Mequoda 3C Zone Architecture Increases Email Capture Rates by 21X

If you feel like your email capture rates are low, then they probably are

Consistent channel conversion zone architecture (3c), when applied to a publishing website, is a fancy way of saying that every channel (or portal topic) consistently aligns with a product that converts the user into a subscriber or paid user of your website. Together, they create what we call a zone. Using this zone to increase website to email conversion rates can be easy, if you let it. This metric is called your email capture rate.

Across all Mequoda client sites, the average site-wide email capture rate is 2.1%. Compare that to the industry average, which is less than .1 percent. That means that on average, 2.1% of visitors who visit a site designed with 3C zone architecture in mind will submit their email address.

Why?

• We make it a rule to always give something back in return, like an ebook, white paper, video, or even a free knitting pattern (the same architecture without incentives sees a 50 percent drop in capture rate from 2 down to 1 percent).
• We promote these freebies contextually.

Let me explain, using Mequoda.com as an example.

A channel for us is a Portal category, like Multiplatform Publishing Strategy. When you look at the Portal category page that lists all of our multiplatform publishing strategy Portal posts, you’ll find an ad (we call it an OFIE) for a related free report called How to Increase Audience, Revenue and Profits with Multiplatform Publishing.

And if you click on any article links on the category page above, you’ll get an article. On this article page, you’ll find an OFIE ad for the free report again at the top. In the middle of the article, you’ll find an inline text ad for the report again.

On every page that we write specifically about multiplatform publishing, there’s a related offer for our free report on the same topic. It’s consistent across our entire multiplatform publishing channel — you will never read a post about multiplatform publishing that doesn’t promote the report, unless you’re logged in. Once you’re an email subscriber and logged in, you stop seeing the ads.

For magazine publishers with premium products to sell, the process is a little different. Instead of disappearing, these ads change from free products to paid products and subscriptions once a user has signed up for an email newsletter and logs in.

For a live example, the article you are reading right now is an audience development article, so you’re going to get our text ad below if you’re not logged in, and you’ll see an OFIE ad for our audience development report at the top of the article.

[text_ad]

Since these OFIE ads are meant to convert search and social website visitors into email subscribers, when someone comes to our site on a keyword like multiplatform publishing, they’re more likely to convert than if we gave them an ad for something less related like our our How to Use Contrast Pricing to Increase Subscription Revenue report which gets promoted in our Subscription Website Publishing channel. That’s why we define each Portal topic as a channel and make sure that we create a related product for each channel. Then we consistently promote that product in the channel.

This results in higher conversions; about 21X better conversions on average.

All of our channels (Portal categories) are set up exactly the same. We have four major categories on our website, and four freebies.

• Multiplatform Publishing Strategy articles promote our How to Increase Audience, Revenue and Profits with Multiplatform Publishing report.
• Digital Magazine Publishing articles promote our What Consumers Want from Digital Magazines and How to Meet Their Needs report.
• Subscription Website Publishing articles promote our How to Use Contrast Pricing to Increase Subscription Revenue report.
• Audience Development Strategy articles promote our How to Increase Your Audience and Decrease Your Marketing Budget report.

If you look at any of our clients, you’ll see that they’re using the same system to convert visitors into subscribers.

• At Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, the category Business Negotiations, and articles in it, like Negotiation Skills: Four Steps for Changing Negotiation Practices in Your Organization, promote their free Business Negotiation Strategies: How to Negotiate Better Business Deals free report.
• At Yankee’s New England Today, articles like Blue-Ribbon Deep-Dish Apple Pie automatically promote their aligned free Best Apple Recipes: Easy Desserts with Apples, Best Apples for Apple Pie, Our Favorite Apple Turnover Recipe, and More! download.
• At Countryside, articles in the Poultry category like Raising Geese and Ducks on Pasture automatically promotes their aligned Hardy and Economical… Are Geese for You? free report.

The final stage of this zone conversion architecture is a Rapid Conversion Landing Page. This is the page where the user finally submits their email address, and every free report has one. All text ads link to a RCLP.

Consistent. Channel. Conversion. You will convert more visitors to your website by promoting related products and giving them away for free in exchange for an email address. Email is still the currency of the web. Treat your subscribers well, and they are more likely to convert into buyers than from any other source.

As a multiplatform magazine, your content, audience development and revenue teams, through the metrics of organization, technology & measurement, will continually build and improve. And if you work with us, you can do that with complete confidence that you’ll succeed. In the end, you increase value to your stakeholders, and also to investors, talent or potential acquirers – because everyone wants to be associated with an organization with popular content and that’s financially successful. Want to work with us? Schedule a time to chat.