Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Breakout Session: E-mail Marketing

by Deb Shaw

Three media professionals shared the panel to talk about e-mail marketing this afternoon. Each gave insights into their unique approaches but one thing was common – email marketing is generating revenue and it’s profitable.

From Allison Cusick, Digital Marketing Manager, The Elkhart Truth (IN)

• They’ve been collecting email addresses for years. They’ve been collected from multiple sources but essentially any and all touch points with customers and market residents are used.
• With a total of roughly 77,000 addresses, they boiled that down to just over 41,000 useable addresses when they got ready to go full steam into their email marketing program.
• Since January, they’ve conducted 19 contests and surveys to grow their database.
• They’re selling marketing campaigns to local businesses at the rate of $12/M plus an extra $5/CPM for added levels like gender, income, job industry, interest/lifestyles.

From Samantha Johnston, Executive Director, Colorado Press Association

• Sync2Media is a separate division of the association. Developed to become more relevant to advertisers seeking to buy audience.
• Regardless of how technically savvy your market is, people understand what email is and why it’s important.
• Traditional newspaper and website advertising channels are strong; email is an affordable and viable audience extension tool.
• Consumers prefer receiving email marketing messages over message sent via texting and Facebook.
• Email marketing is very scalable, can be executed successfully in large and small markets.
• Open rates range from 10-17%; click thru rates range from 1.5-2.5%.

From Rich Whippen, President/CEO, Washington Suburban Press Network

• His newspaper network is huge with print circulation totaling over 1,000,000.
• They got into email marketing to generate revenue and it’s working. Last month alone, they generated $150K in profit from the program. Media Prowler is their email marketing division.
• Key ingredients to his success is transparency and purity of the data.
• There are a lot of email marketers – many are peddling inferior data. Make sure yours is clean and crisp.
• They will sell e-mail lists to clients, ranging in price from $25/M to $55/M depending on size and scope of sale.
• Go to www.mediaprowler.com to get a live experience of selecting email data.
• Rich is willing to explore partnerships with other publishers, to wholesale their collected data to others in the industry.

Contacts:
Allison Cuslock, acusick@etruth.com
Samantha Johnston, sjohnston@colopress.net
RichWhippen, rwhippen@wspnet.com

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The 2017 Project: Looking Down the Road

by Deb Shaw

Centro Founder & President Shawn Riegsecker is a smart guy and he’s got the capital to prove it. In 2010 he took on the full time job (on top of his full time job) of raising venture capital and ultimately succeeded in raising $22.5 million that settled in December 2010. Good for him and Centro….bad for their 2011 strategy development because the capital raising process was so all consuming. So, as he started 2011, he took himself off to the desert for nine days to think, analyze, and envision what the future looks like so he could plan and direct the best use of his resources.

His prognostications took center stage this morning at the LMA Fall Conference as he took the audience of several hundred media professionals on a journey to 2017. Admitting that he’s going out on a limb with his predictions, he also pointed out that he was willing to do so because he believes very much that this is what the future looks like. Some of what he sees ahead:

• Disruption will be 10x the magnitude of what we’ve seen in the last 10 years.
• For newspapers, print large metros don’t exist; national print dailies are still breathing; smaller community dailies and weeklies are doing well. Capitalizing on the local connection is paramount.
• The tablet revolution continues and wreaks havoc on all traditional ways of consuming data.
• There will be a ‘to the death’ match between telco/wireless/cable providers. OPPORTUNITY HERE – these providers will need to advertise!
• Twitter is HUGE. Previously Riegsecker thought Facebook might own Twitter in the future; now he wonders if that might be reversed.
• Mobile phones become more powerful than laptops; the ‘screen’ is important.
• Video is ubiquitous thanks to technology advances in HD compression.
• The preprint problem – he says this business will fall off the cliff in 2014.
• Digital editions survive, and many thrive possibly if they get on the tablet bandwagon now.
• There’s a collapse of segregated and silo media – no more offline or online media. It will all be just media and the choices will be Text, Image, Audio, Video, Social.
• On the buying side, audience and media fragmentation is enormous making the media buying process even more complex.
• Publishers of quality content are the proxies to audience. Local is key. Local media companies, exactly like LMA members, are sitting in the cat bird seat. “As an industry, you guys are in the premium bucket.”

