Five best practices to build audience and generate revenue

Five best practices to build audience and generate
revenue through Data-Driven Marketing
Tom Ratkovich
INMA European Conference
20 October, 2011
Five best practices to build audience and generate
revenue through Data-Driven Marketing
Tom Ratkovich
INMA European Conference
20 October, 2011
About me
•  Founded ASTECH InterMedia in 1992
•  Focus: transformation through database/digital marketing solutions
•  Clients
–  The New York Times
–  The Washington Post
–  USA Today
–  The Sydney Morning Herald
–  Toronto Star
•  Formed LMP in 2011 to “practice what we’ve preached”
–  Acquire community newsmedia companies that fit our profile
–  Leverage shared services and database/digital best practices to profitably deliver
capabilities to the community newsmedia market
The Laboratory
• 
Print & digital redesign
• 
Daily print to weekly
• 
24/7 digital
• 
Feature-oriented content
• 
Revamp distribution
• 
Drop classifieds for SMB bundle
• 
Reallocate sales resources to mid-size and major opportunities
• 
Introduce new print/digital products to build audiences, gain knowledge
• 
Create production/operational efficiencies through outsourcing
• 
Build database/digital capabilities (Emailvision)
Digital First?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Not an option for the Sentinel to remain viable in the short-term…
…but an opportunity to grow revenue and audience
Digital < 1% of total revenue
No email database
Limited presence on social media sites
Print still core in our community
CUSTOMER First!
•  Deliver multi-platform solutions
–  Meet consumer needs for relevance, value & channel preference
–  Meet merchant needs for optimal ROI
•  Key drivers of LMP strategy
1.  Intelligence
2.  Integration
3.  Automation
The Marketing Data Center
Subscription Data
Planning &
Reporting
Digital Data
Multichannel
Campaign
Management
Social Activity
Contests and Events
Cleanse
Demographics
Customer Service
Standardize
Do Not Solicit
Transient Advertising
Telemarketing
Loyalty Programs
Advertiser Customers
Integrate
MAAX
Data
Visualization,
Segmentation
& Analysis
Modeling and
Data Mining
Email, Mobile
& Social
Executions
The New York Times Regional Media Group
Case Study: Improved marketing performance through demographic targeting
Multichannel Customer Acquisition
• 
Created custom segmentation
scheme integrating PRIZM and
transaction data
–  Seven “super-segments” within three
“lifestage” groupings.
• 
Optimized email and direct mail
channels based on consumer
preference and/or profile
• 
Dynamic messaging delivers
tailored offers and creative
executions
Results: Significant Improvement in Productivity
Cost per Unit by Channel
$200
$180
$160
Cost per unit of
circulation fell from $96
to $65 in two years.
$140
$120
$100
$80
$60
$40
$20
$0
Crew-Kiosk
Direct
Response
Field
FSI
Telemarketing
2006
2007
Web
Total Pressure
Voluntary
Total All
2008
Annual Source Savings:
$1,000,000+
The Sacramento Bee
Case Study: Integration of print & digital to drive advertiser performance
Hardware Store Customers: PRIZM
Lifestage
In keeping with the earlier findings regarding the age and affluence of YOUR customer, it
is not surprising that the M1 and M2 groups constitute 29% of the total file. Those
Lifestage groups appearing more often among YOUR customer group (Y1, F1, F2, M1,
M2) than the market at large comprise 69.7% of customers.
18%
16%
17%
15%
14%
14%
Market
14%
Hardware Store
12%
11%
9%
10%
6%
6%
4%
7%
6%
9%
9%
9%
7%
8%
12%
11%
8%
9%
8%
7%
5%
3%
3%
2%
0%
Y1
Y2
Y3
Under 45 Singles & Couples
No Children
F1
F2
F3
Between 25 and 54
Families with Children
F4
M1
M2
M3
M4
Over 45 Singles & Couples
No Children
Hardware Store Customers & Bee
Products
Among YOUR Customers we see the following:
-  40% are current subscribers
-  21% are both subscribers and sacbee.com registrants
-  36% are sacbee.com registrants
-  55% are Bee Print or Online customers
-  45% are MVP (shared mail) recipients
Customer
File
Hardware Customers: Utility GRID
Lifestage Group:
Total Pop, in Thousands
Store Index
Store Comp. %
Monetary Value
◄ Affluence
Under 45 No Kids
Y1
Y2
Y3
195K 189K 40K
104
66
40
14.7% 9.1% 3.0%
16.9% 8.7% 2.4%
◄ Affluence
25-54, Children
F1
F2
F3
F4
78K
213K 191K 49K
112
119
63
42
6.4% 10.8% 7.1% 2.9%
5.9% 12.1% 5.1% 1.0%
◄ Affluence
45+, No Children
M1
M2
M3
M4
182K
244K 140K 67K
231
179
117
86
11.9% 16.5% 9.4% 8.2%
16.5% 17.0% 7.9% 6.5%
All Home Improv.
$1,000+
116
108
▲
74
65
43
51
116
133
▲
120
129
▲
79
76
66
44
105
114
▲
109
116
▲
108
100
▲
101
87
Weekly Print Audience
Sacbee.com
Weekly Combined Audience
103
133
106
107
152
118
40
37
41
120
134
114
107
148
111
71
79
71
38
51
36
150
114
146
129
87
126
104
63
99
75
44
71
Text messaging
Internet Usage
Broadband Connection
10+ Hrs Online/Week
E-Mail Usage
Yahoo!
130
124
117
126
118
124
110
107
107
105
101
107
43
67
68
62
76
81
121
129
133
100
118
131
123
113
117
105
111
121
108
98
93
89
100
88
108
72
69
83
65
84
97
114
116
153
111
112
71
97
99
93
97
89
72
75
79
77
73
81
64
72
76
64
71
71
USA TODAY
Case Study: Enhancing operational efficiency through automation
Daily email, direct mail, telemarketing communications
• 
• 
• 
Print & Digital Engagement
– 
Daily email links to digital edition
– 
Weekly welcome emails & letters to new subscribers
– 
Subscriber surveys and satisfaction research
– 
Content & coverage promotion
– 
Contest promotion
Print & Digital Renewals
– 
Daily email, direct mail & telemarketing renewal initiatives
– 
Electronic billing
– 
Subject line & copy testing to improve open and click-through rates
– 
Sampling leveraged to optimize timing and sequencing of communications
Reactivation of Vacation/Temporary Stops
– 
• 
Automated email to vacation stops of 90 days or more with no re-start pending
Miscellaneous multichannel communications
– 
Service & delivery alerts
– 
Auto pay conversion
– 
Upgrades
– 
Credit card expiry data collection
– 
Opt-in advertising
Challenges
• 
• 
• 
• 
Accuracy
Resource intensive
Limited metrics
Lack of testing and optimization
Approach
• 
• 
• 
• 
Establish business rules for communication
Prioritize digital channels where possible
Automate
Free resources for testing
Results
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Eliminated hours of manual campaign creation
Minimized human error
Applied complex rules to ensure right message/channel/time/offer
More sophistication in testing and creative approaches
Improved open and click-through rates
37% improvement in CPO
In summary…
…I’m out of time!
Thank You!
Tom Ratkovich, Managing Partner
Leap Media Partners, LLC
+1.303.886.0202
[email protected]