The Golden Web

Circulation Management, April 1, 2004

Byline: Claudia H. Allen

Rodale has been the front-runner in the industry when it comes to transitioning a Web site from an editorial extension to an e-commerce site. The Rodale model of the Web as a revenue-driver has shown publishers the way to turn what was once called a "black hole" by Time Inc. management into a profitable enterprise.

At Rodale, Claudia Allen moved from circ to an online position in August 2002 to join a newly created Men's Health and Sports internet division. She became the internet liaison to the circulation department, responsible for the planning of all internet subscription sales, gift subs, customer service online and partnerships for e-commerce.

In this article for CM, she stresses the importance of working more closely with editorial and sales than circulators do in traditional media to leverage synergies. She shares some of Rodale's most successful ideas for building traffic, converting visitors to subscribers, and building e-commerce. The internet division is financed by a percentage of sales. "You have to justify your site's existence, because it ain't free," says Allen.

People used to have a Web site because everyone else did; it was something they were supposed to do. The flaw with that is you really must have a business plan. You must figure out what are the potential sources of revenue - advertising dollars are one, subscription sales are another, product sales are a third. You may or may not be a company that produces products other than magazines.

Driving subscription sales is not as simple as just doing new business acquisition; you want to have a robust customer service component, so you can do transactions online, such as renewals and bill payments and account management. This will lower your subscription service costs.

As far as driving ad dollars, you are probably going to be in the position to use the Web site to sweeten or enrich a deal you have in print with a client. You need to look at how you can use your content to really enhance advertiser campaigns or provide a great forum for advertisers.

Also, when you are involved in marketing on the Web, you are involved in product sales. We're a publisher. We have magazines and books. We've chosen to partner with other companies who provide goods and services and expertise that we don't have - we then private-label brand the goods, services and expertise and offer them to our customers. It's a great revenue stream for us.

It is critical to identify where those dollars are coming from and where those areas of growth are, because any plans you make are going to be based on that information.

Building a Sales Environment

You don't want your site to be a regurgitation or mirror image of your magazine product; you have to provide an extension of editorial coverage and interactivity that harnesses the medium of the Web. That makes it a richer experience for the customers you already have, as well as a great environment to convert visitors who may come across your site via the magazine on the newsstand or through a search engine.

The goal is to present your range of products and editorial to visitors so that you can convert them into paying customers. Not all the services your site provides are editorial services; providing forums for people to chat, creates community. Providing relevant goods and services that cater to your customers' interests fuels their desires and services the needs of your customer base.

How do you measure success? Are you achieving your budgeted goals? Are you achieving the growth potential that you think is there for each of those avenues? You need to define those metrics to chart your progress.

For products and services, it may be a matter of multiplying them, offering a greater variety of products and services, as well as building out the ones you have.

Looking at the traffic on your Web site is really important. Typically traffic is measured in a one-month period. Any repeat visitors (those who have come in to your site more than one time) and unique visitors (people that have only come one time) are counted every month. At the start of a new month, you start counting again.

Repeat visitors are a very important group, because you've captured their interest. You have their loyalty and chances are you have their money as well.

Unique visitors represent fresh blood and a new prospect pool (keep in mind, some uniques have come before in a prior month). They may have found you via URL in a single copy sale or from a search engine. You may not know the source of their visit, but their visit represents a new opportunity to sell them your subscription or other products.

Do we treat each visitor differently? We don't, but it depends on what sort of site you have. For instance, Meredith and some others have sites that reference a database, so if someone comes to the site, they know right away if they are already a purchasing customer by pinging their cookie against the database.

Then you have the answer to the question 'is this person a purchaser?' Maybe the answer is 'Yes, it's an existing customer.' 'Yes, last time they renewed, they picked a cooking premium.' So what's the first thing that person sees when they visit? An offer for a cookbook! This all happens in a nanosecond.