Riegsecker captivated the standing room only audience with these and many other predictions. Time will tell….

Visit www.centro.net for more on Shawn and his company.

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By Nancy Lane

Wow – what a conference; one of our best ever for sure! Below represents my top takeaways, ideas and thoughts – in no particular order:

·         From Jason Taylor’s event marketing keynote: “Create something out of nothing.” He is closing in on $3 million/year by doing this. New event ideas that require little risk included: city-wide garage sale with a brand & logo; sell your own After Hours event instead of the Chamber of Commerce; broadcast live medical surgeries with sponsorships from the hospital; movie premiers/partner with local theatre & sell sponsorship.

·         From Centro’s Shawn Riegsecker - 2017 media landscape presentation: “What if digital advertising as it’s currently practiced, is actually the last stage of the old cycle rather than the beginning of the new cycle?”  Shawn also told the audience that 24/7 video news channels represent a huge opportunity for local media companies.

·         Email marketing session – from Rich Whippen/WSPN: “Best time to send an email campaign is Tuesday morning.” WSPN has realized $350,000 in incremental revenue from email marketing. Check out www.mediaprowler.com to learn more including opportunities to partner with them.

·         Digital agency session – from Peter Newton/GateHouse Media & Propel Marketing: “33% of consumer searches are now done on mobile devices; that will increase to 50% next year yet most SMB’s don’t have a mobile-enabled web site.” This is a huge opportunity for digital agencies; Propel now builds these in-house for their clients. Propel is also interested in partnering with other local media companies.

·         From the great idea session – Restaurant Weeks. Both Shore Publishing and Gold Country Media reported good success with this new event that brought in incremental revenue from the restaurant category. Sponsorships were sold to suppliers (produce companies and beer distributors are two good examples). Working with the chamber or economic development council is also a good idea for this type of event. Both conducted these in smaller towns that did not have a restaurant week promotion.

·         From Gordon Borrell:  “100% of the top digital revenue performers employ digital-only sales reps. Average break-even time for these reps is 18 months.”

·         From the Innovation Mission panel: 1. Observer Group changed their name and had employees submit mission statements and then vote on the top choice; they also conducted extensive social media training. 2. Lawrence Journal World launched free state social – a social marketing strategy and has sold $50,000 to date. 3. Shaw conducted extensive iPhone training and will also share this training with LMA members via a free webinar this fall. 4. South Bend Tribune started a digital advisory board that meets monthly and includes a car dealer, health care administrator, chamber leader, minor league baseball executive and more). They also equipped all of their reporters with iPhones and all of their sales reps with iPads.

·         Google Consumer Surveys session – they now have 50+ partners that are realizing a $15 RPM rate. Survey placement “above the fold” drives rates up as does frequency and metering controls.

 

To learn more about any of these sessions or ideas, email me at nancy.lane@localmedia.org. Also check out the fall conference portion of the LMA web site to access most of the presentations (www.localmedia.org).

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ANN ARBOR, MI (September 17, 2012) – MediaSpan, the leader in advertising, circulation and editorial content management solutions for the media industry, announced today that GateHouse Media, Inc. (GateHouse Media) has selected MediaSpan’s AdManagerPro and CirculationPro systems as their advertising and circulation content management solution for their entire community newspaper group.  MediaSpan will deploy the cloud versions of their solutions to 70 dailies and over 200 weeklies within GateHouse Media.

 

 

“GateHouse was looking to work with someone who clearly understood the needs of our community publications and whose solutions allowed our users the ability to easily access their data from anywhere at anytime. AdManagerPro and CirculationPro both offer the functionality, flexibility and accessibility that we require,” said Paul Ameden, Senior Vice President of Publishing Services for GateHouse Media. “MediaSpan was selected because they have a proven track record of providing these solutions to the industry.”

 

Prior to the initial installation, MediaSpan conducted a series of workshops with GateHouse. The focus of the workshops was to help GateHouse define and design workflows and processes that preserve the strength of the local publications while centralizing core business functions. “MediaSpan has installed systems at over 4,000 publications world-wide and we are proud to offer not only great software but the expertise and experience to advise our customers on how to best implement these solutions in their environment.” said Dan Roberts, President of MediaSpan.

