• 7 Best Practices for Successful Email Subject Lines in 2022

With spam filters constantly advancing, digital marketers need to know what triggers spam filters in order to increase email deliverability and land in inboxes. That’s only half the battle, though. Email marketers also need to stay on top of subscribers’ behaviors and interests in order to continue getting opened, because engagement (clicks, forwards, and replies) affects deliverability. Both avoiding the spam filter and getting a campaign opened relies heavily on your subject line. It’s the first thing your subscriber sees in their inbox.

• Publishers: Always Be Optimizing…

The use of algorithms to optimize ad performance has provided tremendous value for digital advertisers over the last decade. Publishers need to demand similar technology to optimize their performance, too. The major benefit of optimization algorithms in content recommendation ads is their ability to analyze thousands of ad-to-content combinations. This enables publishers to run ads that will generate the greatest revenue while providing advertisers the highest conversion rates and users the best experience.

• The Downturn Ad Economy: A Tale of Two Narratives

There are two competing narratives on advertising at the moment. They sit uneasily with each other. But both are correct. Ad dollars are being spent, but they’re also being cut. Yes, these two things can be true at the same time. No, the latter perspective doesn’t make the former any less valid or vice versa. Really, it’s a matter of perspective.

• Conquering All Media: The Best Ad Sales Software in Every Industry

At its most basic, an ad sales management program can track all stages of a sale through a customer relationship management (CRM) system. At its best, it’s a proactive tool that ensures work is done efficiently, effectively, and in step with every move that both your team members and your valued clients make. What’s important to remember is that these systems are a means for your business. In this article, we’ll go industry by industry to spotlight not just the systems that are available, but also the traits and capabilities you should look for and count on.

• Why Your Email Sender Reputation Matters, Especially Now

It’s easy to avoid common email deliverability problems, but coming back from a poor sender reputation is tricky. It’s a longer-term process that requires an organic increase in email deliverability. Take a few email marketing strategies from Mirabel’s Marketing Manager on how to improve your email deliverability and sender reputation

• Smaller Publishers Risk Missing Out on the Benefits of AI

Investment in AI doubled in 2021, but the technologies are not a priority for smaller publishers. Faced with the day-to-day challenges of revenue generation and content creation, it is understandable that smaller publishers see emerging innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) as being low on their priority list. But in avoiding new technologies, they risk missing out to competitors who are working to understand the benefits of AI.

• How Brands Are Responding to the Increasing Cost of Marketing

Inflation isn’t just making goods and services more expensive; it’s also pushing up the cost of reaching the market. Everything it takes to get a message out — paper, postage, transportation and ad space — has become more expensive in 2022. And that isn’t likely to change any time soon.  For most marketing professionals, these are uncharted waters. However, brands are adapting to a world where it costs more to do business by evaluating their existing marketing efforts, refining their offers and leaning on reliable partners.

• The CRM Shopping List: 8 Key Qualities to Seek in a Publishing CRM

One of the easiest ways to streamline everyday tasks is by implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) software. If you’re in the publishing industry and looking to optimize your processes and boost profitability, read on. Here are the key qualities to seek when looking for the best publishing CRM.

• Marketing 2022 and Beyond: Predicting and Preparing for the Future of CRM

CRMs began as an addition to current software, evolving into browser extensions and apps to complement existing tools. Today, most companies rely on SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) cloud-based technology for this marketing necessity. However, the next generation of CRM will include AI capabilities. According to recent IDC projections, “Intelligent CRM applications will account for 20 percent of the AI applications market.”

• Up to 33% of Subscribers Are Lost in the First 24 Hours: How Publishers Can Reduce Churn

Think loyal users drive conversion? The data indicates a more nuanced reality. According to Piano’s latest Subscription Performance Benchmark Report, nearly 30% of subscription conversions happen after 10 active days – in the first year of a subscription business. In year two, over 40% of conversions happen on the first day of engagement.

• The Expansion Is Over: Ad Economy Recedes for First Time in 16 Months

The U.S. ad market contracted 3% in June, marking the first decline since February 2021, according to a MediaPost analysis of data from Standard Media Index’s U.S. Ad Market Tracker. The contraction follows a steady deceleration of the U.S. ad market’s expansion coming out of the COVID-19-related advertising recession. Relative to June 2020, which fell 23.1%, June 2022’s ad market index actually expanded 36.6%.

