Your Mileage May Vary

If you’re looking at doing a native app, you might be wondering what percentage of your readership would prefer to access your content that way. 

It’s a tough question, and one that’s dependent on at least two things:

1.) Your content – If you’ve got the type of readers who don’t use iPhones or iPads, you won’t get as many readers on these devices.

2.) Your active promotion of your app. Don’t kid yourself: your app needs to be promoted to your audience.

But let’s say you have a highly technical audience? And let’s say you promote the tar out of your app, then what?

At Nxtbook, we don’t give out identifiable publisher data without permission. Oftentimes, those publishers end up in case studies or webinars. But the case I’m going to tell you about is anonymous. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.

Despite my copious posts about 2% mobile readership, this particular publisher has only 59% of readers currently accessing content on traditional computer browsers after 3 issues of their magazine being out. Their iPad native app, meanwhile, generated 14.7% of readership. The iPhone native app received 5.7% of readership, and finally, iPhone/iPad web apps generated 4.6% combined. Hardly typical, but very interesting.

We also took a look at this particular publisher for engagement times and I was – once again – surprised. Before I looked, I would’ve guessed the iPad native app would have the highest time, but that honor went to the browser-based computer edition. The iPad native app – at this point – is a full 20% behind, and the iPhone 20% behind that. We’ll see if that holds, as I personally believe that the iPad will deliver superior engagement times over time.

So that’s that. File it under "anecdotal, and yet, interesting."

 

The Future of Engagement is Intriguing. Now, About the Present…

So Time, Inc. is working with another company to stick electrodes on peoples’ heads to gauge how much they like iPad ads. Seriously.

"Pay no attention to the lack of readers," such research seems to say. "Instead, let’s focus on the fact that their brains are on fire with activity!"

The problem, however, isn’t finding ways to measure engagement. Heck, we can look at time spent as a first place to drive that flag in the ground.

No, the problem is figuring out how to train salespeople to sell engagement and training buyers on why it matters as much as (or more) than page views. Maybe Time’s got their salespeople tied up somewhere, presumably with wires in their head, working on that one.

Want to make your salespeople shine in a world full of digital magazines and apps? Figure out how to sell engagement, today. Look at engagement times in your different products and yes, don’t be afraid to look behind the curtain at click-throughs, too. It’s a good place to start, and you don’t have to wear electrodes to do it.

 

Designing for Digital Webinar (Exclusive)

Part of Nxtbook Media’s 80 touch points with our publishers includes specialized webinars formed with our clients in mind. Next week, Nxtbook’s creative team is presenting "Designing for Digital," which will focus on the process of optimizing publications for the iPad and other tablets.

For Nxtbook Media clients who are looking to take their publication to the next level, especially with regards to tablet audiences, this is a must-see. To steal from the invite, "You’ll learn what media is RICH for readers but easy on the wallet!" You’ll also get practical steps to repurpose your content, see how to use style guides for quick optimization, and take a look at some examples of other clients who have excelled in this field.

Don’t miss it: click here to sign up. Join us on December 15, 2:00 pm EST.

International Digital Catalogs and Retail

Have a digital edition that’s not in English? No problem!

A few years ago, we first introduced you to Jean-Jerome Sache and Newpress, the official reseller for Nxtbook Media in France. (Click here to read about it.) It is through tight partnerships with on-sight companies, such as Newpress, that enables digital editions to be customized for publishers across the globe. Recently a French digital catalog was completed for the client Marionnaud, just in time for Christmas. Read Jean-Jerome’s account of the success of this edition:

Marionnaud ranks among the most famous worldwide cosmetic sales retail chains. For their 3rd successive year of collaboration with Newpress and their 5th catalogue in Nxtbook format, the Marionnaud French company decided this time to customize it to its best in their new interactive digital catalogue named ‘Mes 1001 idees de Noel‘ (‘My 1001 ideas for Christmas.’).

In line with their up-market positioning, Marionnaud opted for a modern and colourful design of their product pages, and for a more personalized tool menu. They also asked us to design a Christmas wish list in the catalogue, so that readers could choose the products they could be given by a relative, a friend, etc… who will receive this list and act as their Santa Claus.

The branding shown in the catalogue followed clear specifications given by Marionnaud, then the development and the set-up stages were carried out by the Nxtbook Media French technical team. Flash animations were also created and added into the pages of the catalogue to make it more attractive and dynamic.

The final result was unanimously cheered by the whole Marionnaud French team. Newpress and the Nxtbook format have widely contributed to the success of this project. So far 27,000 unique visitors have been recorded, around 900,000 pages have been viewed, and there are 29,000 hits linking the products on the Marionnaud online shop. Three weeks to Christmas, Marionnaud has still to launch a massive online promotional campaign about their digital catalogue.

All in all, our client is utterly satisfied!

Check out the catalog (warning: it’s in French!) and adopt some of the customizations for your own digital edition to increase interactivity and interest in the products.

Twitter Feed for Thought

Trying to build a twitter following for your digital magazine or catalog? You can try following 500 new people a day and wait to see who follows you back. