Save a few notches on your social stress meter by using these social media calendars to get ahead

Social media is my favorite thing to write about next to recycling content in fun and unusual ways. When you’re launching a new digital magazine, or bringing your existing magazine brand online, there’s a list of to-do’s and one of them is a checkbox that says “social media” but that check box doesn’t begin to cover the tiny little checkboxes that belong underneath it.

Last week we discussed the answer to an ever present question: what is SMO (social media optimization)? I’d recommend starting there, so that you begin with the first eight steps for creating a social media strategy. Once that strategy is in place, the next step is to create the structure for each step in the process. Fly by night social media just leads to chaos and your articles getting promoted less and less. In order to organize that chaos, create a social media calendar for all of your social networks.

The basic rules of creating a social media calendar go like this:

• Editorial posts get posted on the same day they’re published (plus scheduled out into the future)
• Promotional posts get posted on the same day they’re emailed out to your email list
• Branded posts will get posts on the days you determine
• Ad posts will also get posted on the days you determine

From there, you’re welcome to tweak and twist to accommodate your publishing schedule. The social media calendars below represent what a publisher might post if they publish one article a day.

A sample Facebook/LinkedIn/G+ social media calendar

Create a Facebook editorial calendar that aligns with your email editorial calendar. Inject Facebook-friendly posts and goals that match your business goals. For example…

• Drive Traffic: Link posts to blog
• Boost Likes / Shares / Visibility: Photo Posts (funny, quotes, memes) work well. Some publishers do well with question posts and fill in the blank posts about interesting topics in their niche.
• Boost Visibility: Link posts to 3^rd party that tag the source of the content, or links to your own content that tag the businesses mentioned in your article
• Feature a product: Links to paid products on your website
• Build email circulation: Links to a free product on your website
• Recycle content: Link to an old blockbuster post to refresh the SEO on the post and drive traffic

Below is a sample editorial calendar for a publisher who posts one new article per day, Monday – Friday. Weekends can be used to recycle old posts and build visibility with fun photo posts that drive engagement, which leads to higher visibility over time. Adjust according to your email editorial calendar and add more posts per day as needed.

Monday:

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Photo post (boost likes/shares/visibility)

Tuesday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)

Wednesday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Product feature (drive revenue)

 Thursday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• 3^rd Party Post Link (boost visibility or satisfy advertiser)

Friday

• Blog Post Link (drive traffic)
• Freebie Feature (build email circulation)

Saturday

• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)
• Photo post (boost likes/shares/visibility)

Sunday

• Recycled post (drive traffic, refresh SEO on old post)
• Product feature (drive revenue)

Note: The more active your audience (comments, likes, shares) the more you can post. Posting too much with no engagement will result in decreased post visibility. Learn what your fans like and comment on, and do more of that.

A sample Twitter social media calendar

Beyond editorial, there are many different types of Tweets you can populate your feed with. If you’re employing the 12x12x12 strategy we teach, you’ll be publishing much more than this on Twitter, but that only covers editorial and content marketing. This expanded calendar covers promotion, increasing visibility, and community building. Again, we’re using the example of a publisher who posts one new article per day.

• Traffic / Blog posts: These are your daily blog posts, use this strategy for promoting them.
• Marketing posts: Only one in five (or less) of your Tweets per day should directly promote anything that you sell. Align these promotions with your promotional email calendar and it will be easier to organize and remember.
• Visibility / Hashtag posts: The goal of these posts is to find a hashtag related to your audience and find something to Tweet about it. Maybe it’s a quote, or a question, or a statement with the goal of getting retweeted.
• Conversation / Topic posts: These are Tweets about articles on external or partner websites that are related to the topics you cover on your website.
• #FollowFriday / #ThrowbackThursday: Scheduling ahead gives you a chance to use #FollowFriday to send some shout-outs to other leaders / writers / experts in your industry or pick old issues of your magazine covers to show off for #ThrowbackThursday.

Things you’ll notice from the above are as follows:

• Every day, five posts are scheduled. This doesn’t mean this is all you send out, it just means that the basics are covered and if you get swamped, your feed will be just fine. You can adjust as needed, according to your editorial calendar.
• Out of every five posts, there is only one real marketing tweet, two traffic-driving posts and the rest are helpful community posts that still leverage some marketing strategies like @-ing people who you link to and hashtagging popular topics to your audience.
• Two traffic-driving posts per day come from your main blog post (or posts) and one that recycles an old post and makes it new again.

You can do more, but try not to do less. If you have a huge audience, you can get away with the basics, but if you have a new magazine with the goal of building up new followers and engagement, then get ready for some elbow grease.

Based on your experience, what else would you add?

The post Two Weekly Social Media Calendar Templates for Stress-Free Scheduling appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

Publishers and brands refine mobile content strategy, reflect on relationship with consumers

Mobile content strategy is wide open these days, as publishers strive to make the right moves toward monetizing a burgeoning medium and avoid blowing a golden opportunity. But mastering mobile is tough. Audience behavior, app technology, and ad kinks to be ironed out can complicate strategy, but digital magazines and other brands must stay the course when it comes to producing quality content and tailoring it for mobile devices.

