SIPA UK Blog

10 tips for managing in a downturn

On Tuesday Robin Crumby of Melcrum hosted a fantastic half day round table event on managing a specialist information business in a downturn. There were lots of good contributions and anyone involved in the industry should try to come along to future events - including our upcoming full day E-marketing Conference.

At the meeting Robin highlighted 10 top tips for managing during a downturn. Most are common sense but are worth keeping in mind over the coming months:

1. Stay positive: lead by example, be upbeat, smile, celebrate small wins at every opportunity, get everyone to start a meeting by sharing a highlight each.
2. Recognition: reward staff with regular mentions and praise in meetings. 
3. Focus on the next week/month: focus teams on short term objectives that make a difference now (remind them often of how this links back to big picture strategy and goals). 
4. Communicate often: have a daily meeting to discuss each team member's priority for the day, results for the previous day, any blocks that are getting in the way.
5. Regular reporting: keep everyone informed of your sales results at least daily. 
6. Meetings: consolidate all unnecessary meetings and focus on one effective meeting using an experienced facilitator, an agenda circulated in advance, start on time, finish on time and circulate action points. 
7. One-on-ones: make sure all managers meet their reports once a month, review progress against objectives, listen and respond to their concerns. 
8. Work smarter: encourage individuals to work 'smarter not harder', focus on most profitable customers, good time management to concentrate on priorities and make sure they are delegating work to reports as often as possible. One person's chore is another's opportunity to impress. 
9. Process reviews: make enough time to review all processes to ensure no dead wood. No sacred cows. If something doesn't add value, cut it. 
10. Make work fun again: enlist the help of influential employees to organise nights out, run competitions, and celebrate everything. 

Good advice for everyone running a team in this environment.

Well done Robin for a great morning.

Survive & thrive during recession - SIPA half day ideas forum, 24th Feb

Given the economic climate that all publishers face at the moment, SIPA UK have planned a highly interactive half day seminar to take place in 2 weeks time. 

Taking place in London at the Novotel Tower Bridge from 9.30 - 1 our half day ideas forum is limited to 20 people and will be based around a highly interactive discussion.

Topics to be covered include:

• Leading from the front & staying positive 
• Keeping your teams engaged 
• Identifying and avoiding 'busy fool' activity
• Is outsourcing an option?
• Successfully transitioning from a print to an online business
• Negotiating key contracts
• Managing yields 

along with any other topics you want to see discussed.

This is a unique opportunity to network with your peers from other specialist publishers. The brightest and best will be there - but don't let that put you off...

There are just 10 slots remaining. Full details and a booking form can be found here  

Or contact Karen Hindle

Happy New Year - and plans for SIPA in 2009

Welcome back & happy new year to all SIPA members.

Before Christmas we sent out a quick survey asking about the state of the specialist publishing industry and the main issues that you are interested in learning more about. Thank you to everyone who responded.

I wanted to quickly share the results here and also tell you about how your committee has responded with our draft series of events for the first half of 2009 - dates to get in the diary.

The topics which you ranked as being of most interest were:

1) Landing page optimisation

2) Developing new revenue streams

3) Driving traffic to your site

4) Lead generation models

5) Search engine marketing

6) Monetising online communities / membership websites

On the principle that you asked for it - here it is I am pleased to announce the following events and dates (some are provisional):

Tuesday 24 February 2009: Monetising Online Communities and building memberships 
A half day workshop, full of case studies from companies who have built thriving online communities. Chaired by Robin Crumby of Melcrum Publishing. Central London, venue tbc 

March 2009: Online Marketing Conference
A full day conference, updating you with practical case studies on key areas such as building effective landing pages, increasing your revenue through search, online lead generation, driving traffic to your website, building new revenue streams, and other key topics. Chaired by Emma Rogers of Electric Word plc. Central London, date and venue tbc.

April 2009: Fundamentals of Subscription Marketing
A full-day intensive training course aimed at marketers new to publishing, or publishers who want to know more about marketing. Also ideal as a refresher course. Run by Julian Turner, Electric Word plc. Central London, date and venue tbc. 

