BtoB Media Business - April 2011 - (Page 11)

FEATURE Digging deeper into analytics Using new technologies, media companies are able to offer marketers a clearer view of their online audiences BY MARK J. MILLER ith their controlled-circulation magazines, business media companies have always offered advertisers and marketers access to detailed information about their audiences. Now, with the rise of analytics, a number of business media companies are offering b-to-b marketers perhaps even more detailed— and timely—information about their online audiences. Follow the herd and rent before you buy N W “Vance is obsessed with analytics,” said Dean Horowitz, VP-e-media and market intelligence at Vance Publishing Corp., which publishes Pork and Modern Salon. “It is integrated into our audience development and content decision-making processes.” To gain a deeper understanding of its audience, Vance uses a variety of analytics offerings, including Google Analytics, Unica NetInsight, the company’s own CMS reporting systems, its ad-server reporting and IBM’s SPSS for predictive analytics. “Because metrics is part of our core organizational focus, we are very open to new products that fit our work flow and needs,” said Horowitz, who added that Vance uses these tools to measure usage, engagement, user experience and loyalty. For publishers looking to bolster their audience analytics technology, Horowitz recommends consideration of the technology’s reporting options—for instance, does it have a dashboard and how simple is it to use? He also suggests taking a close look at how the technology interfaces with other systems and storage capabilities. Bobit Business Media, which publishes Automotive Fleet, also uses Google Analytics to look at audience numbers. The company analyzes a number of metrics: page views, unique visitors, total visits, page views per visit, visits per visitor and average time spent on site. Bobit also tracks how these metrics change month by month and year by year. The company also uses Google Analytics to track traffic sources and gauge whether the users are coming directly to Bobit’s sites or via search engine, social media or other referrals. “We then use a service called SEM Rush to track how many keyword phrases we rank for in Google SERPs [search engine reply pages],” said Desiree Bennett Forsyth, former senior audience marketing manager at Bobit and the founder of audience-development consultancy Density Media. “How many top 10 [first page] and how many No. 1 … and how this relates to our search engine traffic. We’ll use this info, along with the Google Keyword tool, to keep refining our keyword strategies to gain more search-engine traffic.” Bobit also uses Facebook Insights to collect demographic information about visitors to the Facebook pages of its brands, such as Work Truck and Nails magazines. Another business media company plunging into analytics is Editorial Projects in Education. In addition to Google Analytics, the company uses Adobe Site Catalyst, which provides real-time feedback, for its larger Web properties such as edweek.org and teachermagazine.org. On the advertising production front, the company uses DoubleClick to track performance data, according to Shane Steinfeld, manager of advertising operations for the company. For business media companies pondering ick Elsener has spent more than 30 years in magazine production. He is currently VP-production at Hanley Wood and the chairman of American Business Media’s production and manufacturing techQ&A nology committee. He recently discussed technology’s impact on the magazine industry. Media Business: Since there is constantly “the next thing,” how do you recommend NICK publishers be sure they ELSENER are spending wisely on VPproduction, technology? Hanley Nick Elsener: Be part of the herd. When Wood searching for a tech company, use companies other publishers you admire are using. Avoid buying into a tech company that also handles magazines but is built around satisfying other client types. Often the answer is don’t buy a system but rent it in an ASP platform, especially when dealing with quickly changing technologies. Such technologies are often expensive and require specialized expertise to run. If you want technology you can’t afford, talk to your printer. Many printers are offering work-flow solutions as extended parts of their services. MB: What’s the “next thing” to keep an eye on? Elsener: Continual automation of page flow to many platforms. On the advertiser side, PDFs which once came in to us in many unruly flavors are now pretty vanilla and easily handled by automated ad portals. The next steps left are to push these PDF files beyond the printer’s plate room. Beyond going from publisher to press, the next push is to our digital editions environment, to our iPad, and smartphone apps, to archiving storage, even in some cases to an automated XML tagging output setup. Advertising information flow (is also something to keep an eye on). As insertion orders become involved with more than print, including corresponding e-media campaigns, the data grow in complexity and volume. —M.J.M. mediabusinessonline.com | April 2011 | Media Business | 11 http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org http://www.teachermagazine.org http://www.mediabusinessonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BtoB Media Business - April 2011

Btob Media Business - April 2011
Contents
Down Is Up
Farm Journal Media Takes Home the Grand Neal
Publishers Step Up Investments in Lead-Gen Capabilities
Tapping New Technologies
Sales & Marketing
Carving a Niche
Registration Conundrum
Events
People
Benchmarks
Powerful Media Brands, Powerful Industry Advocates

BtoB Media Business - April 2011