• The 5 Myths of Digital Flatplanning, and How to Overcome Resistance

The resistance that some production managers have in opening up their flatplans to the rest of the company is widespread. And it does easily boil down to an overall resistance to change. These are easily dispelled myths that can be addressed head-on for the better of the publication, the people who make it, and the process overall.

• Why Google Analytics Is Best for Data-Driven Content Marketing

When it comes to organic or paid content marketing, it’s about figuring out how to use data to enhance and optimize your digital strategy. Utilizing this data has never been easier, thanks to the king of search engine analytics: Google Analytics. Understanding Google Analytics helps you produce content that your target audience wants to see. The platform provides actionable insights, like click-through and bounce rates, time spent on page, and more. It’s a must-have in every marketer’s toolkit. This article will explain what is content marketing and how to use available to enhance your Google Analytics marketing strategy.

• Increase Subscription Conversion Rates: An Optimized Framework for Digital Publishers

Tracking overall conversion rates is valuable, but it isn’t suited to the publishing industry. Instead, it’s highly more effective to combine engagement and conversion to create a 5-step conversion journey, tracking the smaller conversions in-between each step. In this way, you work on making small improvements at each step of the funnel that will cumulate into a significantly higher overall user-to-subscriber conversion rate.

• Shifting to a Global Mindset, Agencies Are Preparing for a Cookieless World

In the face of third-party cookie deprecation and the loss of other once-relied-upon identifiers, leading agencies are throwing out the old marketing and advertising playbook and trying to wrap their minds around what audience understanding, targeting and measurement look like in a privacy-first world. While certain realities of a cookieless world have yet to take shape, there are approaches that global leaders have already started to master as they navigate the identity landscape of the future and chart their — and their clients’ — courses.  The first step is adopting a global mindset.

• The Great Recruitment: How to Hire Great Ad Sales Reps in 2022

Coming out of the last few years and following what many were calling The Great Resignation, perhaps there’s no better time to embark on what I’d like to call The Great Recruitment — an opportunity to bring great, available talent together with 2022’s promising opportunity for the good of your publication.

• Don’t Be Spammy: 10 Email Body Content Design Tips to Help Avoid Filters

In the hierarchy of email marketing importance, it would seem that body content ranks lowest, as this can only be seen once the sender name and subject line have successfully garnered an open. Spam filters look at everything, including the copy and visual elements in your email’s body content, prior to letting your message into inboxes, so it’s just as important to prioritize this. Let’s take a look at what you should and shouldn’t do with your content in order to bypass spam filters, maintain a solid email marketing sender reputation, and boost engagement (read: clicks).

• ‘Net-zero by 2025’: Pressure Builds on Publishers to Prove Sustainability or Lose Ad Buyers

Whilst over 130 governments worldwide have agreed to meet Net Zero carbon emissions targets by 2050, as well as employ a Net Zero Workforce, publishers are starting to heed the call for a more sustainable planet by bringing forward their own plans a few decades earlier. The incentive to do so isn’t just coming top-down from Governments but also from media buyers who, at the behest of brands, are starting to evaluate publisher ad inventory using rigorous sustainability criteria.

• ‘Advertising has taken a hit’: The Crypto Crisis Has Created an Advertising Vacuum

Don’t expect to see many crypto ads for a minute. The companies behind them are trimming down costs wherever they can, including advertising. It’s all they can do to weather a storm that’s been swirling since autumn. Since November, the value of the cryptocurrency market has plummeted from $3 trillion to roughly $900 billion, and analysts predict the meltdown will continue.

• The Best Magazine Software for Publishers in 2022

When it comes to magazine media and digital publications, reliable software tools are a necessity. From publishing CRM and magazine design, to circulation and subscription management, this ultimate guide to magazine software is an overview of the most popular software tools in the publishing industry.

• Construct and Convert: 10 of the Best Landing Page Design Tips

So, you’re creating a new landing page. That’s great! Landing pages are prime opportunities to convert your website’s visitors into leads. To increase your conversion rate, the landing page design needs to provide a smooth user experience. To get that smooth user experience, keep these 10 landing page design ideas in mind.

