SIPA Online Forums Give Members the Chance to Ask, Learn and Get Together
More good discussions from the SIPA online forums.
On reminding subscribers of their purchase
Since [our subscription is] a relatively high-priced product, we send a genuine leather binder with info they can use—by priority mail. This has enough value and is embossed with our Website, so that it sits on their desks. We started sending postcards to subscribers featuring some of our content (usually cartoons) and, since the industry is so small, occasionally place a call to ask what they’re using.
On the balance between marketers and IT people
…his biggest complaint [concerns] marketing ideas that aren’t fully baked and emergency projects. I think those are common complaints. The question is how to get past that, because it’s not likely to change. And it’s not always the marketer’s fault. Sometimes the CEO tells some marketer to go get something done, and neither the CEO nor the marketer knows the technical requirements. The marketer goes to IT and they get mad at him because the idea is half-baked.
On pop-ups
There are two sides on the pop-up discussion, those who think they are a very useful tool that help to increase traffic or increase sales, and others who think they drive traffic away. As our business leaders change, our company position on Website pop-ups tends to flip-flop. If we are using pop-ups, we stop using them; if we aren’t using them, we start using them… It seems most people I talk to simply have a hunch and go with it but I have never seen a full analysis of the effect they have on Website usage.
A dispatch from this week’s SIPA UK Conference
Does your order form work on the iPhone (and other cell phones)? Would you try to order your products on your cellphone? This may be a more important technological capability than a new app. More people have cellphones than iPads or access to iTunes (several people quoted the statistic that only 3% of cellphones are iPhones).
A call for help
Anyone using WordPress? Can you send me a link to your Website so I can cross reference some different samples. (Help soon arrived.)
[text_ad]
And the formation of a group
There was a great roundtable session at SIPA 2010 run by Brad Forrister about how publishers are approaching the thorny issue of integration between systems, to achieve greater efficiency and serve customers better. And in particular, really interested to hear how a number of publishers are starting to use Drupal for CMS and Salesforce for CRM and attempting to integrate the two. This is such a hot topic, I wonder whether there is general interest to form a special SIPA group to continue benchmarking and sharing knowledge about what’s working. Anyone interested in getting something under way? Nothing too techy, just an exchange of information from a layman’s perspective.
(Response was excellent and a conference call will soon take place.)
One of the most helpful of SIPA’s many membership benefits, SIPA Online Forums contain no less than seven separate discussion threads: Electronic Publishing (SIPAElecPub); Editorial (SIPAEdit); Marketing (SIPAMktg); Fulfillment/Operations (SIPAFulfillment); Conferences (SIPAConference); Information Technology; (SIPAIT); and Large Publishers (BIGPUB).
If you are a member, join up now. (It’s free!) If you’re not, then consider what you are missing. (You must become a regular member to enjoy these benefits.) You can have an audience of experts at your disposal, 24/7!
Happy Bastille Day!
– Ronn Levine
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SIPA 2010 Annual International Conference
Digital Audio Archives
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