I wasn’t sure what to expect as a first time attendee at the Niche Digital Conference in Chicago, however, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the attendees, the quality of the content and the overall energy of the event.  Thematically, the conference spent a great deal of time educating publishers on effective ways to leverage their own unique content and generate additional sales opportunities.  In addition to this common topic of leveraging unique content, many further discussions also revolved around the impact of social media, the power of a consolidated audience database, the importance of leveraging multiple channels in sales and the emergence of marketing services.

The underlying message around the conversations was this inherent understanding that every publisher must establish new ways to expand their revenue stream by relying more on a diversified set of products and services rather than pure traditional advertising.  One of the keynote speakers stated, “In 2006, 98% of his revenue came from advertisements, advertisements that today had diversified down to just 66%.”  This statement stressed the importance of the altering publishing industry and highlighted the fact that publishers’ business models need to be altered to remain competitive.  Following this presentation, additional breakout sessions displayed case studies of sales people leveraging their resources to create an uptick in their revenue on a per client basis through offering unique services primarily driven through customized, multimedia content.

While the information was enlightening and valuable, I did not walk away with clear, comprehensive, actionable steps that I could execute upon, and I am under the assumption others in attendance feel the same way.  The sessions provided a wealth of ‘high-level ideas,’ however, time did not permit us to dive deep into the specific details–an aspect that is not uncommon for conferences.  I would like to say, however, the general session, including the keynote presentations were exceptional in content value compared to many others I have heard.  With that said, based on all the discussions, both formally and informally, these are the actionable steps I would take today to gain an edge in the evolving industry.

I would first begin with the implementation of a marketing services initiative.  Marketing services is the emerging discipline that encompasses all the potential service offerings publishers can deliver to clients to drive incremental revenue and diversify their abilities from their heavy reliance on traditional ad spend.  We understand this is not a simple initiative and are asked quite frequently to thoroughly explain the opportunities that exist, as well as the appropriate approach to getting started.  At KM, we are currently producing instructive content on this specific subject, and will also be speaking to this topic in our mid-October webinar.

What you can do right now to start your initiative is take inventory of your key internal assets that can be formalized into products and offered to your clients.  This can include custom content, access to your audience database, design services, lead generation and a host of other services.  Creating a detailed list of all the potential services you have allows you the ability to socialize your offerings across your organization to determine what can and cannot be delivered upon.

Secondly, after acquiring inventory of all assets and ideas, you need to dedicate resources to your initiative.  During the conference, a significant amount of the informal discussions included statements such as, “Yes, those were some good ideas, but everyone already has too much on their plate to actually {insert idea here}.”  What organizations ultimately lack is having a specific team assigned and held accountable to implementing the specific idea(s).   I understand that not every company has the level of resources and infrastructure to do this, but the general idea of assigning individuals on a dedicated basis is the correct concept.  My recommendation to publishers, particularly the niche publishers at the event, would be to identify a single individual internally that has a reputation and track record for driving new initiatives and can establish the organizational framework needed to successfully execute the program.

The last pressing thing you need to do is outline a specific project plan with milestones and measurable goals.  Once you have the strategy in place with clear ‘product offerings’ and appropriate resources dedicated to the project, the last step is creating a specific plan with highly relevant and attainable goals.  .  One of our clients, Advanstar, set out to execute their implementation.  They have the goal of building an integrated database in 90 days, in which they assigned an executive sponsor and project owner, coordinated and documented a detailed action plan and held everyone, including KM, accountable to the results.  By sticking to their objectives, Advanstar was able to achieve their goals in advance and experience an increase in their revenue stream.

I enjoy attending events to learn new ideas, but ultimately, I want to be able to implement them when I return.  Through my three step focused and committed approach, publishers can leverage the ideas from Niche Digital and other upcoming events to drive measured change within their organization.

We hope to see you all in LA this week at CircDayLa and then again at ABM Executive Forum and Folio MediaNEXT before the month ends!