• The Increasing Value of Standalone Newsletters

Publishers are seeing newsletters as distinct products, driving engagement and revenue. Newsletter strategy used to be focused exclusively on driving traffic to publishers’ websites with click-through rates the all-important metric. Increasingly, however, publishers are seeing newsletters as more than traffic drivers, developing them as distinct, standalone products that will cement audience engagement and even generate ecommerce revenue.

• ‘The juice is not always worth the squeeze’: Publishers Evaluate Cost-per-Click Pricing Models in Their Commerce Businesses

The first quarter of 2022 wasn’t the most successful for some publishers’ commerce businesses. But a few media companies are hoping to avoid this downward trajectory with new pricing models for affiliate deals. Execs hope this strategy will help to bring in more retail partners and take advantage of their audiences’ changing online shopping habits.

• Cover to Cover: How to Start a Magazine in 2022

If you’re looking to start a magazine or pivot to digital editions, read on. We’re outlining the basic steps of how to start a magazine in 2022.

• 12 Growth Hacks to Enhance Your Content Marketing Strategy

Creating the perfect content marketing strategy for your brand is no small feat. No matter how well you know your audience or how long you’ve spent optimizing your content, every content marketer has faced the challenge of gaining readership and brand awareness… This marketing blog will explore different ways on how to use digital growth hacking to expand and enhance your content marketing strategy, plus teach you how to learn from your content and get real results.

• Publishers: 4 Technologies to Include in Your 2023 Plans

“Publishers across the world are betting big on AI” write Señor, Sriram and Bravo. Clearly, the taboo around AI is fading. More than 75% of publishers say AI will play a crucial role in the success of their business within the next three years. This is not just in large newsrooms but in newsrooms across the world in developed and developing countries. The main barrier to the adoption of AI however is attracting talent and skills. Therefore, a more collaborative approach between media, research institutions, and third-party solutions needs to be encouraged.

• How Brands Are Reigniting Interest in Advertising With Contextual Targeting

The Federal Trade Commission plans a “start-to-finish reboot” to its guidance for digital advertisers, the agency said Friday. The agency last issued updated guidance for online disclosures in 2013, when it recommended that marketers make sure all terms, conditions and disclaimers were available to people who accessed ads on small mobile screens. Lesley Fair, a senior attorney with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated Friday: “It’s time for a start-to-finish reboot, given the major changes in advertising tactics and techniques that marketers use.”

• Let’s Get Digital! Why Now Is the Best Time to Embrace the Shift

In the past, digital editions have been regarded as a side dish to the main course of a print edition, or an optional add-on to a subscription you already have. While I may have agreed with you five years ago, the relevance of digital content increases exponentially alongside our use of technology. The technologically advanced, data-driven society we live in needed a face-lift when it came to presenting content in a user-friendly, accessible way. It’s time to stop thinking about digital editions as a sidekick. They’re the superheroes we deserve, and they can help your audience connect with your content moving forward. Here’s a closer look at why now is the time to shift to digital.

• Here Are the Top 10 Marketing Content Types (With Examples)

Content marketing can be accomplished through various channels and diverse types of content. The content marketing type you choose to employ should depend on your audience’s preferences. For example, your product or service might be best showcased through blog articles, videos, or a how-to guide. We can’t say exactly which content type would best suit your brand’s needs or best hit the metrics of your specific content marketing analytics — that will come through trial and error. We can, however, describe the top types of content that users want to see from brands they support.

• Publishers: How to Develop Effective Retention Strategies

Keeping customers – subscribers, advertisers or both – seems like common sense, but many businesses instinctively spend more time developing new business than nurturing existing customers… The need for effective retention strategies has been thrown into the spotlight for publishers dealing with subscription drop offs following the highs of the pandemic’s stay-at-home shopping sprees. Current record growth in advertising revenues could morph into a similar slump as the cost of living crisis bites harder and marketing budgets tighten in line with consumer spending.

• FTC to Revamp Digital Advertising Guidance

The Federal Trade Commission plans a “start-to-finish reboot” to its guidance for digital advertisers, the agency said Friday. The agency last issued updated guidance for online disclosures in 2013, when it recommended that marketers make sure all terms, conditions and disclaimers were available to people who accessed ads on small mobile screens. Lesley Fair, a senior attorney with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stated Friday: “It’s time for a start-to-finish reboot, given the major changes in advertising tactics and techniques that marketers use.”