MediaPost covers mobile content strategy in a few recent articles, including one on LinkedIn’s new direction with Pulse. Let’s start there today!

LinkedIn to Focus on Mobile Content Strategy With Pulse

Platform turned publisher LinkedIn has made several moves in the recent years – including acquiring online learning leader Lynda.com for $1.5 billion in April  – in a effort to shape its mobile content strategy. Now, it has announced that newsreader service Pulse will be revamped to become a mobile app, MediaPost reports.

“Instead of slapping features on to the old reader app, we decided to completely redesign the new Pulse experience from the ground up,” wrote Pulse Product Lead Akshay Kothari on the LinkedIn blog.

“You don’t need to follow publishers or topics or anything. Just log in with your LinkedIn account, and Pulse instantly gives you today’s news based on the industry you work in, who you’re connected to and what you follow on LinkedIn. All these interactions will continuously refine your content recommendations.”

Is the Native Content the Answer to Ad Blocking?

The growing issue of ad blocking is giving more publishers headaches across desktop and mobile devices, but TripleLift CEO Eric Berry believes that native content can circumvent the circumventing – which itself may block eyeballing but doesn’t always protect privacy.

Native ads earn higher RPMs, requiring fewer calls, Berry writes, while often taking up a smaller portion of the browser. Berry cites other native content qualities, but ultimately concedes that they can still be blocked like other ads – the key takeway is that a better, healthier, more ethical ad culture could mean a lessening tension with consumers and therefore a friendlier atmosphere for advertisers and publishers.

Are Publishers Too Pushy?

A recent column from Paolo Gaudiano in MediaPost addresses the issue of whether publishers can overdo it on mobile content strategy, particularly when it comes to newsletters and ad tactics on corresponding landing pages, which he admits are important for audience development … within reason.

“Sometimes, however, publishers appear so desperate to increase readership that they overstep their bounds, to the point of becoming downright annoying. Without naming names … I have seen two behaviors in particular that I find annoying,” Gaudiano writes.

“First, some sites fail to use cookies, or simply ignore them, and bombard me with takeover ads or pop-ups begging me to subscribe to their newsletter even if I visit the same site twice within a short time span, and even if I am already registered on that site and already subscribing to their newsletters. Second, and even more annoying, I have found some sites that show me the same persistent takeover ads even when I landed on their article by clicking a link from a newsletter to which I already subscribe.“

Is your mobile content strategy paying off? Share your experiences in the comments!

To read more about mobile content strategy in the news, visit MediaPost.

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How does The New York Times achieve its newsletter open rates? Plus, another in-house content studio and more online learning …

Yesterday, we relayed MediaPost’s news about the Movable Ink study finding that mobile email marketing has eclipsed desktop open rates, which is great news for multiplatform publishers who have Email Marketing Systems. As email shrugs off the greatly exaggerated reports of its demise and re-establishes itself as a strong audience development tool, newsletter open rates have become a more important area of focus for digital magazines and other brands.

The Mequoda Method has long emphasized newsletter open rates as a key strategic point of multiplatform publishing, but even we were taken aback by The New York Times’ success when it comes to the art of email. So, we were interested to learn more in Digiday’s recent article about the Old Gray Lady’s staggering 70% yield.

How the NY Times Gets 70% Newsletter Open Rates

That’s right: 70%. Now with 33 newsletters, The New York Times is taking niche coverage to another level with specialized emails built by a staff of 12, Digiday reports. The newsletter content itself is handcrafted, not auto-generated, and there’s ample experimentation with design and layout. All of this combined with the Times’ reputation is resulting in some wildly robust newsletter open rates.

“The Times wouldn’t say how many subscribers it has but shared some numbers that suggest its approach is paying off. Subscriber volume has grown 14 percent in the past six months, with the number of newsletter subscribers ranging from tens of thousands to several million depending on the newsletter. Average gross open rate (which, unlike the uniques open rate, which is typically lower, counts duplicate opens) for weekly newsletters is 50 percent, with some of its newer ones including Kristof’s, the Times Magazine, Booming and Motherlode have gross open rates topping 70 percent. The gross open rate for media and publishing newsletters is 38.5 percent, according to email marketing company MailChimp. (The Times wouldn’t provide its unduplicated open rates.),” Lucia Moses writes.

“The Times sells ads into its newsletters but sees the main benefit as audience development. While publishers including the Times are trying to capitalize on the fact that people are increasingly coming to the news from social media, the Times is highly dependent on paying subscribers and, as such, is under pressure to nurture that part of its business. And its newsletters are a key way to do that. Times users are twice as likely to become paid subscribers if they signed up for a newsletter first.”

The Daily Mirror’s In-House Content Studio, Invention

Content studios are the coveted components of the publishing world, enabling digital magazines to produce scaled native advertising, video, and other offerings in house. The Daily Mirror is the latest company to go for it, with 38-person “Invention” via Trinity Mirror Studios, Digiday reports.

