Monthly Archives: November 2009

A B2B Perspective on Paywalls

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Because asking readers to pay for content has not been the norm in the B2B world, the recent debate over paywalls for newspapers hasn’t inspired much B2B-specific comment. Today, though, a post by UK trade journalist Adam Tinworth takes an interesting look at the topic from a B2B perspective.

The occasion for Tinworth’s commentary was a column in the Guardian by journalism professor Tim Luckhurst called “Why Journalism Needs Paywalls.” With an argument like “it’s time to admit that giving away value undermines democracy,” Luckhurst makes an easy target. So what’s most interesting to me about Tinworth’s demolition job is not the case he makes against paywalls, but the limited one he indirectly makes in favor of them.

Tinworth works for Reed Business Information, which has historically built a business on both controlled-circulation trade books and subscription-based information services. His positioning of paywalls in the B2B context reflects this background:

“I’m not suggesting that paywalls don’t have a place in publishing businesses. After all, I work for a publisher that makes more than half its revenue online—and some of that is generated by paywalls. But the path to that point has taught us many things about making money online, and one of those is that just shoving traditional content online is not the way to go—especially if you’re going to stick a paywall around it. Indeed, I find it amusing that I spend half my week helping build free-to-air content around a very successful paywalled site, just as others are getting rid of free content.”

What’s important about this perspective for B2B publishers is that paywalls are not rejected, but simply properly placed along the continuum from commodity content to high-value information. As I’ve argued before on this blog, paywalls can be an important component of a trade publisher’s revenue strategy.

Given the predominantly all-or-nothing tone of the paywall debate, it’s refreshing to see a balanced view like Tinworth’s—and gratifying that it comes from a B2B journalist.

B2B Blog Posts of the Week: The Turkey in the Room

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TurkeyThanksgiving week in the States is never very productive for the B2B work world, and that appears equally true for B2B bloggers. While some tried to ignore the elephantine turkey in the room, others attempted, mostly in vain, to make the holiday pertinent to their usual subject matter. By mid-week, it was clear that we all just wanted to start chowing down. Nonetheless, a few notable posts stood out.

The Convergence of Content Marketing and B2B Publishing?: “Creating Interest vs Providing Solutions,” Dan Blank, Publishing, Innovation, and the Web, 11/22/09.

The estimable Dan Blank of the archetypal B2B publisher RBI, né Cahners, has made what I believe is a Radical Suggestion, if I’m interpreting him correctly. It’s an impressively argued piece, but at such a high level of abstraction that one longs for a concrete example or two.

In the absence of specifics, I have to read a certain amount into what Blank is saying. But his argument appears to be that the dissemination of content, no matter how interesting or popular, isn’t enough—publishers also need to sell solutions that go beyond content. In other words, just as content marketers (i.e., advertisers) are now competing with traditional publishers, publishers should be competing with them (or, in some cases, partnering with them) by selling similar products or services. What once would have been heresy is now innovative thinking.

Or do I have it wrong? I suggest that you judge for yourself—if his web host hasn’t accidentally deleted his blog again.

You Didn’t Have to Be There, Quite: “Highlights from SIPA’s Online Marketing and Publishing Summit last week,” Rory Brown, Rory Brown’s Blog, 11/23/09.

While it sounds like an event not to be missed, those of us who did should thank Rory Brown for a concise summary of the publishing and marketing summit put on by the UK branch of the Specialized Information Publishers Association. (The November 19 event in London was also covered by Neil Thackray here and here. )

Of particular note, evidently, was a presentation by David Cushman on “A New Era for Specialist Media” explaining how “the internet-powered long tail of demand is a disaster for traditional broad mass-media models but a huge opportunity for specialists.” (Cushman’s presentation was also cited in Dan Blank’s post.)

It Really Works, Maybe: “Companies Engaging in Social Media Have Higher Financial Performance,” Morgan Polotan, HubSpot, 11/25/09.

If the report Polotan cites is to believed, there is indeed ROI for companies heavily involved in social media. But maybe not because of the social media. The point, he says, is “simply that those companies who are highly engaged in social media also have superior financial performance when compared to their peers.”

Hug Your Followers: “Are your arms too long?,” Brian Courtney, B2B Marketing Blog, 11/25/09.

Last week I noted that “Increasingly, B2B means P2P (person-to-person).”  To  be more accurate, B2B has always been about personal relationships, as Brian Courtney points out in his post. The value of social media is that it can enhance that element of B2B commerce and communications—if you use it appropriately.

Courtney makes the case that bloggers for B2B companies need to loosen up when it comes to social media if they want to make the most of it.

“Social media demands not only transparency, but authenticity. And while guidelines for blogging and other social media activities are fine – in fact, needed – I’ve never seen regulations that excluded personality.”

As Courtney concludes, an arm’s length approach to social media just won’t work.

B2B Posts of the Week: The Fate of Print, FTC, and Video

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This week saw more discussion of the future of trade publications, helpful guidance on the FTC blogging guidelines, and a tale of two videos.

Reports of Death Exaggerated: “How Trade Publications Can Capitalize on Content Marketing and Social Media,” Tom Pick, The WebMarket Central Blog, 11/18/09.

Following up on his trenchant summary last week of the ills afflicting trade publications, this Wednesday Tom Pick took a shot at improving their prognosis. Many trade publishers might find his recommendations either obvious (use marketers as authors, conduct research, and hold events) or unrealistic (publish ratings of products). As for his suggestion that trade pubs convert from controlled to paid circulation . . . well, did I mention that paid circ sucks?  It’s important that a B2B thought leader like Pick believes that trade publications can “continue to have a central place in the dissemination of industry-specific content.” But if that’s going to happen, we may want to look elsewhere for strategies.

