Pageviews are a precious thing, and you should try not to waste them.
In today’s Strategy Spotlight, Don Nicholas, Chairman & CEO of Mequoda explains the goals of a “smart website” and why having one built by publishing veterans can help you avoid waste and chaos.
Quick Strategy Tip of the Day from Don
Imagine a website that has no idea what you’ve done in the past, what you’ve purchased, or what you’re currently subscribed to.
That right there is what you’ll find on 95% of sites on the internet. They don’t know who you are and what your relationship is with the brand. Because of this, their revenue conversion funnels are unoptimized, so they treat everyone the same way. And they fail miserably at monetizing new visitors and current subscribers.
Now imagine a system that is aware of every purchase, every relationship and response in real time while delivering the appropriate messages to the user. This could improve user engagement and certainly conversion. It’s like Cheers, where they feel known by the system and business. It also makes better use of ad inventory by serving the right ads to the right people.
So why aren’t developers more focused on these goals?
Because few developers think in terms of revenue goals, they think about design and functionality. It’s the old form over function conundrum. In an open source environment, you have a lot of freedom to innovate, which can be a good and bad thing. It allows unlimited freedom and innovation, but can also lead to chaos and waste.
Fortunately, almost every member of our executive team has been on the client-side at some point running major publishing brands and understand the revenue needs of a publisher because they’ve been one. I’ve been on the client side, running both national and regional brands, both B2B and B2C, so I know what challenges you face. That’s why we created a codebase to meet the needs of today’s publishers.
In 2016 we spent 30,000 hours working on and upgrading our Mequoda Haven CXMS. This is a software platform that is aggressively developed, maintained and upgraded by publishers who are all dedicated to using and improving the Mequoda methodology.
Last year, Haven became fully integrated with the industry’s largest fulfillment providers, including SFG, CDS Global, PCD, THINK and Recurly.
We also made several major upgrades to the system over the last year, including:
Haven Gate Metered Paywall Manager: Allows both unknown users and known users who are not current subscribers to view a limited number of magazine articles per calendar month.
Haven Gate Publications Manager: Manages online digital paid content. Allows the creation of a table of contents page for individual issues within a publication. Enables users to create a linear issue experience within an HTML magazine. Allows operator to easily add new magazine issues to the site.
Haven Republish Manager: Allows operator to repost content on a particular date and time. For instance, a blockbuster post from the previous year could be updated and then set to republish on a particular date, so that it appears on the front page of the portal but is never taken offline in between.
Haven Advanced Republish Manager: An enhancement to the original functionality, this adds a list of scheduled recycled posts to your dashboard.
Haven Ultra Subscriber Uploader: Allows operators to upload users in bulk to the system. Can be used to subscribe users to newsletters (or not), confirm users automatically or with double opt in, and allow for customization of welcome emails and subject lines for both new users and existing users.
Haven Ultra Registration Manager: Allows publisher to accept new registration on the first page within an ad without a second data collection page. Also allows user login with email address and password rather than username and password with custom registration and login forms and allows operator access to registration email content.
Haven Auto Segments Manager: Updates custom fields in the email management system when user views pages on the website. Tracks last date/time user views a page for a specific topic. Enables targeted email messages based on topic of page views.
Haven URL Modifier: Allows the creation and maintenance of SEO-optimal URLs, independent of the taxonomical hierarchy of the content itself.
Haven SMS Text Manager: Users can request to receive text notifications on premium products. Allows you to send text messages to users who have opted in for particular products.
Haven Gate Entitlement Manager: Grants entitlements to user following product purchase depending on product type purchased (web, tablet).
When you become a Mequoda client, you’re joining a braintrust of some of the smartest publishers and direct marketers on the planet.
Other software developers aren’t led by publishers who have worked with the country’s largest organizations like Time Inc, Rodale and Meredith. There’s simply experience and perspective here that is unmatched.
Join an elite group of publishers who decided the only way to get what they want is to build it. Learn more about our Mequoda Haven CXMS, the only customer experience management system built by publishers for publishers. Schedule a call today with us to chat.