About CirculationPro^®

CirculationPro is one of the most versatile and powerful systems on the market today. It’s simple, easy to use browser client makes managing your publications, products or electronic subscriptions a breeze.  Whether a single user system, metro daily or a group consolidating across a wide geographic area, CirculationPro can easily scale to meet your needs.

 

About AdManagerPro^®

AdManagerPro® is a full featured advertising system that lets you easily create, schedule, bill and output content for traditional and non-traditional media channels. In addition, AdManagerPro®’s CRM tools gives your sales team the power to manage their customers, generate sales lists and even create and deliver email campaigns. Featuring a simple browser-based interface AdManagerPro® gives your users access to the system from any modern browser and cuts hardware and IT costs. AdManagerPro® is available as a SaaS or self hosted solution.

About GateHouse

GateHouse Media, Inc., headquartered in Fairport, New York, is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States as measured by its 78 daily publications.  GateHouse Media currently serves local audiences of approximately 10 million per week across 21 states through hundreds of community publications and local websites. 

About MediaSpan

MediaSpan Group, Inc. (www.mediaspangroup.com) powers digital content management, online marketing, advertising and business productivity solutions for the world's leading media companies including Sun Media, Advance Publications, MediaNews, Paxton, Heartland and Radio One.  With more than 4,000 local newspaper, radio, and television properties relying on its solutions, MediaSpan is the world’s largest network of local media companies and media consumers.

 

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI, MediaSpan has development, support and sales offices worldwide including Melbourne, FL, New York City, London, UK and Irvine, CA.

 

Press Contact: Ken Freedman, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, 508-541-3371; kfreedman@mediaspangroup.com

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Sales Development Services, Inc. (SDS) announced today the launch of SalesTouch®, an innovative new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform designed specifically for media advertising sales professionals.

 

SalesTouch analyzes advertiser spending history and revenue trends to offer specific engagement strategies to retain existing accounts, maximize revenue opportunities and empower account executives to better manage their selling time. SalesTouch also guides salespeople to be proactive with their accounts, instead of just reacting when the advertiser calls, by focusing on their next action or “touch.”

 

“We didn’t want to build another CRM that just counts what you sell. We wanted to build one that actually helps you sell,” says C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Sales Development Services, Inc. “That’s why the design of this CRM system was based on a very simple premise: The only thing more important than what you’ve done for an advertiser is what you do next,” Smith adds.

 

SalesTouch is the only CRM that integrates a Momentum Dashboard™ into each advertiser’s profile information. These proprietary algorithms provide media sales reps with information that other CRMs do not, like an account that’s in danger of shrinking or potentially going away.

“The revenue momentum of individual advertisers is changing at unprecedented rates,” says Jerry Kackley, president of K Group and developer of the Momentum Dashboard. “Sales professionals that use Momentum have a clear and distinct advantage over their media counterparts that are simply guessing about how to engage their advertisers.”

 

Another exclusive element of SalesTouch is the full integration of AdMall®, the most powerful consultative sales intelligence database available for local and digital advertising. AdMall provides SalesTouch users with qualified local advertising sales opportunities, local market background research for more than 400 business types, and an online version of AdMall’s Diagnosis Call™ – which takes advertiser needs analysis to a whole new level.

 

“These two exclusive features will help media reps become much more effective sellers, because it tells them both when and how to engage advertisers,” says Smith.

 

SalesTouch was built from the ground up for account executives to use on touchscreen devices in the field. SalesTouch Mobile for the iPad, iPhone and other iOS devices is available now in the iTunes App Store. Users of Android smartphones and tablets can download SalesTouch Mobile in the Google Play market.

 

To learn more about SalesTouch, go to www.salestouch.com.

ABOUT SALES DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Sales Development Services (SDS), Inc. - a Westerville, Ohio firm founded in 1989 - is the parent company of SalesTouch. SDS also provides AdMall, Ad-ology Research, the Media Sales Basics training program, and the Media Sales Today daily advertising sales blog. SalesTouch and AdMall are registered trademarks of Sales Development Services, Inc. Momentum Dashboard is a registered trademark of K Group, Inc.

