Publishing trends - a move online

If the spate of articles about new or newish marketing tools such as social networking sites is to be believed then the traditional world of print could be in terminal decline. It is a topic discussed in earlier blogs. A recent research report from isubscribe.co.uk again highlighted declining advertising revenues for magazine publishers, but then we are in the depths of a major recession so it is not that surprising. Talking to publishers in the industrial magazine market the advertising sales people required no persuasion to hold the same space prices as for several years past - big discounts on rate cards - so may be they would have settled for even less. Another interesting indicator is the start of charging for press releases published on web sites, perhaps a recognition that readers are migrating from the printed to online page. At one time, many years ago now press releases were selected by the editor, suitably edited and printed as news. Indeed, at an even earlier time articles were commissioned and paid for - a useful source of bonus income for a young product manager in the early 70s. Then came the era of so called colour separation charges a fee allegedly based on the extra cost involved in producing colour filmwork. This charge was sold as a "colour separation fee" long after the publishing technology had moved on, remaining in the space sales vocabulary, its origins long forgotten and often unknown by the young sellers. More recently the rationale for a fee has been justified on the grounds that far more press releases are received than can be published.  Somewhere along the line the division between editorial integrity publishing genuine news and selling the space disappeared and in many trade magazines the difference between display advertising and editorial content no longer exists. Of course if as they say too much news is received then more pages could  be printed, but the advertising revenue does not support that.  The following is directly quoted (including spelling) from a publisher in response to receipt of a press release and the publisher's eagerness to print the news if only we pay. "This (the charge) is because we receive many more press releases than we can possibly afford to publish and this option allows us to inlcude material from those that want the guarantee of publication." It continues to list charges per word, for publishing photos and an annual fee to place news on the web site. Perhaps little wonder then that smart marketers are busy exploiting free channels and moving into blogs, Facebook and Twitter while they remain both popular and free.

Is Inbound marketing the future?

A recent article by HubSpot suggested that marketing budgets are typically 90% outbound marketing and 10% inbound marketing and that the ratio should be flipped. OK, so what are outbound and inbound marketing?  

 Outbound marketing in short is the traditional approach - putting out messages to target audiences through advertising, e-mails, mail shots, exhibitions and all the other marketing tools. The article argues that not only is the average person subjected to 2,000  marketing interruptions a day, but has figured out means of blocking or filtering some of  them. For example Sky+ allows a TV programme to be viewed and advertisements skipped. Spam filters reject e-mail messages. You can sign up to opt out of mail shots and telephone cold calling. There are even street signs advising that you are in a "No cold calling area". So yes messages get filtered, but a lot gets through. So how about inbound marketing, how does that work and should 90% of the marketing budget be spent on it?  

I bought a new style of mousetrap at the weekend and was reminded of the Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation, " build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." OK - so how does the world know you have a better mousetrap then? Well the conventional approach would be to send outbound messages, the inbound approach seems to advocate hanging out where people are looking for mousetraps. And it is probably not in the High Street anymore, but an out of town shopping mall or superstore, or of course the Internet. And hanging out on the Internet increasingly is about compelling and relevant content and social networking to encourage the target audience to come to you - in short they beat a path to your door. Sounds great!

Do businesses Twitter?

Much has been written in marketing circles recently about not just the remarkable growth of Facebook and Twitter but how these are now essential business marketing tools. I have so far  refrained from commenting on either as immediately relevant to the B-2-B marketing space, but two communications received  today are worth noting. A business-to -business forum unhesitatingly claims, "It's time to finally engage social media for all it's worth". Topics include"Integrating social media into your marketing mix", " Developing online communities that increase customer loyalty" and " What will social media do for my business". Meanwhile Engineering & Technology's E&T magazine devoted two pages to Twitter mentioning high profile users such as Barack Obama.  Twitter with its 140 character "tweets" to tell people what you are doing lends itself to headlines and news flashes which seems to be what the New York Times offers and of course the self styled citizen reporters. It also offers a channel for the trivial as well. Described as micro blogging it is more akin to sending SMS messages, but to all your contacts or followers. And here really is the issue - Twitter's "followers" and "Facebook's" friends - who are they  and how do you get them on board? They need to be your customers and prospects in your target audience to be of value.

Both Facebook and Twitter offer potentially useful tools that are in popular use, further channels to communicate information to and receive feedback from your target audience but as with other media their inclusion within the marketing mix should follow marketing principles. Unlike printed publications who offer access to their readership, with social media building the readership of followers and friends is your job. So although the tools are free, the awareness well established it still requires a commitment in time to build the audience, create content and importantly to respond when appropriate. 

Back to basics

The flow of informative articles landing in the inbox has reached a torrent as discussions on whether or not to tweet, how to blog and speculation about the latest Google algorithm are joined by exhortations to keep on  marketing in the recession with offers of marketing webinars, free tools and white papers. During recessions the accountants assume more importance than in more prosperous times and demand cuts. Marketing is of course an easy target. Cutting budgets doesn't have the nastiness, legal repercussions and redundancy packages associated with cutting staff, not to mention the ugly scenes and bad press that inevitably follow. So stop advertising then. Next look at the underperforming products and discontinue those making the smallest contribution and while about it why not cut back on stock too. So we have a lean company, costs all trimmed back and ready to survive the recession. But what do customers and prospects see. A company that has lost visibility in the industry, offers a limited product range - probably the same as everyone else - have annoyingly stopped making the specialist products they require occasionally and to top it all they are expected to wait for delivery. So the customer loyalty is put to the test and it is time to shop around. The chairman of a company I worked for used to respond to accountants with cost cutting plans with an anecdote about the owner of a sweet shop. In those days a sweet shop kept sweets in jars behind the counter - several shelves of them - and the shop keeper weighed them out in scales, tipped them into a paper bag and tied it of with a flourish. His shop keeper decided to reduce stock, so each week he removed the jar that sold the least. Gradually the shelves lined with jars emptied and gradually his shop emptied of customers, because he had missed the point. Part of the shopping experience was the choice and even if most customers predictably bought wine gums or mints, they could spend a few happy moments debating a more exotic option before settling on the old favourite. Once the choice was gone, so were they - off to a shop where they could indulge in this harmless pleasure. So it is not so much about cutting marketing, but marketing smarter and that might even cost more.