SIPA Munchen - Interview with me:-)
21-Feb-2010 by Florin Campeanu
Tags: SIPA Munchen - Interview with me:-), marketing, online marketing, Twitter, market, technology
Florin Campeanu: If someone is telling you what 100% could works on digital media, please ignore him or her. He or she knows absolutely nothing about new technologies or online marketing strategies. There is only one way to discover what works in this new publishing business model: test! What works in US could be a disaster on the German markets, what works in Poland could be a catastrophe in Bulgaria. We've learned we have to test everything. Formats, prices, Internet marketing channels. And when it works, we test it again to find always the best for us. Online is the new religion. If you're not in, you don't exist. Period.
SIPA Munchen: We know that technology is transforming the information business, and with it the content and marketing options. But who is buying information online and in what forms? Most importantly, how do we reach those customers and how can we convince them to buy digital content?
Florin Campeanu: Even if it's hard to believe, people do change. When people find a new efficient way to discover specialized information, they immediately adopt this new way. New technologies changed irreversible the information business. Old newspapers switch online, newsletters and Loose Leaf Services move entirely electronic (pdf) or online. The number of buyers of the "traditional" format is decreasing even in the second you read these words. We live in a "quickly world" so, the Internet is the best way to deliver information. Specialized Information. The formats don't matter if the information is valuable. Website, blogs, portals, special reports, pdf books. Our prospect clients are online, so we have to be online in order to reach them. How can we convince them to buy digital content? Being how we was on print: professionals.
SIPA Munchen: If you want your content to be found online, you must learn to work with Google. What are, in your opinion, the challenges and the threats?
Florin Campeanu: Google really changed the world. And I mean the entire world, not only the Internet world. Developing a strategy, an online strategy, without thinking at Google, is similar to start a trip in the Sahara desert without water. Google is simple, that's the reason is so powerful. Your Google strategy has to be simple, too. If you want your content to be found online, you have to be RELEVANT. The challenges: being relevant. The threats: being irrelevant. In between you'll find: keywords, unique content, Page Rank, links, site structure, title, meta and domain name.
SIPA Munchen: What do you believe are the biggest challenges facing the publishing industry today?
Florin Campeanu: Challenges are good, challenges take us out of routine... The biggest challenge? Transitioning from print to online. It's obvious, print started to be history. Both marketing and editorial. E-book readers seems to be the future. At least for now. And iPads. That's the challenge: how to pass from print to online (or electronic versions), increasing the number of subscribers and, of course, increasing the profit.
SIPA Munchen: How do you see technology impacting publishing over the next 5 years? What does the publishers' future look like?
Florin Campeanu: I'll answer asking you another question: how do you see the publishing sector without technology over the next month, not over the next 5 years? The Romantic Era of publishing is ended. Writing a copy, making a good order form, a nice envelope and a great teaser is not enough anymore... If you think you can survive and progress without Landing Pages, SEO, AdWords or Portals, then you have to be prepared for going to bankruptcy very soon. Now publishers have to face a new challenge. We have to learn technical things like CTR or CPC. If we don't accept we have to change quickly, we have no chance. But, on the other hand, the new technology is what we missed to pass to the next step. We can get more subscribers, we can get more money, and we can develop our businesses. We have just to be prepared.
SIPA Munchen: Which Internet marketing tools have proven to be the most effective ones in your experience?
Florin Campeanu: If a publisher wants to make its first steps on the Internet Marketing "field", I have two ideas for him or her: Search Engine Optimization and E-mail Marketing Strategy. There are thousands of articles about SEO, so saying something more is obsolete. One single sentence: don't invest money in SEM, especially AdWords, without having a SEO strategy that works. The best Internet Marketing Tool is the... e-mail address. We created our online strategy around the e-mail. This is something I've learned from the Agora people. I remember the Andrew Palmer and Brian York's presentation, about 8 years ago on this matter, and the strategy was never more actual. An effective e-mail marketing tool, like My E-Campaigns (the tool we use) is mandatory for a publisher. The editor of an e-letter has just to insert the content, the images and the ads - in few minutes - and has just to follow what's happen. Is that simple. Having a complete report, including the opening rate but, most important, the map of the clicks made by each subscriber, the decision is very simple to made. Yes, if I think once again, this E-Mail Marketing Tool helped us to boost our online sales.
SIPA Munchen: What do social media tools like Twitter mean for publishing?
Florin Campeanu: Social media... Good question! I like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and I like the new Google "tool": Buzz, but from this feeling to monetize these tools for our business is a long way. We tried Twitter from the very beginning, but we still can make a direct connection between our followers and our... bank accounts. Twitter works well to increase traffic on online projects. But you have to choose very well these projects, because otherwise, this traffic is not "qualified" and you do a lot of work for nothing. So, to answer the questions, it's quite hard to use Twitter to increase the sales of Taxes and Duties or Labor Law newsletters or Loose Leaf Services...
SIPA Munchen: Does digital publishing automatically mean mobile publishing as well?
Florin Campeanu: Definitely. iPhone, BlackBerry, HTC are "keywords" which define our publishing future. And this is just the beginning. Some publishers realized this future is very close, being even present, so they decided to invest money and energy in this mobile publishing concept. I really think this is the winner card! We experience difficult times in our businesses, so the most important thing is to adapt. We have to offer the same specialized information more quickly, in a second if it's possible. Mobile publishing can do that. If you don't do it, you can be out of this business by night.
More information about SIPA Munchen HERE.
Posted in Articole,
E-@ltfel Romania |
Print |
Twitter posts
Flux RSS