Ed Tech From Inc. and Reader’s Digest

Another coveted segment is online learning, and Inc. has jumped into the game with a course on startups, Digiday reports. Reader’s Digest, meanwhile, has launched EnrichU, which covers cooking, home repair, and other topics. Inc. charges $395 for the 5-week entrepreneurial primer; Reader’s Digest, $9.95 per month and $99 per year for memberships.

How are your newsletter open rates? If you’re looking for areas of improvement, we can help. Download our free Organic Audience Development Strategy Handbook today!

To read more about newsletter open rates in the news, visit Digiday.

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The media companies making digital industry news with mergers & acquisitions, rebranding, and more

Media General and Meredith made major digital industry news recently when they announced  a mega-deal was in the works that would see the former acquire the latter to form a publishing and broadcast monster, taking multiplatform strategy to a whole other level. The terms were reported as a 65% stake for $2.4 billion.

But Nexstar has trumped that digital industry news with a bombshell of its own.

Read on below for the full scoop from Folio:, plus the official announcement of yet another big purchase and the rebranding of a legendary legacy magazine.

Is the Meredith-Media General Deal in Danger?

It’s publishing executives vs. broadcast executives vs. more broadcast executives in the escalating dogfight known as the proposed acquisition of Meredith by Media General.

Just weeks into the developing Meredith-Media General deal, a second suitor is attempting to cut in. Nexstar, another broadcast company, is making a bid to buy Media General at $10.50 per share, valuing the company at $4.1 billion, Folio: reports.

“The ill-conceived Meredith transaction, which caused an immediate drop in Media General’s stock price and criticism from a number of your investors and analysts, exposes Media General once again to the publishing business and creates a pro-forma EBITDA mix with significant exposure to publishing”, Nexstar’s letter to Media general says.

“Were you to engage with us, we believe you could deliver significantly more value to your shareholders.”

Meanwhile, here’s what Media General had to offer in the way of a response:

“Consistent with its fiduciary duties, the Media General Board of Directors, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, will carefully review and consider the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders,” the company said in a statement.

“Media General shareholders are advised to take no action at this time. Media General will have no further comment on the proposal until the Board has completed its review.”

The biggest upside for Media General in this deal is the “pure-play” broadcasting aspect Nexstar would offer (162 stations in 99 markets) rather than delving back into publishing with Meredith so soon after divesting its newspaper holdings, according to Folio:.

As of this writing, there’s no final word on which direction Media General will go in, but we’ll keep you posted.

Axel Springer Formalizes Purchase of Business Insider

What was once a rumor is now a reality, as Axel Springer is indeed acquiring another 88% of web traffic juggernaut Business Insider for $343 million, Folio: reports. Axel Springer already owned 9% of the site. Henry Blodget will stay with the company, according to Folio:.

The Rebranding of Reader’s Digest

After 93 years, the Reader’s Digest Association has changed its name to Trusted Media Brands Inc, Folio: reports. Agency Starfish orchestrated the full shift, which included a website redesign and a new logo to reflect the company’s digital advances, like online learning platform EnrichU.

What digital industry news are you keeping an eye on? Let us know in the comments!

To read more digital industry news, visit Folio:.

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Takeaways from the Times and Washington Post’s subscription publishing success; plus, Houghton Mifflin’s new Curious World and making the right moves with mobile content strategy

Subscription publishing is another element of multiplatform strategy that digital magazines must stay attuned to, as the landscape seems to shift every week. Most recently, paywalls for online content have rapidly wavered in favor, as publications like the Sun have scrapped theirs altogether. Freemiums and premiums rule the day, as do membership systems and tiered bundles, all of which can fit into the Mequoda Method and boost conversions.

Staying on top these trends is crucial to success, so what better place to consult than Subscription Insider to get the scoop? Let’s close out the week by taking a look at some of their recent articles.

Subscription Publishing Lessons From the NYT and WaPo

It’s no secret that the Times and Washington Post have cracked the code on digital subscriptions and other products that publishers can capitalize on. But how are they pulling it off? Taking full advantage of tech, investing in content, and forming partnerships figure prominently. And, according to Subscription Insider, they do the following:

“1. Maximize mobile traffic by offering products and services in a mobile-optimized, not just mobile-friendly, environment. This includes faster load times.
2. Embrace partnerships to reach new audiences. The New York Times and the Washington Post are both doing this in relationships where no money changes hands. They partner with other news organizations, hotels, other subscription companies (e.g., Evernote and NYT) and companies that can help them expand their reach.
3. Study the data and make smart decisions based on subscriber and non-subscriber behavior.”

More From the Times: Same-Day Digital Access for Newsstand Buyers

One smart decision The New York Times made recently was to offer same-day digital access to single-copy consumers in a promotion meant to bolster loyalty as 2020 approaches. What’s 2020? Only the self-imposed deadline to double digital traffic and revenue. As Subscription Insider reports, this is a simple, win-win strategy for the Times, one that even smaller publishers can experiment with.

