SIPA UK Blog

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.

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.

How to screw up massively - Web 2.0 Style

It's not cool, it's not clever, it's simply one of the most ridiculous, pointless defences to have emerged so far.

The Associated Press are undoubtedly, "Old Media Douchebags"

1 simple question

Do you believe that one day all content will be free?

(respond in the comments section below)

I think the second shot may have been a mistake

But this morning's bacon sandwich was a stroke of genius.

Last night's SIPA marketing networking group was a success on many fronts. It was still going strong at 11pm when I took an executive decision to leave the kids to it.

We had three excellent speakers on the night - who inspired me to take a close look at our email marketing. Any marketer who does not get stupidly excited about being able to see what your customers are doing, be it through open rates, click throughs or conversion to order, is in the wrong job.

Everyone who came along will get a full copy of the presentations, for everyone else - here are the best email marketing tips from Sean Hayes, Sara Baugh and Paul Crabtree of Incisive Media, Electric Word and Adestra.

What your reports tell you

• So you think you know people because they filled in a form? You don't. Track what people do, what they read, why they buy - not what they say they do
• Buying in 3rd party email lists is a false economy; if you have to use this method - never lease names as response declines faster than the level in Sean's pint

Email marketing as art and science

• Surprise your readers; a news alert that always comes from the brand pulled £35k when it was sent from the editor (with a chatty, informal holiday style)
• Test religiously. Electric Word do and they get 40% open rates. Enough said.
• Do your editors write your news alert subject lines? Think you can do better? Do an editorial vs marketing split subject line test - Electric Word did and guess who won. Yep. Marketing every time.
• A show of hands showed that we all do things we know we shouldn't - to make it clear, in B2B leading with FREE, SALE or any offer led copy will diminish response -whatever your market. Always. Without fail.
• Headlines maketh the email - don't stop at a great subject line. If you want some great examples, sign up for Electric Word's newlines and read.
• There is no such thing as too many testimonials, especially if you use them as a block - they can lift response (orders) by 18%+
• Send your customers short surveys asking for testimonials and use them everywhere!

Rip up the research. Watch your customers and competitors instead

• When should you send your emails? When your customers are naturally responsive - look at your web stats over 3 months and your customers will tell you when they are in information mode
• A classic publishing trick is to have your magazine land on people's desks before your competitor - do you do the same things with your news alerts
• Do you send your news alert the same time every week. And why is that? Check those web trends and find out if 4pm Friday really is when your customers are online and looking to be interrupted

Watch this space for details of the next networking group. We'll be meeting in August for more practical take-aways and I suspect more beers/shots/cocktails.

Everyone who attends gets the full presentations and a complimentary hangover - so don't miss out. Come along and better still volunteer to present the best things you have done this year. Even where we compete, we are all in this together and SIPA is all about raising standard across the industry.

Please email me or Karen Hindle at uksipa@btconnect.com join the group, speak and to suggest topics.

Louise

SIPA UK Congress 2008

SIPA UK ANNUAL CONGRESS 2008
- the 14th annual conference for specialised information publishers
8-9 July 2008
The Tower Hotel, St Katherine's Way, London E1W 1LD

We're back! Many apologies for the brief hiatus on the SIPA UK blog - day jobs and all that..

You'll be glad to know that your committee haven't all been slacking. We've been working on the best ever programme for the SIPA UK Annual Congress. If you haven't already done so please register to attend and make sure you bring along colleagues, friends, relatives, pets.. anyone who is interested in the world of specialised publishing.

Full programme details can be found here. A few of the highlights:

• David Worlock, Chief Research Fellow at Outsell Inc., will give delegates and overview of the major trends affecting the b2b specialist publishing industry
• Tim Weller, Group CEO and Founder at Incisive Media, will explain why publishing 'narrow and deep' is the route to success for publishers
• Mark Ragan, CEO at Lawrence Ragan Communications in the US, will give a case study on the transition of a print publishing business online
• Nic Laight, MD at Canonbury Publishing, will tell us the story of how he was questioned about suspected money laundering when an e-mail campaign drove over £1m of orders in just 2 weeks
• Hugh Look, Senior Consultant at RightsCom, will explore the future of paid content in the revenue mix for publishers
• John Whitaker, Online Business Development Manager at DMG World Media, gives a case study on how to exploit your digital assets
• Grace Baynes, Corporate PR Planner at Nature Publishing Group, will explain how the Nature Network social platform was launched
• Richard Londesborough, MD at Business Monitor International, spotlights why site licences should become the most profitable and durable part of your business
• Ken McGaffin, CMO at Wordtracker, explains how keywords can be a rich source of creative ideas and help help you put firm strategies behind your search engine marketing efforts.

... there are many more influential and knowledgeable speakers throughout the day and delegates have the chance to tailor their attendance based on interest areas with breakout sessions, round-tables and discussion forums.

On the 8th July, the day before the main congress, SIPA will also be hosting 2 half day round-table discussion forums.

Senior Marketers Discussion Forum led by Louise White, Group Marketing Director, Incisive Media and Caroline Frost, Group Marketing Director, Informa Healthcare

Publishers Discussion Forum led by Lindsey Grieg, MD at Cecile Park Publishing

I would urge senior marketers and publishers to make the effort to attend these optional half days. They will be highly interactive and you will get to set the agenda with your peers from around the industry.

