Web site Promotion | Website Development

Making your consumer site a revenue magnet: Consumer marketers offer accumulated wisdom on the art of developing profitable online subscription and an

Consumer titles with audience bases who are naturally drawn to the Web have an undeniable advantage when it comes to developing this new source. Still, a growing number of niche and more general magazines without remarkably Web-savvy markets are finding that, with focused effort, Web sites can provide steady, low-cost streams of new subscribers who are also prime prospects for brand extensions. And for many consumer marketing departments, growing this stream as a means of reducing costs and improving the bottom line in years to come is becoming a more important priority as traditional sources become increasingly inefficient. If your Web-based circulation efforts have been half-hearted or less focused than they might be, spending some time and money here in 2002 should pay off in the long run. After all, the costs of traditional sources will only continue to rise, and consumer Web usage will only continue to grow.

Jupiter Media Metrix's latest statistics show that as of last year, 141.5 million U.S. residents, or half of the population, were Net users. By 2006, it's estimated that the number will jump to 210.8 million, or 71 percent of the population.

Meanwhile, recent studies conducted by International Communications Research for the sub agency Blue Dolphin Group seem to indicate that magazine readers are becoming more likely to order online. In last year's first-quarter survey, just 5.7 percent of 1,000 randomly selected U.S. households that subscribe to magazines and have Internet access reported buying a magazine subscription online from a publisher or reseller. In the fourth quarter survey, 11 percent of the same type of households reported buying a subscription online.
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Here's a round-up of advice for building site traffic, profitable subscription order volume and cross-marketing revenue, from consumer marketers with successful online track records who spoke at this year's Circulation Day. In addition, CM has gathered tips for boosting pay-up rates from marketers and by surveying the techniques currently being used on magazine Web sites.

* Reassess your overall Web strategy.

While few consumer titles lack some kind of Web presence, this medium, by its nature, demands continual reassessment. In some cases, the rush to go online and limited resources may have engendered decisions that are impeding a site's marketing potential.

Even if you're not in a position to literally start over, the first step in improving performance is to sit down and ask some hard questions about realistic goals and methods in light of available resources. How can you best translate your magazine's offline mission statement to the Web? What types of promotions and customer service elements are needed? What elements of your business could be handled more efficiently online? What types of initiatives would be most likely to generate ancillary revenue on the Web? What levels of subscription and other revenue can be reasonably expected? How much can you afford to spend? How should each of these goals be ranked within the priority hierarchy? Where does your site stand now in relation to all of these factors? How can you build on your site's strengths and make adjustments over time to eliminate its weaknesses?

Get expert help from consultants and experienced online marketers in answering these questions, secure support from upper management and make sure that you build in systems for measuring the performance of every aspect of the site. (How will you measure the success of customer service functions, for example?)

* Make user-friendliness goal #1. It's hardly a secret that Web site design is a critical component of online strategy. You can drive readers to a Web site, but they won't return if it's difficult to use.

Make it a point to spend time navigating and going through the order process on other publisher sites that are user-friendly. This can be invaluable in evaluating your own site.

For example, Guideposts has a separate site for each of its nine products--including Guideposts, Angels on Earth and Guideposts Books--but uses the same template architecture to tie them together in the user's mind and make navigation easy. Although the set-up of each site is similar, each brand's "look and feel" is maintained through varying editorial departments and product offerings, explains director of new business Evan Balzer.

Balzer and other online marketers also say that the design of the customer service area (which should allow current subscribers to order merchandise for themselves or as gifts, as well as manage their accounts) should parallel the design of the rest of the site. For instance, the CS area should feature the navigational tool bar found on the site's home page, as well as its own tool bar.

"With all of the cross-referencing in the customer service area, it can be easy for users to get lost," stresses Claudia Allen, online marketing manager for Rodale's Men's Health. A consistent customer service tool bar can help users return to the home page or quickly locate the function