Houghton Mifflin Launches Curious World, Online Learning for Kids

The explosion of ed tech in subscription publishing  is a natural fit for young people, and Houghton Mifflin is maximizing the opening with Curious World, a $9.99/month service aimed at parents of 3- to 7-year-olds that covers science, math, language and literacy, health and wellness, creative expression, social and emotional development, executive function, and family and community, Subscription Insider reports.

Going Mobile Doesn’t Mean Going Mobile App

The reign of apps is coming to close, as publishers are realizing you don’t need one to succeed on the mobile web.

“[I]t was refreshing this week to see the just released Morgan Stanley Report that demonstrated that mobile traffic in the US market is two times larger than traffic to and within Apps. Morgan Stanley measured by unique visitors.  There are contradictory studies out there that show different results, however,  I believe the Morgan Stanley Report demystifies and brings a reality check to the hype,” Kevin Novak writes in Subscription Insider.

“Apps are still being used, of course. Do the results say you shouldn’t do an App? No, mobile apps are still an opportunity to create a container and immerse a user in the experience. A game app or similar as an example. … What it does prove is that you need to focus on your mobile experience and understand who you are and what you offer in the customer’s opinion. The mass adoption of smart phones with all information available at a few swipes or keystokes while in an elevator, secretly in a meeting, or walking to a store is becoming critical to time strapped people. Convenience is king.”

Subscription publishing is a science; we can help you find the right formula. Download our free Subscription Website Publishing Handbook today!

To read more about subscription publishing in the news, visit Subscription Insider.

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Publishers will grow quickly when they embrace an integrated multiplatform publishing system for audience, content and teams

Most multiplatform publishing companies didn’t start out as multiplatform, unless you consider the web their one and only secondary platform. However publishers are finding new ways to produce content for themselves and advertisers across, print, digital, and in-person (event) platforms, exactly where customers are requesting.

This year we’ve seen the boost in advertising dollars being spread around the industry, probably the biggest relief of 2015, and we think continuing the conversation on multiplatform sponsorship packages is a good idea. However our main theme of multiplatform publishing predictions for 2016 is integration.

As publishers continue to add additional platforms, one of the things we hear is they are frustrated with the number of systems they’ve invested in that don’t talk to each other, or don’t talk well. They are now beginning to prioritize integration—integrated audience databases, integrated content production and integrated organizational teams to reflect a true multiplatform experience.

1. Integrated audience databases

Having 2-3 customer databases doesn’t allow a publisher to be efficient, so in order for them to be successful publishing on multiple platforms, they need an integrated system where each part talks to one another.

Publishers should be looking toward content management systems that also integrate customer relationships. Publishers will need to know when someone subscribed to their email newsletter, what other actions this subscriber has taken on their site and what products they’ve bought.

An integrated system will allow you to store all your prospect and customer information in one place, and track what they are doing. You can also capture and store all the communications, accounts, leads and sales opportunities. Multiplatform publishers can have complicated relationships with their customers who buy a subscription, multiple single products, events, and who can be leveraged to sponsors as leads. An integrated system will allow publishers to share all this information with the different parts of their organization so efforts are efficient and well-coordinated.

2. Integrated content production

In 2016, publishers will begin to see how foolish it is to rely on more systems to manage their content. Back even as recently as 2010 it was still understandable to be building your content platform as piecemeal, adding content management systems as you need them. However to be a more efficient multiplatform publisher, gone will be the days of a separate content management system for free content with a separate system for subscriptions, another for marketing automation, online learning programs, content marketing and social media, and some even use separate tools for landing page optimization. That exhaustion has to end, the collection of passwords and training manuals is exhausting. This inefficiency leads to an inability to repurpose content the way mutliplatform publishing requires. Integration is key.

3. Integrated organizational teams

Can you imagine building a house without a general contractor? Hiring the plumber, electrician and other specialists yourself, and then communicating between them? For some reason, publishers have spent a long time waiting to integrate their digital and print publishing teams. They’ve separated departments whose goals align, and much of the blame rests on the fragmented system I’ve talked about so far. Once audience databases and content production are together in one system and all members of the team are working in tandem with one another, publishers will find it’s a lot easier, and more profitable (time-wise, and money-wise).

The Mequoda Multiplatform Media Management System is a complex media management system (MMS) that empowers its users, operators and dozens of software applications to communicate and interact using the Internet, postal systems and other legacy media systems.

Haven Nexus includes 19 modules and more than 250 task managers, message templates, action trackers, marketing programs and analytic reports. It is fully integrated, documented and customized for every client, and fully maintained by an engineering team that understands the business goals supported by the system.

Haven Nexus is absolutely unique in the marketplace, and it is only available to Mequoda Gold Member clients. If you don’t have Haven Nexus, you don’t have a state of the art Mequoda System. If you’re ready for 2016 and exceeding our predictions, let’s chat.

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A successful multiplatform magazine requires a capable content team

What makes a legacy publishing company a unique and challenging organization is that many of the traditional divisions among different parts of the organizations have faded, or just plain disappeared. For example, traditionally, editors were never involved in ad sales programs.

