SIPA UK Blog

Put your Hands together for SIPA

A band I follow, Show of Hands (roots/folk) has just won two Folk Awards – Best Duo, and Best Song of 2010 (‘Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed’ – about AIG and other bankers). They’ve appeared on BBC’s Countryfile, and followed this up with a slot on the BBC breakfast show in February.

 

At first I was a bit peeved – my interest is folk music, and they’re moving outside their niche audience! And then I realised that’s exactly what we’re doing with SIPA.

 

SIPA has always catered for the needs of newsletter publishers, then online subscription publishers. But like Show of Hands, we’ve grown outside our niche market – and there are loads of people out there who don’t know about us, but who would like us if they did.

 

With events like Website Conversion Secrets from the Experts (19 April), Practical Copywriting Masterclass (6 May) and the 16^th Annual SIPA UK Conference  (12-13 July) – dealing with topics ranging from subscriptions marketing and renewals, NPD and sales to websites, e-marketing, social media and paywalls – we now appeal to a far wider audience than ever before.

 

Click here for information on all our events and more info about SIPA.  Places on the Website Conversion workshop are selling fast, so contact the office at uksipa@btconnect.com if you’d like to book.

 

(Oh yes, and check out Show of Hands at www.showofhands.co.uk. They’re great!)

 

Karen Hindle

Director, SIPA UK

SIPA's Online Publishing & Marketing Conference - Nov 19, London

Resurrecting the SIPA UK blog to let you know that we have a fantastic event coming up next month in London.

I wrote a piece about it on my personal blog recently so rather than repeating myself please just link over here to see the full details of the programme and speakers. 

Hope you'll be able to join us there.

Rory.

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.

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)

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.

Top 5 reasons why you should be at the SIPA UK Congress next week

The clock is ticking...

If you haven't already booked your place at the SIPA UK Congress next week you had better get moving. It takes place next Wednesday (9th July) in London. Full details can be found here.

Still need convincing? Here are my top 5 reasons to clear your diary and join us at the Tower Hotel next week:

1. Hear from some of the leading speakers in the specialist publishing industry - representatives from Incisive Media, E-Consultancy, DMG World Media, Euromoney, Informa, Business Monitor... and many more will be on hand to share real life experiences of how their companies make money.
2. Get a perspective on the way our media landscape is changing. What is the future of paid content in the revenue mix? How important is search engine optimisation for publishers? Is it possible to build vibrant social networks around your brand (and monetise them...)?
3. Discover how a few minor changes to your e-mail marketing operations can transform your results. One of our speakers generated over £1m in 7 days from an e-mail campaign for his new company. Would you like to know his secrets? - Nic Laight reveals all exclusively for delegates at the event..
4. Build your network. It's not what you know but who you know. All around the publishing industry there are people like you working on projects similar to yours. You're never going to meet them by sitting behind your desk - get out there and make some great connections!
5. See Jonathan Feroze in action at the SIPA UK Awards presentation! Well, who knows quite what to expect...

We still have limited places available. Please contact Karen Hindle of 020 8288 7415 or e-mail uksipa@btconnect.com

I look forward to seeing you on the day.

Rory.

SIPA UK Congress next week

155 places confirmed so far for next week & some great companies.

My target is 200 - please point your friends, colleagues, suppliers etc. this way.

http://www.sipaonline.com/Chapters/SIPA08_final.pdf

See you next week.

Rory.

Companies confirmed so far include: Abacus E-Media * Accolade Publishing * Adestra * Agora Business Publications * AI Digital * Ant Marketing * Aroq * BNA International * BSI * Business Monitor International * Canonbury Publishing * CDS Global * Cecile Park Publishing * Chemical Watch Research & Publishing * Complinet * Datamatics Financial Services * DMG World Media * Economist Intelligence Unit * E-Consultancy * Electric Word * Elsevier * Euromoney Institutional Investor * Global Water Intelligence * Incisive Media * Informa Healthcare * Informa Insurance * Informa Law * Informa Telecoms * Inside Mortgage Finance Publications * Institute of Physics Publishing * Journal of Applied Science & Technology * Kluwer Law International * Laurence Kay Solicitors * Lawrence Ragan Communications * Melcrum Publishing * Metal Bulletin * Morton Gregory * Nature Publishing Group * News on the Block * Outsell * PPA * Premier Print Group * Property Secrets * Publishing House Research * PureLabs * Rapport Learning * Report Buyer * Research Research * Response Consulting * Rightscom * Sunfish * Verlag fur die Deutsche Wirtschaft * Steven Voss * William Reed Business Media * Wordtracker * WorksSitebuilder

[Still waiting on registrations from some regular attendees - where are you Steel Business Briefing, CRU, Janes, Fleet St Publications, Campden Publishing, van Tulleken & Newseye?]