Editors Note: The SalesTouch trade name is one word with a capital S and a capital T.

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General Session: Sales Structure/The Age Old Debate

by Deb Shaw

Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell concluded Wednesday sessions with his well attended presentation on how to structure print and digital sales staff for maximum performance. His presentation was thorough, on point, and backed up with impeccable & indisputable statistics. It also was the topic of many a conversation at last night’s reception at the Georgia Aquarium (sponsored by AdMall) and was deemed by all to be an outstanding end to an excellent day of programming.

Borrell got the program started with two questions:

Is the Internet a sustaining technology to your newspaper, or a disruptive technology?

Do you want a significant share of Internet advertising dollars being spent in your market?

He came back around to question one at the end of his presentation but asked the audience to raise a hand if they answered yes to the ad dollar question and needless to say, everyone put hands up. He then proceeded to objectively make the case for a separate digital sales rep (or more) as he walked the group through a series of statistical slides that easily underscored the effectiveness of this approach. The full presentation and stats are viewable at www.borrellassociates.com/LMA2012

 

Some other highlights:

• Know your target. How much are local businesses spending on digital advertising in your market?
• Spending data for over 500 markets is accessible through Borrell at www.borrell associates.com/dmr
• Know your potential, not your share. Borrell research has proven that newspapers can expect a 24.6% share of the digital spend in your market.
• Newspaper sites that have a digital-only sales staff enjoy 2.5x digital ad revenue per rep.
• Once you determine your potential revenue, divide that number by $250K and that’s the number of dedicated digital A/E reps you should have.

 

Access the full presentation at www.borrellassociates.com/LMA2012

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Edmond, OK - Marketing Solutions Group (MSG), a media industry leader in prospecting and database marketing tools, announces the addition of two new b...

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Bonus Day of Programming a Boon for Attendees

by Deb Shaw

In a new approach this year, LMA conference planners added three sessions to the agenda on Tuesday. In years past, this day was devoted entirely to one-on-one meetings with media buyers and the Board of Directors meetings but with so many members on hand prior to the Wednesday AM keynote presentation, planners developed three excellent bonus sessions.

In Session One, Joe DeBiak from the Center for Advertising Effectiveness showed attendees why advertiser ROI is key to increasing digital ad revenue. Using data capture strategies with both digital and print ads, Joe pointed out a potential new revenue stream for publishing companies that helps advertisers grow and increase their ad buy. These strategies also allow newspapers to 'control' the account and separate themselves from competitors. Joe pointed out the do's and don'ts of digital display ads to help maximize their effectiveness... and keep advertisers coming back for more. Learn more about this at www.centerforadvertisingeffectiveness.com.

Bonus Session Two brought Matt Villacarte from Google to address a brand new initiative out of his Consumer Survey division. This partnership opportunity is aimed directly at publishers who offer unique, premium content, aka local media companies. Read more about this session in a separate story on this website.

The concluding Bonus Session was presented by Impact Engine’s Neil Greer, CEO, and Bryan Depew, VP/Product Development. Together they tackled the topic of ‘The Future of Desktop, Tablet & Mobile Ad Revenue” in the Online Display Revenue Boot Camp. Here are some key points they imparted:

• In 2012, revenue from online display advertising delivered to the desktop still makes up the majority of revenue.
• By 2016, the number of mobile impressions will overtake desktop impressions as a total percentage.
• Sites that utilize a dedicated rep to online earn 300 percent more in online revenue.
• The majority of real online revenue in online display comes from direct sold, premium ad positions such as Home Page Takeover and Section Sponsorship. These sales are made using Rich Media units such as Pencil Push Down and Interstitial ads; both with and without video.
• Address the direct sold opportunity first and before considering remnant networks.
• When addressing mobile, start with Multi-Screen compatibility with a focus on tablet users.
• Leading organizations such as Morris Communications and San Diego Union Tribune are showing their online display specs using iPad.
• When it comes to selecting an ad server for desktop and mobile advertising focus on the core features and less on behavioral targeting.