But the emergence of multiplatform magazines and sponsored content (sometimes called native content or custom content) has resulted in some members of the editorial team having a direct role in helping the organization create content that also generates sponsor revenue. And ad sales people now must coordinate more closely with content producers to ensure that sponsored content can be delivered without sacrificing the company’s brand identity.

Publishers have been making organizational changes to deal with the realities of the modern marketplace, and while we find there are six organizational teams – management, content, marketing, revenue, operations, and systems – today let’s review modern content teams.

How a multiplatform magazine content team operates

Content is, of course, where everything starts for a media company. Great content is what separates you from your competition. In a traditional publishing organization, the content team referred to the reporters and editors who produced your newsletter or magazine. Now, it can mean a whole lot more.

Many publishers have expanded their offerings to include events, webinars, online courses, videos, and books. Content also can include an online directory, white papers, paid handbooks, membership libraries, and more. In addition, more publishers are making sponsored content part of a package to attract advertisers. All these pieces are generated by the content team, lead by the Chief Content Officer.

If you’re new to Mequoda, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with Green Gardens Network (GGN), our composite case study, and CEO Rose Harper, the embodiment of all our clients whose “example” we use as a teaching tool without revealing real publishers’ names or data.

In the Green Gardens case, Rose has her content team organize tours, online learning offerings, and books in addition to the magazine she has always offered. The content team also develops the free content available on the GGN portal – including content optimized for search and maintaining blockbuster posts.

Your content team should be focused on creating the great content that people will pay the most money for. Much of what comes after should be content that is repurposed from these earlier efforts. Repurposing content gives you the opportunity to leverage your best work, gives you more versatility, and helps your company generate revenue more effortlessly.

For example, the GGN Tulip tour will be filmed, and the video content will be used on the portal. Interviews and discussions conducted during the tour will feed into the magazine, and a derivative of that content will be used to feed the online portal. A similar workflow can be used for the online courses Rose offers.

All these steps belong under your content team.

The CCO will work to ensure that all of these activities are coordinated with the efforts of the revenue and marketing teams, because content is key to selling sponsorships and more copies of the Green Gardens Magazine.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll dive into all of the different organizational teams that make a successful multiplatform magazine media company. If you’d like to talk more about building yours, schedule a time to chat with us.

The post How to Build a Modern Multiplatform Magazine Content Team appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

It’s no Trump University, but LinkedIn is getting into publisher territory swiftly with Linkedin Learning.

In April 2015, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for $1.5 billion and this September they launched LinkedIn Learning, a subscription website for online skills training. This course business model that they stepped into is an entirely new revenue stream for them, and a new product for their 450 million members.

When a publisher has a course content business model, they may create a single course or collection of lessons or activities that the user can mix and match to create his or her own course. However, the publishing frequency, unlike a magazine, could be relatively low.

Every successful publisher we know launched their digital existence with at least two content models. One is a portal content business model, and the other is usually a magazine content business model. However, most publishers we work with have several other content models, including digital online courses.

So what does that all have to do with LinkedIn? Well, it’s clear they’re getting into the content game (publisher’s territory), way beyond user-generated content.

LinkedIn Learning launched with over 9,000+ digital courses “taught by industry experts and cover a wide range of business, creative and technical topics, from leadership “soft skills” to design principles to programming,” according to LinkedIn’s official announcement.  And, unlike the slowboat magazine publisher mentioned above with a course business model, they say they’re adding at least 25 courses per week.

Now, if Lynda.com was already your competitor, LinkedIn isn’t a new competitor, they just had a makeover. And with the purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft, who knows what other facelifts will come. It’s just interesting to watch and see different businesses turn to premium content-producing business models. And they said people would never pay for content.

It looks like LinkedIn is trying to be a central location to find jobs, get trained for jobs, and get hired. Techcrunch reports, ” in India, the company now has an online job placement service that tests an individual’s skills and then suggests jobs that might be suitable for him or her. It doesn’t take the extra leap to include training, but you could imagine how LinkedIn Learning could fit into that product, too.”

TechRepublic reports, “LinkedIn released a list of the skills most sought after among global employers, and employers in the US and 17 other countries, after analyzing all recruiting activity on the platform since January. Cloud and distributed computing topped the list, followed by statistical analysis and data mining, mobile development, storage systems and management, user interface design, and network and information security.”

Meanwhile in the course business model space, Rodale U launched last year. It’s a collection of paid online courses presented by their brands, like Men’s Health and Runner’s World. Courses are purchased individually, however unlike LinkedIn’s 25 new courses per week, Rodale’s initial ambition was just 8-10 new courses per year. They now have 26 courses in total.

But they’re hip to the trends. “Over the past three years we have seen tremendous growth in consumer learning—a new segment of online learning and commerce, where individuals are turning to their trusted brands, such as Rodale, to improve their lives and careers.” said Barry Kelly, CEO of Thought Industries, the company Rodale chose to work with on this project.

