This document discusses the need for publishers to think and act more like marketers. It outlines 3 main challenges publishers currently face: 1) diminishing customer value of display ads, 2) competitors targeting the same prospects, and 3) leads being treated as a commodity. The document argues publishers should align their organizations, content, and metrics with customer goals to identify purchase intent across the buyer's journey. It provides specific actions for publishers to align their sales, editorial, and circulation teams and use tools like Hubspot to capture behavioral data and prove marketing ROI. The overall message is for publishers to adopt consultative marketing strategies rather than treat prospects as simple leads or readers.

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Why Publishers Need to
Think Like Marketers
Seth Nichols
Owner/CEO, Longitude Media

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Challenge #1:
Diminishing
customer value of
display campaigns

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Challenge #2:
Our Prospects are
Our Competitors!

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Challenge #3:
CPLs negotiated as a
commodity
• All leads are NOT the same
• Not all customers understand
ROMI

6. FUNDAMENTAL
DISCONNECT

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Marketers value a
campaigns’
measurable ability
to increase sales
pipeline

9. Transportation vs. Railroad
Marketing vs. Publishing

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1) Align and Re-train your entire organization!
2) Identify Purchase Intent and PROVE IT:
– Acquire the tools and expertise required to remain
relevant!
ACTIONS NEEDED TODAY!

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Action: Align Sales Organization
Contact (1,000) to MQL (32% / 320)
➔ SQL (32% / 102)
➔ Pipeline (28% / 29)
➔ Close (26% / 7 deals) = 0.75%
Sales must know funnels, metrics and marketing lingo
(more than reach and demos…)

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Action:
Align Editorial
• Team should understand
context: attract, identify,
nurture and convert high
quality prospects

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Action:
Align Circulation
Reach vs. Quality
• 60,000 readers vs. 5,000
prospects in an active
product sales cycle,
TODAY

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1) Align and Re-train your entire organization!
2) Identify Purchase Intent and PROVE IT:
– Acquire the tools and expertise required to remain
relevant!
ACTIONS NEEDED TODAY!

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Source: Forrester Research
Identify Purchase Intent

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• Map content to the buyer’s
journey
• Use content to pick up explicit
and behavioral purchase intent
HubSpot Implementation:
• Lists, workflows, event triggers,
CTAs, lead scoring etc.
combine to make the bigger
picture

17. Unknown
Visitor
Awareness
Consideration
PreferenceSale
Loyalty
Awareness
Consideration
PreferenceSale
Loyalty
Awareness
Consideration
PreferenceSale
Loyalty
SEO
Social
Direct
Initial CTAs Include:
• House Assets
• Newsletters
• Buyers Guides
• Client Assets
EDITORIAL DRIVES …
PROGRESSIVE DATA CAPTURE
On-going Persona/Prospect Identification
Lead Nurturing
Target Email
Offers Target CTAs
Site Activity
(Behavioral)
Other Event
Activity (Behavioral)
Product
Category A
Product
Category B
Product
Category C
DOWNLOADABLE ASSETS DRIVE …
# of LQLS
Known
Contact

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• Industry benchmarks
• HubSpot workflows and automated
emails to launch surveys on
content and lead quality
Revenue:
$1,457,430 from $30,000 ➔ 2% ROMI
Pipeline:
$3,086,250 from $30,000 ➔ 0.97% ROMI

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Reminder: We are a
valued marketing
partner because….
Publishers have better visibility
to pick up purchase signals
• 70%+ reality

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Reminder: We are a
valued marketing
partner because….
Publisher’s content is more
highly valued by prospects.

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2) Use tools and processes your customers use
3) Prove your value for each campaign: Return on Marketing Investment
4) Build products for business predictability and inevitable downturns
1) Align organization with customer goals
• Publishers/sales teams of consultative marketers
• Content teams understand the buyer’s journey
• This is hard!
Be Marketers, Not Publishers

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QUESTIONS?