Reach Neil and Bryan at www.impactengine.com

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Event Marketing: Keynote Has Muscle and HUGE POTENTIAL

by Deb Shaw

ChattanoogaTimes Free Press Publisher Jason Taylor wound up the Wednesday morning crowd with his keynote presentation on Event Marketing and boy oh boy, did he get things going with a bang. His energy was enormous and so was his lively staging of his Flex Your Muscles presentation.

The bottom line is this: there’s plenty of money to be made in marketing events in communities large and small and, going beyond the revenue lure, the audience engagement and strengthening of newspaper brand are invaluable long term benefits.

Why Events?

• Revenue through sponsorship sales, ticket sales, booth sales, VIP packages, premium seating, merchandising.
• Allows newspapers to play to their strengths – brand and market penetration. Taylor said that in his market, an advertiser would have to buy 26 commercials on American Idol to match the market penetration of an ad in his Sunday newspaper.
• Prevent outside event companies from swooping into your market and taking these dollars. An excellent selling strategy for local newspapers: “Money spent locally stays local.”
• Can dramatically improve foot traffic to the SMB’s who buy booths and sponsorships.
• Grow customer base – lots of new business comes from events.
• Engage readers – events boost relevancy and improves overall impression of newspaper among both consumers and businesses
• Get to know clients much more intimately – when you host an event you’re spending an entire day with the businesses who are participating.
• Strengthen underperforming audiences – have a big Hispanic demographic in your market? Host an event aimed specifically for this target.
• Showcase high performing audiences – think Senior Expo.
• Sell subscriptions – Taylor reports unexpectedly high sales at events.
• Capture $$ from different buckets – many companies budget separately for event marketing. For example, McDonalds, an infrequent advertiser previously, now is the lead sponsor on Taylor’s Kidz Expo. This has led to more in paper ads such as inserts and post it front page notes.
• Marketing your events markets you.

 

Look for more on this, including links to Jason Taylor’s dynamite presentation, coming soon to this website and in October issue of Local Media Today.

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Publisher Opportunity: Monetizing the Micro-survey

by Deb Shaw

Google’s Matt Villacarte, Publisher Development Manager for Google Consumer Surveys, attracted a large crowd interested to learn more about this new partnership opportunity. Launched a scant 6 months ago, Google is looking to connect publishers and market research companies with this survey tool on publisher websites.

Some highlights of the Google Consumer Survey Program:

• Short one or two question surveys appear on newspaper websites, at a break in premium content (an inline prompt) or anchored on top of a page such as an image gallery.
• Readers can choose to proceed to rest of story or to view the gallery by answering a short survey, one or two questions, or taking an alternate publisher-chosen course of action.
• Every time a user completes the survey, the publisher earns revenue at the rate of .05 cents per completed survey.
• Google is seeking producers of unique content to partner with on this program and according to Matt “local news is exclusive” so there’s a real advantage for LMA members to get to the top of the list for partnership exploration.
• Only age, gender and geography of user is tracked.
• Some LMA members are already participating including Shaw Suburban Media. A live example was demonstrated at Shaw’s Newton Daily News. www.newtondailynews.com. Click through top story to see an example of a survey.
• Explore this opportunity at the Consumer Survey home page at https://google.com/insights/consumersurveys/home

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Michele Nesbihal, Vice President of Sales Operations announced Halston Media has selected AFL to strengthen their subscription base and manage their Circulation Services.  Tanya Erickson, Director of Customer Integration and US Postal Service award winner will be overseeing the transition with her team who will focus on managing and growing Halston Media subscribers.

Halston Media has been a partner of AFL since 2010.  They have three Community Newspapers in New York: Mahopac News, Somers Record and the Yorktown News it’s newest publication started in April this year.

“Choosing AFL as our official circulation services provider was a no-brainer.

From the beginning of our relationship with AFL, Tanya Erickson has been instrumental in helping us navigate the complicated rules and regulations of the U.S. Postal Service. There is simply too much to lose by handling circulation services on our own. AFL has become an essential partner in helping us maximize our postal savings.” Brett Freeman,

Halston Media Editor and Publisher, said.  

AFL Web Printing is the Mid-Atlantic leader in offset printing, print services and circulation services and their main focus is their customer’s success.  To learn more about how AFL can be your partner in growth call them at 856-237-6025.

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