Publishers tell us they want practical, revenue-generating ideas to drive their niche media business forward. We’re here for you!
Think about your online presence and what it can do for you. Your website is the center of your publishing universe. It’s where your devoted audience follows you and engages. It’s where new leads find you. And if you do it right, in the end they all become customers of your niche product(s).
As a result, online lead gen and audience conversion is a huge business focus for most niche publishers. Way back in the simple days (like 2005), an online presence was used to convert unknown readers into known leads and then subscribers.
Not so anymore! It’s much more complicated in the multiple revenue stream publishing world. After (if) those leads convert to subscribers, you need to then convert them into consumers of all your products – often on multiple platforms. This is not a “set it and forget it” strategy.
Check out these 14 tactical tips to attract – and convert – your audience today!
Online lead gen & conversion starts with website optimization
- Your website MUST be user-friendly, search-friendly, helpful, and relevant. (If you don’t do this first step, the rest doesn’t matter.)
- Easy access to lead generation forms (newsletter signups, for example) must be present on the page and side bars.
- Also, when was the last time management personally reviewed the website? A review by the whole team, including those who don’t work with the website often, must be done regularly to ensure optimal user experience.
How well does your web design interact with potential customers?
- Use the Google Keyword Planner to identify popular search terms that may resonate with your audience.
- Forums, blogs and LinkedIn groups are a good source for discovering questions, concerns or topics of interest posed by your audience. Then deliver that niched content to your audience.
- Build a landing page to capture leads. Then leverage the content to up-sell to current customers and to acquire new leads.
- Publish your landing page to a Facebook tab in order to capture social fans.
- Create an enewsletter, e-book or white paper that is helpful, useful and relevant. Or you can re-purpose content from your magazine or website and distribute.
- Create multiple e-newsletters or e-books based on specific areas of interest to your audience. Niche your niche!
- Visuals are extremely important to grab readers’ attention. Try downloadable infographics, videos, research graphs and more.
Convert leads to subscribers
There’s no such thing as responding too quickly. Consider that your website visitor’s concerns may not be what you think they are. You need to truly understand your magazine’s web traffic to boost conversion rates.
- When leads visit certain sections on your website, re-target them on Facebook or the web and offer a free guide e-book or enewsletter in exchange for their email address.
- When prospective leads subscribe to your e-newsletter on a certain topic, send a print subscription offer that highlights your content on that topic.
- If a lead is acquired through a contest, let them know about your next contest.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with pay-per-click and paid social media advertisements.
When you cater to your subscribers’ interests and add value at every step in the conversion process, you’ll have devoted customers who will eagerly consume your content across multiple channels.
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About this blogger: Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Niche Media. A former sales director and corporate marketing hack, she has now found nirvana in writing and wrangling quality content. Diana is a food, wine, art and SF Giants enthusiast…who sometimes gets carried away.
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Niche Media has the best events, education, and training in media! Our super niched-out events & content give target-audience publishers in the B2C, hobbyist, B2B, city & regional, and association markets the tools they need to build revenue, audience, and more.
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