• 6 Ways to Capitalize on a Challenging Publishing Environment

As was the case for many companies around the world, the coronavirus pandemic brought a plethora of unforeseen professional challenges. For the publishing industry in particular, these challenges included a significant decrease in revenue from advertising and subscriptions, as well as a lack of opportunity for new advertising partnerships. As publishers have persevered through many other changes and challenges over the years, I have no doubt we will continue to do so now. To help, I’ve compiled six tips to help you emerge even stronger than before.

• Bad Sender Reputation? Here’s How to Check Yours and Ultimately Fix It

Common mistakes can hurt your email sender reputation. If you receive too many spam complaints, your reputation goes down. If you send unsolicited emails after buying an email list, your reputation goes down. If you fall into a spam trap or honeypot scam, your reputation goes down. Between sender reputation, sender scores, email deliverability, and IP reputation, it’s a lot to consider in a single marketing strategy. Here are a few basics on how to improve your email sender reputation.

• ‘More than 60% of readers do not return’: What Publishers Can Do to Stem the Tide and Boost Engagement

45% of readers who load an article will leave within the first 15 seconds and more than 60% will not return, according to a new Chartbeat whitepaper.  “The Essential Engagement KPIs for Optimizing Conversion Rates,” delves into the importance of developing an effective audience engagement strategy, the essential KPIs for tracking it, and how publishers can use the measurements to build strategies that will optimize conversion rates.

• The Rundown: Google’s Marketing Live Announcements Signal Strategic Priorities

The flagship Google Marketing Live conference is underway this week in which the ad industry’s largest name typically showcases its wares. This year’s installment is taking place as lawmakers and potential interlopers dial up the pressure. Renewed offerings in the retail media sector, not to mention the upcoming formal introduction of ad units in its TikTok-rival YouTube Shorts, point to growing competition in the sector while last week’s Digital Advertising Act underlines external tensions.

• Everything You Need to Know to Start a Magazine Podcast

Since 2004, podcasts audiences have flourished. There are more than 2 million podcasts with 48 million+ episodes, which provide content targeted at a wide range of audiences. Additionally, there are an estimated 120 million podcast listeners in America, which makes podcasts a desirable advertising channel. Moreover, publishers have an advantage because magazine content seamlessly converts to podcast material. Whether the podcast features interviews with notable community leaders or recaps on city-famous events, this content is engaging.

• 8 Quick Tips for a Perfect Mobile-Friendly Landing Page

With over half of users visiting via mobile devices, your ability to optimize your content for smaller screens is a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. Otherwise, you’ll lose out on potential conversions, because your landing pages are hard to navigate and/or slower on cell phones and tablets. In this article, we’re going to focus on why you need to optimize landing pages for mobile and how to create the perfect landing page with industry best practices.

• How Publishers Are Future Proofing Their Commerce Offerings for Post-Pandemic Consumers

Amid Digiday Media’s first Commerce Week, publishers gathered virtually on Thursday to hear from one another on their commerce strategies. Execs from Vice, Vox Media, Leaf Group and BuzzFeed joined panel discussions to chat about how — with shoppers at home during the pandemic — they expanded their offerings and where they’re making investments to future proof that side of their businesses. Here are five takeaways from the event.

• ‘Astronomical growth over the last 2 years’: Publishers Prioritizing Digital Transformation

The majority of the publishers surveyed by WAN-IFRA for its World Press Trends Outlook 2021-2022 report are “decisively upbeat about their companies’ future prospects,” says Teemu Henriksson, Research Editor, WAN-IFRA.  81.8% of the 162 publishers from 58 countries say they are optimistic about their business outlook this year. The figure reduces slightly to 78.8% when they are asked to rate their prospects for the next three years.

• What’s Your Mix of Six? Alternative Revenue Streams in Digital Publishing

Nowadays, no single revenue stream is enough to sustain, let alone grow, a digital publication. Instead, online publishers are relying on a combination of revenue streams to ensure they can bring in sufficient capital. While there are numerous potential revenue sources, most companies will find success by creating their own “mix of six” streams that are suited for their individual publications. In the world of digital publishing, there are so many ways to monetize your content that it can be overwhelming. Here’s a simple breakdown comparing potential sources of revenue between print and digital publications in 2022.