On the Other Hand. . . : “Why brands need to own their content channels,” Gordon Plutsky, iMedia Connection, 11/17/09.

As Pick noted in his article, Gordon Plutsky is one of those who see little value in trade-pub advertising—not surprising for the marketing director of a custom media company, King Fish Media. Plutsky argues that “the vast majority of marketers feel that the content they create is of equal or more value to the information produced by traditional media brands.” I’m not sure who should be more embarrassed by this claim—the marketers or the publishers.  But the marketers probably do feel that way, and that’s not good news for publishers.

Relax, Everybody! “Once More, with Feeling: FTC guidelines, bloggers and companies,” Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps, 11/16/09.

As I wrote last month, the new FTC guidelines for bloggers  may not be very helpful, but neither are they a disaster. The guidelines simply don’t justify all the sturm und drang. So Susan Getgood’s calm and rational approach to the subject is most welcome, as is her suggestion “that we stop worrying about the semantics of bloggers versus journalists.”

Passionate about Pink: “What Inbound Marketers and Microsoft Can Learn From St. Vincent Hospital’s ‘Pink Glove Dance’ Video,” Shannon Sweetser, Hubspot, 11/20/09.

Shannon Sweetser has highlighted in this post two videos that got people talking this week, though for different reasons. One showed Microsoft store staffers breaking out into dance in a fairly unconvincing attempt at spontaneity. The other, featuring employees of a hospital donning pink gloves and dancing in support of breast cancer awareness, was a study in pure joy.  Though the comparison is a bit unfair to Microsoft (but, come on, who cares?), Sweetser does a good job extracting useful lessons for marketers and publishers alike.

Liberating—and Monetizing—Your Inner Audience

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Whether you’re in content marketing or B2B publishing, one of your main goals is to ensure your message is reaching the right people. While the theory is straightforward, the practice is anything but. You may have a clear vision of your target audience, but in the social-media era, that audience may not be your only audience. To maximize the revenue from your content, you should look beyond your target to what might be called your “inner” audience.

What exactly do I mean by inner audience? It is a group of readers you may not intend to address, but which is implied by your content. But how can content “imply” an audience? Let me explain. In a former life as a grad student in English, one of the critics I admired was Wayne Booth.  (Current English majors: this was a long time ago, so if Booth is no longer cool or I don’t get the details right, be gentle.)

One of Booth’s ideas was that of an “implied reader.” A work of literature, he said, always implies a particular type or types of reader, with certain tastes, expectations, or interests. This reader will often be different from the actual reader, or even from the reader the author was consciously writing for.

It doesn’t take a big leap of imagination to apply this idea to your content. You may have a particular type of reader in mind when you write or assign your articles. But your content may well encompass a broader range of readers than you intend.

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B2B Blog Posts of the Week

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Every Friday, beginning today, B2B Memes will feature notable posts of the week from around the B2B blogosphere. The picks are strictly my own (though suggestions are welcome) and reflect my particular interests in and perspective on trends in B2B media.

The Death of Print: “Will Content Marketing Kill Trade Publications?” Tom Pick, The WebMarket Central Blog, 11/9/09.

Clearly the meme-maker of the week, Tom Pick did an impressive job of summarizing how the rise of social media tends to favor content marketing over trade publishing. Though his perspective is that of a marketer, he has a clear-eyed and accurate understanding of how trade publishing works.

Updating Middle-Aged Media: “Are Your PDFs Social Media Friendly?” Galen De Young, B2B Marketing Blog, 11/11/09.

As noted elsewhere in B2B Memes, there is a whole class of “middle-aged media” like e-mail and webinars that can benefit from integration with newer social-media tools. De Young offers some simple but powerful tips for bringing PDFs into the 21st century.

Good Surveys: “3 B2B Social Media Takeaways from the Business.Com Social Media Survey,” Kipp Bodnar, Social Media B2B, 11/12/09.

Anyone involved in B2B media needs to know how B2B companies actually regard and use social media. A new survey from Business.com, as covered by Kipp Bodnar among many others, offers useful new data. As Bodnar suggests, it appears that businesses are still a bit behind on the new-media learning curve.

Bad Surveys: “If ‘advertising’ is your middle name, your surveys will always suggest the solution is …,” Rex Hammock, RexBlog, 11/12/09.

If you’ve ever been amused or irritated by the way surveys commissioned by publishing groups always seem self-serving, particularly when it involves the value of advertising, you’ll appreciate Rex Hammock’s  take on a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Of course, Hammock has his own axe to grind, but his is a useful reminder always to regard survey results with a skeptical eye.

Face the Social Media Facts: “The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing,” Sonia Simone, Copyblogger, 11/13/09.

So much of what we read about B2B social media makes it sound easy and unrelentingly positive. Simone offers a refreshingly and constructively critical take on the challenges to succeeding in the new-media world.

Straight Outta Left Field: “Make Everything Your Own,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and Robert Green, Huffington Post, 11/13/09.

OK, it’s a little weird to include 50 Cent in a collection of B2B posts, but in the following quote, he and co-author Green underscore the disruptive impact of the Internet on business:

We are living through an entrepreneurial revolution, on a global scale. The old power centers are breaking up. Individuals everywhere want more control over their destiny and have much less respect for an authority that is not based on merit but on mere power. We have all naturally come to question why someone should rule over us, why our source of information should depend on the mainstream media, and on and on. We do not accept what we accepted in the past.

The rise of social media favors the entrepreneur and the individual over the company and the group. Increasingly, B2B means P2P—person to person.