5 May 2009: SIPA’s Profitable Subscriptions Copywriting Masterclass
This one day course, prepared by and presented by Andy Maslen exclusively for SIPA members, will give your marketing and sales teams a refresher on the principles – and practice – of great subscriptions copywriting. You’ll hear how to research your reader and plan your copy, how to use tone of voice and use the right style, and edit and check your work. Central London, venue tbc.

7-8 July 2009: SIPA UK 15th Annual Congress and Exhibition
7 July – two round tables, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, aimed at publishers and business owners, and senior marketers. The ideal place to share your experiences and network with others in the same position as you. The Tower Hotel, London, E1

8 July – The main conference and exhibition. A packed day of round tables, practical case studies and presentations on print and online publishing from knowledgeable guest speakers. Plus the chance to browse our exhibition of relevant products and services. The Tower Hotel, London, E1

Thanks to all the committee for their hard work in putting on these events. If you want further information, to help out or volunteer to speak please contact Karen Hindle at uksipa@btconnect.com

You can keep in touch at www.sipauk.com. I wish you a successful 2009 and look forward to seeing you at one of the events soon.

Rory Brown, Chairman, UK SIPA 

Using search to create new products plus improve your search marketing

A couple of quick reminders. SIPA has a great half day event on the 25th November about effectively using search to both market existing products and create new ones. There's a great line up of speakers & even in these difficult times a half day out of the office should be really worthwhile.

Programme details are here. http://www.sipaonline.com/Chapters/SIPA-UK.htm#SIPA_UK_Events

Also, if you haven't had a chance to complete our survey of possible events for 2009 yet please do so, it will take you less than 5 minutes and really helps our planning. The survey link is here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QkKIxOzwofZT_2bGz_2bnUWKsA_3d_3d

Ahoy - your attention please!

In spite of it being 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' I am going to refrain from pirate speak. Instead I just wanted to point out that there is a fantastic SIPA half day meeting taking place next Wednesday (24th September). The title is "Building New Business Models" & we have a star-studded line up of speakers. See below:

09.30 - 10.10
INTERNATIONALISING YOUR BUSINESS IN HIGH GROWTH EMERGING MARKETS

• Introduction

Jonathan Feroze, Managing Director, Business Monitor International

• The big-company perspective
  - Emerging markets sweet and sour: selecting markets to enter
  - Staffing up in the emerging markets;  dealing with recruiting and retention
  - The competitor landscape; one is never alone
  - Building a local market from abroad
  James Hammond, ISI Emerging Markets, Euromoney

10.10 - 10.50
PROFITABLE SUBSCRIPTION MODELS

• The virtues of subscription models (including ROI, life-time value, renewals)

Julian Turner, Chief Executive, Electric Word plc

 

10.50 - 11.15 COFFEE

 

11.15 - 11.35
SITE LICENCE MODELS

• The most profitable model in town; the rise of centralised procurement; negotiating price around value; who will do your selling?

Richard Londesborough, Chief Executive, Business Monitor International

11.35 - 12.15
WEB 2.0 & BEYOND

• How e-marketing is developing as a business development model for b2b publishers, and its place in the overall marketing mix
  • Email content rules
  • How much promo is too much – getting the right balance
  • List maintenance tactics
  • Great ways to test concepts
  • Financial metrics for email lists

Wayne Cooper, Managing Director, Greenhaven Partners

 12.15 - 12.45

SALES CULTURE, LEADERSHIP & PERFORMANCE

• Develop sales and telemarketing teams to win higher-value business, and galvanise your company's overall performance
  • Sales account management ‘vs’ telemarketing. Why getting the structure right can make all the difference
  • Motivating and energising the team. How focusing your team can transform your business
  • 10 top tips and quick wins to take away and action today

Steven Voss, Strategic Publishing Consultant, on behalf of Melcrum Publishing

 

12.45 - 13.00

QUESTIONS (15 mins) and lunch

It's only £129 to attend for SIPA members (£179 for non-members).

