What 2020 Brought Media Publishers
2020 was a rough year to say the least. The pandemic threw everyone off stride and turned life upside down. The publishing industry was no exception. Publishers had to adapt to a fast-changing business environment. Here are just a few ways that 2020 impacted publishers.
In-Person Events to Digital Events
It probably comes as no surprise that the pandemic has been putting the kibosh on in-person publishing events. But that’s not slowing publishers down because they are moving their event business online.
Media companies canceled their upfronts, and industry conferences such as SXSW and Collision have been postponed or gone virtual. Other publishers, such as Protocol and the Texas Tribune, changed their in-person events to the digital variety.
And it looks like the digital events are here to stay for media publishers in 2021, as they are looking to use them to support their live event lineups.
Increase in Digital Advertising over Print Advertising
Digital advertising is expected to grow more than seven percent in 2021. It is the fastest growing medium, with about a 40 percent share of overall advertising spending.
There are several reasons for this. One big advantage with digital is that you set your own rates, unlike print media. You only pay for the number of eyeballs your ads pull in. So, you may implement $2,000 worth of ads, but if you only get $500 worth of clicks, you only pay $500.
With a print ad, on the other hand, you are paying the same amount whether 10 or 10,000 people look at the ad.
Another advantage of digital is that you can target your ad to the audience you want – age, gender, hobbies, even location. None of this is available with print.
Finally, with digital ads, you can track their performance. You can continuously edit the ad during your campaign, and you have access to a raft of statistics.
B2B Tech and Healthcare Publishers Holding Steady
There has been little change here, although medical publishing has been a fast-growing sector of the economy, valued at about $10 billion. This includes books, journals, online content, abstracts and indexes, and other activities. Revenue from online content has been edging ahead of books since 2018.
B2C Publishers Launching New Initiatives
These initiatives include things such as subscription conversion funnels, using eye-catching content and lead magnets to bring site visitors toward a subscription or purchase and building their email and subscriber databases.
Where Media Publishing is Going, in 2021 and Beyond
What does 2021 have in store? We think event management, digital marketing and advertising management are going to be key areas the publishing industry will be focusing on this year. And MagHub is ready to deliver in all three sectors.
Event Management
Consumers are looking for novelty. They want new experiences and activities. Publishers are delivering with such events as food and beverage tastings, concerts and dinners.
Planning an event? MagHub’s event management module makes it a snap, helping publishers through the entire process. Our module does it all, from soup to nuts – planning, creating a storefront, ticket sales and check-in for event goers.
What’s more, you can do all this without using third-party scanners. All you need is a mobile device and your MagHub login code. That’s it.
Our module gives you full access in your CRM to all of the information about the participants. This lets you follow up with participants, create customized drip marketing campaigns, and promote the next event.
Digital Marketing
With MagHub, you have the option to be fully integrated with HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales platform to help you attract people, manage leads and close sales. HubSpot supports the creation of content, social media sharing, workflow automation, capturing leads, managing customer relations, mapping sales pipelines, and tracking performance.
We predict that even print media in 2021 will start growing their digital marketing.
Google Ad Manager
We’ve improved MagHub’s integration with this platform, because it’s particularly useful for publishers who have a lot of direct sales. It gives you control over all aspects of your advertising. You are able to manage a number of different ad exchanges and networks, such as AdSense, Ad Exchange, third-party networks and third-party exchanges.
Ad Manager gives you a central location to monetize all of your different types of inventory – websites, mobile apps, videos or games. You can use it to manage large revenue streams from direct deals with buyers. And it enables you to use third-party networks to compete for ad inventory.
We’d love to introduce you to all the great features MagHub has to offer. Contact us for more information or to set up a real-time demonstration.