And what we love about Rodale U is that they use it to upsell to their magazine. Clicking on any of their courses gives you an option to enroll and also an option to get the course plus the magazine for $5 more. An example offer says, “With the SILVER program, you’ll get access to the 21-Day Meditation Challenge, plus a 5-issue subscription to Rodale’s Organic Life magazine! Not only will you learn the true promise of meditation: more ease, greater flow, and the opportunity to experience life as a journey to be savored, you’ll also continue to be inspired with Rodale’s Organic Life magazine. In every issue you’ll find actionable, inspired ideas for good eating, home design, gardening, and personal well being.”

We think courses are an excellent revenue model for publishers, and for LinkedIn too.

The post LinkedIn Launches a Course Content Business Model appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

What to look for in a learning management system, from Haven Classroom, to Edmodo, Moodle, Teachery and Blackboard.

Many multiplatform publishers have turned to e-learning platforms to help subscribers either increase their skills or improve their lives. Publishers, along with many other organizations, such as universities and corporations, have found that text heavy explanations of complex subject matter can sometimes make for poor user engagement. Some individuals simply digest information better through a more interactive format, and video offers the opportunity to engage audience using the same content in a different format.

A learning management system (LMS) allows publishers to create, edit and manage learning material. This can be an essential tool if you want to provide e-learning or ongoing certification courses for customers. A good LMS will enable you to offer the courses, register and accept payment, track course completions, and auto-renew subscriptions.

Some larger publishers, like Rodale and Penton, have changed their business plans to take the leap into e-learning platforms. But you don’t need to be a big publisher to make this worthwhile. Several niche publishers have made this change as well.

In fact, niche publishers have a great opportunity in learning since the kind of information these audiences need is not provided widely. Consumers increasingly turn to trusted brands and publishers to find the information that can make a difference for them professionally or personally.

One of Mequoda’s clients, Leadercast, launched a new website that offers a robust, premium content membership. Members can watch short videos of respected world leaders – from all sorts of industries, professions and disciplines – discuss the principles of leadership, as well as strategies and techniques for implementation.

Leadercast members can track the videos they have watched, videos they plan to watch, their favorites, and their own progress at completing hands-on exercises to reinforce their learning with a personal dashboard called Activity Manager.

This is all offered as a membership at $29.97 a month or $299 annually. The membership is supplemented with ongoing, daily training videos, and with an annual live event that is simulcast to a variety of cities.

Mequoda’s learning management system: Haven Classroom

To help other publishers take advantage of this opportunity, Mequoda created Haven Classroom as a learning management system specifically for publishers who want to take advantage of this business model. Haven Classroom isn’t just a system to register participants for classes. We’ve built this module specifically to support the activities of publishers who engage in many different types of online learning, and who need support for complex product offers and programs.

So, for example, the system allows users to self-register for events, but it also supports taking subscriptions – the critical business model for many publishers – and can auto-renew those subscriptions, ensuring a steady flow of income for the publisher.

Haven Classroom’s integration to other critical system components 

More importantly, the system integrates with Haven Offer Manager, so publishers can vary subscription terms, pricing and premiums through a single system. Registered users can view transcripts and a summary of the video content.

Haven Classroom tracks user entitlements in order to limit access appropriately, and enforces restrictions on watching lessons prior to registration, which is limited to a specific number of lessons displayed within the online promotional material, and the number of videos that can be watched prior to purchase, which is limited to a specific number of lessons per topic which can be promoted via newsletter.

The system also includes integration with Wistia, a professional video hosting service that includes analytics and video marketing tools. Wistia supports responsive design to allow users to interact with their mobile device and tracks how many times each lesson video is watched, where users stopped and started, and can capture additional information about who is watching.

The Haven Activity Manager allows users to set goals and track performance within the Classroom module. This manager tracks recently watched videos, videos tagged to watch later, favorites and recommended videos based on other videos the user has watched.

Publishers can seamlessly serve ads for future courses based on past purchases and customer behaviors. Haven Classroom integrates with marketing automation tools such as Haven Message Manager and Haven Profile Manager, so publishers can market other products and services based on user behavior.

Other à la carte learning management systems

There are plenty of learning management systems and e-learning publishing systems on the market – so many that choosing can seem overwhelming. Some of the basic functionality you might consider includes easy course management, payment processing, marketing pages, and email marketing functionality and, as always, an analytics tool. Do they have the features you need and are they easy to use?

At its most basic, any learning management system should manage your content, provide different access to that content based on role (instructor or learner), and deliver the content. When looking at these features, remember that the functionality should meet the needs of both instructors and learners. For example, the functionality the system provides to the instructor should be much different than that provided to the learner.

Instructors will be interested in tools to build and edit courses, and will likely want the ability to track individual learner progress. Learners will be interested in ease of use, and knowing exactly where they are, and how far they have to go, in a specific learning module.

Some of the leading choices for learning management system include Edmodo, Moodle, Teachery, and Blackboard. Additional features like marketing automation tools and integration with your CMS and CRM also can be important considerations. 

