2020 may have been a bit rough. But for many niche publishers, audience loyalty is bridging the gap in revenue and engagement right now.
Now is the time to fine tune your audience strategies as you look forward to 2021.
Ashley Mulder, COO at Twenty First Digital, has 4 strategies to enhance efficiency, increase engagement, and drive audience revenue as you prepare for and head into 2021!
Ashley shared her audience outreach plan at our virtual Super Niche Almost Live! conference – including detailed checklists to enact each strategy. (Check out the entire recording here to get started!)
1. SEO / Content Strategy
Search accounts for 50% of publisher site traffic. Search visitors are also a top source for email conversion (collecting an email for newsletter or content access) and even print conversion (subscription forms).
And search sophistication continues to grow, as audiences use voice search and hyper-local searches to get the information they need.
Marching orders: update top-performing content, assess search data and keywords, rethink placement of conversion forms.
2. Automation / Segmentation Strategy
Marketers using segmented audience campaigns and automated messaging can increase revenue 760% — no more excuses!
Marching orders: clean your database and demos, review automated messages regularly for relevance, and segment all outreach campaigns.
3. Diversified Revenue Strategy
Quick stats:
- Independent publishers receive 40% of their revenue from events.
- 88% of publishers expect to miss 2020 forecasts.
Even in a healthy market, too much revenue focus into one channel can be risky for long-term growth and survival. The stats above show the need for diversified revenue sources.
Marching orders: now is the time to build audience engagement and revenue with new content, products, paywalls, memberships and more. (Ashley has a great recording on recurring audience revenue too!)
4. Data Privacy Strategy
Audience knowledge and sentiment about data privacy has caught up to our ability to market to them. Your readers and site visitors are keenly aware of what business can do with their data, and have strong reactions against data abuse. The legislative and legal requirements for data use continue to grow. Be ready!
Marching orders: take stock of how you (and your platforms) use audience data, assess all collection processes and language, be transparent with your audience on data usage.
Set these audience strategies now to support your entire media company’s revenue programs in the new year!
PLUS — Get more audience development tactics in the Audience Lab section of the Super Niche (Almost) Live Recordings page.
Ashley Mulder is both senior strategist and COO of Twenty-First Digital, a full-service audience development agency that works with publishers, brands, and media companies on their digital and audience development efforts. The agency’s unique approach to audience development, coupled with their adaptability to the increasingly complex digital marketing landscape is what drives their success in an ever-changing landscape. She has a passion for data-driven marketing and working with brands to establish practices and processes to attract, convert and sell products to their audiences.
