That “fresh start” feeling in the new year means it’s a great time to evaluate your audience data collection efforts — and make sure what you collect actually drives revenue and company growth!
We asked Joyce Neth, Vice President & Director of Audience Development and Research for WATT Global Media, for her advice on managing audience data: what to collect, how to organize it, and using it to drive revenue!
How can audience developers drive data collection, manage hygiene AND find new opportunities in the numbers? Is there a shortcut?
If there is a shortcut, I haven’t found it! It’s so important to collect the best data you can in the first place. The main three collection tactics are:
- Collect data from your users. It’s a tricky balance among quantity, form-fatigue and the quality of what you are giving them in return. We’re continually testing short forms vs long forms and incentives – offering them worthwhile pieces of “candy” in exchange for their data.
- Use vendors to append, update and qualify new leads.
- Append with additional information as necessary for clarity.
We’re working toward automating certain hygiene efforts but right now, we look at inactives on our email lists every six months and give them a re-engagement offer.
Within our 3-person Audience Development team, we joke that the assignment to “give us some insights” is the hardest to fulfill on demand. Typically the insights are performance-driven, for example, when we’re looking for results from a certain campaign and we find a surprise that leads to a pivot.
Does it ever make sense to ditch current magazines, newsletters, or other publishing products based on data?
Absolutely! We establish success measures when we launch new products (or when evaluating existing ones). If you aren’t getting the readers -– quantity or quality — that can support revenue, quit doing it. BUT make sure you learn from the experience and apply that to the next launch.
We actually launched two digital products 10 years ago – one got advertiser support and no readers, the other got readers & no advertisers. Pulled the plug on both after less than a year. We learned valuable lessons about developing an audience and monetizing it.
What’s the best way to bring ad sales, editorial, and audience management together so the data is working for everyone?
We’re in the process of figuring out how to do that effectively & efficiently. You definitely need all three legs to support the data table, though.
For both editorial and for advertising, it’s a process of defining the goals, identifying how to measure them and using the insights to improve results. It’s important to get the whole story from the data. Google Analytics is a great tool to tell you how many but you also need audience behavior data to tell you who you are reaching.
We also do reader research to learn what topics our audience says are important so we can be sure we are meeting those needs.
What do you do when you’re not developing your audience revenue?
We’re moving in May after 13 years in our house so I’m consumed with clearing out stuff that I’ve accumulated, sorta like data hygiene for my house! In my spare time, I read — everything from B2B industry resources to historical fiction. My husband and I also golf and take motorcycle trips – he drives, I sit on the back and take photos (and listen to audiobooks!).
Want to dive deeper into audience data tactics and revenue strategy? Joyce will lead the audience analysis session in the Audience Lab Track at Super Niche! Sign up soon — tickets almost sold out!
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About Joyce: Joyce Neth is Vice President, Director of Audience Development & Research for WATT Global Media. She is responsible for attracting, retaining and engaging audiences for WATT’s information products and events that serve the agribusiness and pet food manufacturing industries. She creates insights for strategic decisions, audience marketing, product marketing and proprietary research using knowledge from WATT’s database of audience behavior and demographics.
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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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