And, of course, with any software integration you need to consider how it will integrate with your current technology or software. In addition, maintenance and adaptability are factors to consider as publishing businesses change frequently. Don’t hesitate to ask for a live demo and ask to speak to other clients with businesses similar to yours.

Haven Nexus is built with efficiency in mind

Haven Nexus CXMS is a state-of-the-art SaaS content management, content marketing, and content publishing tool—built, owned and maintained by Mequoda—to enable all the functionality that multiplatform publishing businesses need to be successful and profitable.

Unlike retrofitted websites with disparate systems that make customer service and reporting more difficult, Haven Nexus gives you a complete, central database that informs your marketing decisions and helps you maximize the lifetime value of each subscriber. We manage all the infrastructure, so you never have to look under the hood.

We’ve even identified the best partners so you don’t have to research software, email, hosting, and other functions on your own, or take stabs in the dark. When you put your system management into the hands of the industry’s only strategy-centric provider, your organization reaps the benefits of stress-free technology, content-focused implementation and ongoing profitability.

Schedule a 30-minute complimentary consult with Mequoda’s founder Don Nicholas to learn more about Haven Nexus.

The post Choosing the Best Learning Management System for Publishers appeared first on Mequoda Daily.

These six subscription website systems are turning publishers, associations and other niche businesses into multiplatform media brands

A Mequoda Audience Development System is a digital, turn-key content management system that is customized to help publishers attract new visitors, convert them into email subscribers, engage them, and finally, monetize by converting those visitors into paying customers and subscribers.

To build every Mequoda Audience Development System (Mequoda System for short), we use the Mequoda Method — a collection of best practices that have been formed by watching the world’s most successful online publishers. We also document the results of every a/b and split test that our portfolio of clients are testing every day, and when we see consistent results over time with one methodology, we share it as a best practice with our clients.

We build six different types of systems using the Mequoda Method. Haven is the name of our Mequoda Audience Development System, which is why you’ll see it precede each system name.

• The Haven Amherst Subscription Website System 
  • A free advisory subscription website
• The Haven Bristol Subscription Website System
  • A free magazine subscription website
• The Haven Cambridge Subscription Website System
  • A premium advisory subscription website
• The Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System
  • A premium magazine subscription website
• The Haven Innsbrook Subscription Website System
  • A lead generation subscription website
• The Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System
  • An event marketing subscription website

From 1997 – 2007 we were primarily building the Dartmouth, but we weren’t the builders, we were the architects. We deployed hundreds of premium magazine systems during this time, and in 2007 we started building the system ourselves for our clients.

As you can see above, since that time, we have expanded to five other types of Systems.

That’s because traditional publishers aren’t our only clients, we also work with event marketers, lead gen publishers and associations who are looking for an additional stream of advertising revenue and to generate a bigger footprint in the marketplace. And so with a Mequoda System, they enter the world of publishing, because, as the saying goes, “the power of the press belongs to those who own one.”

Let me break down each Haven Subscription Website System.

The Haven Amherst Subscription Website System 

A subscription website with the primary goal of giving away free advisory content and generating sponsor revenue.

Examples: NAPA Net, Vida y Salud.

If sponsorship revenue is your goal and your only focus, our Amherst Subscription Website System is the right choice for you organization. This system supports the entire suite of audience development best practices required to make search, email and social media your primary traffic drivers. The system also features the zoned architecture required to deploy a sponsorship-driven program that is native, scarce, exclusive and aligned with your sponsor’s products. In addition to the core website portal, you can add on optional directory, calendar and classified website business models.

An example of a Haven Amherst Subscription Website System is the National Association of Plan Advisors, who developed their system, NAPA Net ,as an additional revenue stream. They developed this free subscription website to attract more sponsors. This is a massive B2B trade organization that has multiple divisions, and spun out this media website on its own. The great news is that it makes money, and it has made money since day one. It contributes both to their margins and their mission. It’s a stunning example of the Haven Amherst Subscription Website System.

The Haven Bristol Subscription Website System

A subscription website with the primary goal of generating subscriptions and sponsor revenue for a free magazine.

• Examples: Metro Parent, Loss Prevention Media, Forester Media Network.

If you publish controlled circulation magazines and are looking to move into a fully integrated multiplatform digital sales strategy, our Bristol website business model includes all the features of our Amherst system plus a state-of-the-art HTML web magazine or magazines. Our research is clear that users prefer web magazines over their application counterparts based on the availability and fully responsive nature of a web magazine. Our Haven Gate Publications Manager gives your online magazine all the attributes users expect including a dynamic table of contents, linear navigation from article to article plus a complete cross referenced back issue archive that allows users to browse for content by topic instead of issue. Our clients routinely use their web magazines to anchor their native advertising programs which offer their sponsors a fully integrated state-of-the-art content marketing program.

A shining example of a Haven Bristol Subscription Website System is Metro Parent. They deliver their free magazine in print and through a responsive HTML edition, all made possible by their Bristol system. This wide multiplatform distribution is a major asset to the sponsors whom they rely on for advertising revenue. Metro Parent has also incorporated a calendar and directory into their System which generates additional revenue.

