Digital/Multichannel .... 12
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DATABASE & CRM
As print declines, publishers dive into data
By Erin Dostal
Amid declining print maga- zine sales, some publishing companies are turning to
database and CRM solutions to drive
subscriptions.
Marketers at Meredith Corporation and Hearst Corporation agree
on the importance of knowing how to
reach prospects, the recency of the last
correspondence or transaction, and
customer responsiveness to various
marketing efforts. And if a title has a
niche focus such as weddings or babies,
key life events can help with customer
targeting, says Janet Donnelly, VP of
consumer marketing at Meredith.
Meredith, which publishes special
interest magazines like Better Homes
and Gardens, American Patchwork &
Quilting, and American Baby, uses a
Teradata Solution for its custom-
er databases. “The biggest initia-
tive we have here is migrating the
consumer online,” she says. “Once
we get consumers to subscribe online,
we have an immediate opportunity to
cross-sell and upsell them, too.”
Because of Meredith’s niche audi-
ence, there are usually additional titles
that complement a reader’s subscrip-
tion. Donnelly says there are events
in every woman’s life that affect her
interests—a pregnant woman might
want to read American Baby; a new ho-
meowner might want Better Homes and
Gardens. This information, which can
be gathered both online and offline, is
invaluable, she says.
Ultimately, about 41% of customers who subscribe to a Meredith title
online also take on a secondary subscription. “That’s big,” Donnelly says.
“Across all our brands, we’re bringing
in a lot of orders.” At the same time,
about 54% of customers who receive a
direct mail offer visited the title’s website. “That is phenomenal,” she says.
At Hearst Digital Media–which includes Equire.com, Cosmopolitan.
com, and ELLE.com–integrating data
on online and offline customer behavior is key, says Elyse Lindsey, the publisher’s executive director of marketing
and audience development. “It gives
us a more holistic view of a user who
comes to our website,” she says. “We’re
able to do a real-time lookup to see: Do
we know this person? And, if we do,
what do we know about them?”
Hearst Digital
Media uses data
to target specific ads to current
subscribers and
Internet search
visitors
90%
41%
$312M
50%
➜ Magazine sales in
2011 that came from
subscriptions—
The Association of
Magazine Media
➜ Meredith’s online
subscribers who also
subscribed to a second
title—Janet Donnelly,
Meredith
➜ Revenue from
magazines sold in
2011—The Association
of Magazine Media
The most important data point is
whether the customer is already a
Hearst subscriber. If a visitor to one
of Hearst’s Web properties arrives via
Internet search, Hearst might position
ads selling subscriptions; by contrast,
visitors with an existing subscription may see ads prompting them to
renew or purchase additional Hearst
products. Hearst uses a combination
of services and solutions from Acxiom,
e-Dialog, CDS Market Research, Ex-perian, Market Well, Jigyasa Analytics, and its own internal expertise.
Lindsey says that publishers ultimately don’t use CRM or databases
differently from retailers or other companies. “Whether a person is buying
a car, or a sweater, or a magazine subscription, the intention is the same,”
she says. “That is to collect as much
data from that user as possible, and to
make an experience that is rewarding
and relevant to them.”
Even general interest titles like
Newsweek reap similar benefits. For its
direct mail promotions, Newsweek uses
services from Worldata to measure
results and find its most responsive
segments, states acting circulation
director Charles Mast. “We’re definitely getting an increase in response,”
Mast says, though he declines to provide specific numbers. “The economics of that more than pays for the extra
step of doing the modeling.” n
➜ Meredith’s subscription orders expected
to come from online
sources by 2013—
Janet Donnelly, Meredith