Book a place for yourself or a member of your team by contacting Karen Hindle.

There's a good networking lunch afterwards where we might stretch to more than weevil ridden ship's biscuits...

Rory Brown, Incisive Media.

P.S. If you want to get your pirate name - go here

Building new business models - great new event next month

Jonathan Feroze - your energetic SIPA awards presenter and former Chairman of the association is currently finalising* the programme for the next SIPA UK meeting.

Building new business models: How you can build the right business models to weather today's recesssion - and profit from tomorrow

It is a morning event taking place on Wednesday 24th September at the Novotel Tower Bridge.

Publicity going out shortly but get the date in your diary - it'll be a cracker.

Rory.

(*small disclaimer. I think Jonathan is actually sunning himself on a beach in the Med at the moment - but the core of the programme was done before he went away)

How's trading?

As we plan our series of SIPA events for the second half of the year I'd be really interested to hear how trading is going across our member companies. Have any areas of your business been particularly badly hit by recession? Which parts are growing strongly? Are there any new initiatives that you feel are working well & that other SIPA member companies could learn from?

If you've got something to share - it can be anonymously if you wish - please leave a message in the comments section below.

Alternatively you can contact me directly at rory (dot) brown {at} incisivemedia [dot] com

Rory Brown, Incisive Media

Chairman, SIPA UK

What we can learn from wine marketers

From the Undercover Marketer

Secrets of the wine trade

I see that France is moving to ‘relax’ its rules on wine. According to the London Times leader:

Rivalry from New World winemakers has provoked France .. to allow wines from different areas to be combined to create fruiter blends .. designed to appeal more readily to the palates and pockets of foreign wine drinkers

Well, excusez-moi! The clever French have been doing that for years. Whoever wrote that Times leader knows nothing about:

(a) The French

(b) Wine

(c) Direct marketing.

But that ignorance, as we will see, is pretty universal. The French are the only people it is perfectly acceptable to be racist about, so our newspapers take regular pot-shots. (I won’t repeat the insulting joke about Paris contained in the Times leader.)

Here is what we publishers can learn from French wine marketing:

Off the record, on the QT & very hush hush..

Having spent some time in close discussions with a director of a French wine cooperative, I can tell you that French wine makers are expert at marketing. There are lessons here for all publishers who’d like to re-purpose editorial for different markets.

I will use what my wine making friend told me about wine marketing to make this demonstration. Brits reading this who are particularly sensitive, please click away now …

What do French know about marketing?

I ask my French vineyard owner “Why does your wine taste different in the UK?”

His answer: “We add things to change the taste for the British palate. If you buy a French Roquefort cheese in Sweden – it will taste different to yours. It’s the same with wine. Each country likes a different taste.”

He shrugs. His cooperative, which produces red wine, adds sweeteners and chemicals. “But not the anti-freeze that other producers add.” Too much and the result is headache and nausea.

What about the other point in the Times leader?

‘Allowing wines from different areas to be combined’?

The French have always done this. For example: Bordeaux is the most popular French wine. But it is a tiny region and cannot possibly supply the huge demand. So they mix it with wine from the huge Languedoc-Rousillon region in the south, which coincidentally is where my friend’s vineyard is.

Go here for the full story and learn why we should follow the wine producers ..

Wine marketing

Or cut and paste this:

http://www.subscriptionsstrategy.co.uk/confidential/the-undercover-marketer

 

In an online world is 'content still king'?

The final panel of the day at the SIPA Congress last week debated whether content was still king. I am running an open question on LinkedIn at the moment - feel free to contribute or leave a comment here with your thoughts.

Rory.

So, what did you think?

Thanks to everyone who came along to the SIPA UK Congress yesterday. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please leave any comments below on things you particularly liked or thought we could improve on.

Remember - the best testimonials will make next year's brochure... there's fame for you.

Rory.