The Haven Cambridge Subscription Website System

A subscription website with the primary goal of generating revenue from a premium advisory service or product.

• Examples: Cabot Wealth Network, TSI Wealth Network, University Health News, Dark Intelligence Group, and Nutrition Action.

If your legacy business is powered by premium newsletters or premium advisory services as they are now so often called, our Cambridge website business model is ready to take you into the 21st century. This model includes all the features of our Amherst system and leverages them to build a massive email database of free subscribers that can be up-sold and cross-sold to your premium products. Our system supports individual premium subscriptions and a revolutionary all-access pass that enables you to sell a super high-priced premium product that aggregates all the investments you’ve made in your portfolio of individual subscription products. Our clients routinely have used this strategy to increase revenues by 50 to 100% with a minimal increase in their editorial development costs.

An excellent example of the Haven Cambridge Subscription Website System is Cabot Wealth Network, Cabot is one of the oldest and most respected independently-owned financial advisory services in the U.S. They sell several premium advisory services, including specialized investment newsletters and memberships, which includes free access to their annual event (tickets can still be purchased.)

The Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System

A subscription website with the goal of generating subscriptions and revenue for a premium magazine.

• Examples: New England Network, Indian Country Media Network, Countryside Network, I Like Crochet, I Like Knitting, Biblical Archaeology Society and Ceramic Arts Network.

Our most popular website business model is designed to take consumer magazine publishers boldly forward into a multiplatform 21st-century strategy. In addition to our revolutionary HTML web magazine and support for tablet based at magazines, these Systems often include our directory, calendar and classified revenue models. Of course, our Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System features all the functionality of our signature website portal which can be leveraged for both premium subscription development and third-party sponsorship programs using our native, scarcity, exclusivity and alignment sponsorship program.

Our Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System is also fully compatible with state-of-the-art subscription fulfillment systems from Strategic Fulfillment Group,  CDS Global, and Palm Coast Data. Our cutting-edge multiplatform contrast pricing program coupled with our Six Sigma direct marketing program will allow you to dramatically increase your subscription unit sales and average price per subscriber. The Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System maintains the strong traditions of a dual revenue strategy powered by subscriptions and sponsorship and also allows you to add new consumer revenue streams powered by an online shop, event marketing system and multi-product consumer clubs.

A prime example of the Haven Dartmouth Subscription Website System is New England Network, built for Yankee Publishing, who has a popular regional magazine named Yankee in New England. Like all Dartmouth systems, their website is built to attract, convert, engage, and monetize visitors by converting them into paying magazine subscribers.

The Haven Innsbrook Subscription Website System

A subscription website with the goal of generating leads.

• Example: Investing News Network

If your marketplace is all about lead generation, our Haven Innsbrook Subscription Website System will take your business to a whole new level. We begin by leveraging the audience development capabilities of our Amherst system and then add on fully integrated lead generation and distribution capability that targets new website visitors and your legacy email subscribers. This highly automated system allows you to do more work and less time while customizing the sponsorship experience in a way that has never before been possible.

Investing News Network is a great example of our Haven Innsbrook Subscription Website System. In order to run a successful lead generation program, they need to be focused heavily on attracting new leads to the site and capturing their email addresses. INN’s System does exactly that, through regularly updated and search optimized content, paired with our 3C Zone Architecture, built to convert visitors into email subscribers and build lists.

The Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System

A subscription website with the goal of selling seats and tickets to premium events.

• Example: The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

If you are an event marketer using direct mail or paid media to drive event attendance, our Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System can transform your business processes and your bottom line. Leveraging our core Haven Amherst Subscription Website System capabilities to build a massive permission database of email subscribers, our Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System is capable of dramatically lowering your cost per order and allowing you to launch new programs with minimal risk. Our fully integrated audience database leverages user behavior and past event attendance to customize the user experience and allow you to use your marketing inventory in the most efficient manner possible.

The Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System can be added to any of our Bristol, Cambridge, Dartmouth and Innsbrook Subscription Website Systems to power your event marketing programs for live events, webinars and online learning systems.

An example of a Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System that is seeing great success is The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.  Founded in 1983 as special research project at Harvard University, the Program on Negotiation (PON) is dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. PON includes faculty, students, and staff from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. The launch of their Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System included an abundance of free content and free reports, plus a plethora of paid products including a newsletter and their premium events, which drive the majority of their revenue. Since launching their Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System, their revenues have grown by more than 60%, programs are often filled to capacity, and they’ve added new programs as well. Meanwhile, the cost of marketing via direct mail was 32% of the budget; today, their total marketing spend is a mere 7%, with all event tickets now generated from their Haven Plymouth Subscription Website System and their email list.

Would you like to learn more about our six subscription website systems and see which fits your business best? Schedule a call to chat with Don and Julie about the possibilities.

The post Mequoda Announces 6 Subscription Website Systems for 2017 appeared first on Mequoda Daily.