How we distribute the revenue internally is irrelevant to the client, providing their needs are being met. If the campaign doesn’t work (which is very rare) the client can of course point the finger at us for advising them incorrectly but of course the final decision rests with them.
Our clients like this approach particularly because they really get to know their account manager and feel that they are not being passed from one department to another. They see us as an extension of their marketing team, which is quite a compliment when you think about it.
There are so many ways you can enhance your offering to your clients. Digital versions of your magazines are the obvious and I would be surprised if any of InPublishing’s readers are not already investing the small amount of money required to offer this service to their clients. I was first in our market to offer this and at no cost to our advertisers. My experience has shown that clients are grateful for the extra exposure, but are not keen to pay anything for it. The vast majority of our readers like to see the digital version but prefer to receive a printed copy. But I would be interested to know how many publishers have managed to make real money from their digital editions!
Events are another great way to create community and they don’t have to be full blown trade shows. We organise a number of profit and non-profit making golf and lunch club events which bring the senior figures of our market together in an informal environment to network and get to know each other. You cannot overstate the goodwill that is generated by your facilitating this type of opportunity, and goodwill goes a long way when things get tough! As the old adage goes, people buy from people they like, so it pays to be popular.
My background in publishing goes back over twenty years and whilst things have changed and new technologies have come along creating threats to traditional revenue streams, I truly believe that with each threat come new opportunities.
By embracing the new technologies as they have arrived and being first in the market to adopt them, we have been seen as innovative and market leading which is worth a lot in a competitive environment. I think now more than ever, data is king. Know your market and be known by your market. Don’t just take, give something back, it pays dividends and invest in your business because if you don’t… well you know the answer to that.
