Publishers will grow quickly when they embrace an integrated multiplatform publishing system for audience, content and teams
Most multiplatform publishing companies didn’t start out as multiplatform, unless you consider the web their one and only secondary platform. However publishers are finding new ways to produce content for themselves and advertisers across, print, digital, and in-person (event) platforms, exactly where customers are requesting.
This year we’ve seen the boost in advertising dollars being spread around the industry, probably the biggest relief of 2015, and we think continuing the conversation on multiplatform sponsorship packages is a good idea. However our main theme of multiplatform publishing predictions for 2016 is integration.
As publishers continue to add additional platforms, one of the things we hear is they are frustrated with the number of systems they’ve invested in that don’t talk to each other, or don’t talk well. They are now beginning to prioritize integration—integrated audience databases, integrated content production and integrated organizational teams to reflect a true multiplatform experience.
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1. Integrated audience databases
Having 2-3 customer databases doesn’t allow a publisher to be efficient, so in order for them to be successful publishing on multiple platforms, they need an integrated system where each part talks to one another.
Publishers should be looking toward content management systems that also integrate customer relationships. Publishers will need to know when someone subscribed to their email newsletter, what other actions this subscriber has taken on their site and what products they’ve bought.
An integrated system will allow you to store all your prospect and customer information in one place, and track what they are doing. You can also capture and store all the communications, accounts, leads and sales opportunities. Multiplatform publishers can have complicated relationships with their customers who buy a subscription, multiple single products, events, and who can be leveraged to sponsors as leads. An integrated system will allow publishers to share all this information with the different parts of their organization so efforts are efficient and well-coordinated.
2. Integrated content production
In 2016, publishers will begin to see how foolish it is to rely on more systems to manage their content. Back even as recently as 2010 it was still understandable to be building your content platform as piecemeal, adding content management systems as you need them. However to be a more efficient multiplatform publisher, gone will be the days of a separate content management system for free content with a separate system for subscriptions, another for marketing automation, online learning programs, content marketing and social media, and some even use separate tools for landing page optimization. That exhaustion has to end, the collection of passwords and training manuals is exhausting. This inefficiency leads to an inability to repurpose content the way mutliplatform publishing requires. Integration is key.
3. Integrated organizational teams
Can you imagine building a house without a general contractor? Hiring the plumber, electrician and other specialists yourself, and then communicating between them? For some reason, publishers have spent a long time waiting to integrate their digital and print publishing teams. They’ve separated departments whose goals align, and much of the blame rests on the fragmented system I’ve talked about so far. Once audience databases and content production are together in one system and all members of the team are working in tandem with one another, publishers will find it’s a lot easier, and more profitable (time-wise, and money-wise).
The Mequoda Multiplatform Media Management System is a complex media management system (MMS) that empowers its users, operators and dozens of software applications to communicate and interact using the Internet, postal systems and other legacy media systems.
Haven Nexus includes 19 modules and more than 250 task managers, message templates, action trackers, marketing programs and analytic reports. It is fully integrated, documented and customized for every client, and fully maintained by an engineering team that understands the business goals supported by the system.
Haven Nexus is absolutely unique in the marketplace, and it is only available to Mequoda Gold Member clients. If you don’t have Haven Nexus, you don’t have a state of the art Mequoda System. If you’re ready for 2016 and exceeding our predictions, let’s chat.