Finally, there will also be a small exhibition area at the congress featuring key suppliers including: Datamatics Financial Services; Adestra; Ant Marketing; Premier Print Group; WorksSiteBuilder; Abacus E-Media; AI Digital & PureLabs. There are a few remaining sponsorship and exhibit opportunities for any companies interested.

All details of the programme, sessions, speakers, awards programme (forgot to mention that earlier..), drinks receptions etc can be found here.

We expect some 200 people to attend the SIPA Congress and I very much hope you will join us. Phone Karen Hindle on 020 8288 7415 or e-mail uksipa@btconnect.com for any further information.

Look forward to seeing you in July.



Rory Brown, Incisive Media, UK SIPA Chairman and Congress Chair.

"Up to the minute, thought-provoking content delivered by speakers who know exactly what they're talking about"
Emma Warren-Jones, Marketing Director, Informa Healthcare

"A superb day, laden with value, practical advice and expertise - worth every penny"
Michael Smith, Marketing and Business Development Director, Kogan Page.

6 media blogs you could be reading

The B2B industry has never been well covered by the mainstream press but with the rise of blogging there are now some great, thought provoking sites to read. Here are 6 I read every now and again:

Paid Content

Publishing 2.0

Faster Forward

Paul Conley

B or not 2B

Asia Business Media

Anyone got any others they follow? Leave a message below.

Rory Brown, Incisive Media

Which magazines do you still read in hard copy?

I recently moved office. No great drama but so much stuff...

As I was packing up I realised it fell into 3 main categories:

a) Bits of random clothing (I think it was mostly mine...) **

b) 'Swipe files' full of good ideas to nick from competitors

& c) A load of unopened magazines.

It was then that it dawned on me, I had all but stopped reading the magazines.

So, how was I getting the information that I used to read in Marketing, Marketing Week, New Media Age, Revolution, dare I say it Hotline or any of the other titles that I used to consume so avidly? It's not quite as simple an answer as you might expect.

Initially I had switched to e-mail newsletters and Google alerts. I had set up a webmail account and used to scan it a couple of times each week to see if anything interesting was happening. Now, that webmail account is only rarely visited. 90% of my information comes from RSS feeds on a personalised Google homepage and the way in which they draw me back to key sites.

And your point, Rory, is?

I did a quick scan through a few publishers sites at lunchtime today. Very few seem to be implementing RSS effectively and making it easy to sign up. I would say that the Euromoney site was probably the exception with a big feature on the middle of the homepage encouraging sign up. Nice.

All too often when I visited sites RSS options were hidden away or made really difficult to sign up for. I don't know about you but I cannot believe how many sites I still visit where I want to sign up for a feed but when I click I am faced with a screen full of code - what's that all about? Make it easy for your users with a clear label and list all the chicklet buttons (Add to Google etc.). Watch your feed traffic grow.

I'd be interested to hear others thoughts about how they consume media. Which business related magazines do you still read regularly? Leave a comment below.

Rory Brown, Managing Director, Incisive Media

** I suspect I'm not alone on the strange office moves stakes. I saw one colleague pack a huge orange crate up and stick a label on the side saying Fragile - Champagne and Shoes. Naming no names but some of you might be able to guess...

Blogs & Social Media Forum

Yesterday the newly acquired VNU division of Incisive Media hosted our 2nd Blogs & Social Media Forum. It was a fantastic event which, unfortunately, I only managed to stay for the morning of.

Some of the key takeaways for me were:

1) The use of blogging and social media technology within all of our businesses is no longer a 'nice to have' or a whizzy geeky add on. Blogs are mainstream communication channels and when used properly can generate significant marketing and search exposure.

2) The prevalence and reach of blogs will continue to put pressure on paid content. One of my colleagues in the US always uses the phrase that content 'wants to be free'. The new waves of citizen journalism and efficient distribution mechanisms mean that it is increasingly hard to compete on (and charge for) news.

3) Embracing blogs, social media and user generated content means giving up large elements of control. This is a very uncomfortable things for larger corporates to do - especially when they are public companies. The view of the panelists was that you had to accept mistakes will be made and content will be posted that you'd prefer wasn't.

4) The software to implement some of this technology is cheap. The Economist were using a service called Pluck. It was the same service that USA Today had implemented in a fundamental revamp of how their news was displayed. Look at the way in which they embed personalisation, recommendation and feedback into every element of their new site.

One final point made by Ben Edwards, the Publisher of Economist.com was that in order to get momentum behind blogs an element of compulsion was important. He set minimum posting guidelines for everyone on the team who contributed - maybe a lesson for us here at SIPA UK?

Rory Brown, Incisive Media.

Reporting live from Washington

Well, OK, not quite live, but I am in Washington and still a-live after wandering the streets trying to find my hotel late last night after a sumptuous SIPA speakers' dinner with a Southern flavour.

Yesterday was day one of the 30th International Specialized Information Publishers' Association. Not only is attendance the highest for a number of years, if not ever, at over 625 delegates from around the world. Including, what seems like half of Germany. But the program looks better than ever.

Tip of the hat goes to our sister site, the new official SIPA blog. Nice to see our American cousins finally catching up with their European counterparts!

More soon from your Washington correspondent.

Robin.