Product category:
Business intelligence
News Release from: SAS | Subject: Customer intelligence for newspapers
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 03 March 2008
Newspapers gain from multichannel
intelligence
Advanced user-friendly technologies are converting business data into usable customer intelligence, explains Jason Goodwin, Head of Solution Strategy and Marketing, SAS UK.
As the sheer number of new marketing channels continues to grow, newspaper publishers continue to face excruciating pressure from all sides Circulations continue to decline, new competitors emerge with alarming frequency and advertisers demand more value
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 23 Nov 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Haven Holidays delivers personal service with SAS
Haven Holidays has chosen SAS, the market leader in the new generation of enterprise intelligence software and services, to provide a complete marketing automation solution.
SAS innovates the customer experience
At this year's Technology for Marketing conference, SAS showcased its suite of solutions that enable organisations to innovate and improve their customers' experience of their brands.
The customer base has become increasingly fragmented, rendering the notion of a "traditional newspaper audience" virtually obsolete.
Newspapers need a way of combating these growing challenges, of staying competitive and fighting back.
One way is through the use of a new generation of multichannel technologies to generate a true picture of each customer's experience.
Further reading
Survey shows marketers' investment priorities
The road to customer centricity sees analytics keeping pace with digital marketing spend as seven out of ten cite investment in this area as key priority for 2008.
Sawfish SalesFlow gears up for Windows Vista
Sawfish Software is strengthening its position at the forefront of the CRM market, and reinforcing its commitment to clients to keep abreast of changes in IT, including the launch of Windows Vista.
DSGi annual event kicks off at Wembley
Specialist business IT provider DSGi Business is holding it's largest annual event at the FA's stunning new Wembley Stadium on Wednesday 25 April 2007.
The availability of cost-effective, user-friendly technology that links online and off-line customer data with enterprise intelligence technology can deliver new levels of actionable insight for newspaper publishers, ultimately, providing competitive advantages in the ongoing battle for advertising spend.
Publishers using a multichannel approach to draw out true customer intelligence can learn more about their customers as individuals and be able to mount aggressive marketing campaigns to retain them as subscribers while attracting those elusive new readers.
In the end, this helps savvy newspapers attract advertisers who are willing to pay a premium for widespread exposure in publications that reach readers who are ready to buy.
To truly understand and action customer behaviour, newspapers need to bridge the gap between the traditional ink-on-paper product and their web-based offerings.
Newspaper websites are now a major part of their offering; websites attract new readers faster than the physical products, so it's imperative to be able to take the raw data generated from customer visits to newspapers' websites and convert it into usable insight.
New multichannel analytical technologies and enterprise intelligence can do this.
These technologies can take publishers beyond the narrow focus of traditional direct marketing or web analytics, enabling them to respond intelligently to each and every customer interaction, and drive more profitable connections.
These solutions capture and measure, in real time, all aspects of each individual customer's online and off-line connections with the publication, translating these into valuable customer intelligence.
By integrating intelligence from all customer touch points, newspapers could obtain a single source of highly accurate and actionable data that reflects the customer's experience and the individual's behaviour.
This "single version of the truth" creates a comprehensive view of customer behaviours, enabling the newspaper to tailor promotions and contact channels triggered by changes in either online or off-line customer behaviour, indicating propensity to purchase certain types of products or services.
For example if a casual reader of a newspaper is attracted by a cookery competition, they may make an off-line connection with the newspaper by entering that competition, thus providing their name and contact details.
Traditionally this alone would be used for direct mailing purposes, however, by using multichannel technologies and enterprise intelligence, the publisher can match up the readers' offline activity with its online activity to get a better view of what would be of interest to reader.
If that reader then also goes online to apply for a different competition on gardening and signs-up for supplements on DIY, all of the data from different touch points begin to build up a picture of who this reader is.
By integrating the different sets of information and preferences, the publisher now has a lot more in-depth data and is able to create a single view of the reader's tastes, preferences and interests.
They can then work with advertisers to tailor online marketing campaigns at the individual reader level with advertisers buying space directly in front of their target market.
On this occasion, when the reader signs in online, their home-page of the newspaper's website could include the latest news and advertising offers on home-wares, making their experience of the website much more tailored to them individually.
True customer intelligence creates measurable competitive advantages that translate into higher circulation, increased web traffic, improved revenue, lower costs and higher profits.
As the competition becomes more intense, customer intelligence technologies empower smart publishers to substitute hard science for guesswork and hunches.
Consider this data point from a recent IDC internet advertising report: internet advertising - including search, display and rich media units - is projected to grow from US$16.9 billion in 2006 to US$31.3 billion in 2011.
It is evident that this growth will come at the expense of traditional media.
Therefore, the shifting of advertising spend from old media to new media will accelerate as internet advertising expands three times as quickly as overall advertising.
For newspaper publishers with a robust online presence and solid enterprise intelligence capabilities, this trend represents a clear opportunity to thrive and grow in a new environment.
But the key to success in this environment is the ability to routinely convert millions of data files into customer intelligence so it can be used to achieve critical business objectives, such as higher circulation, reduced churn, improved quality, increased ad revenue and greater profitability.
• SAS: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Marketingservicestalk email newsletter
• Marketingservicestalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
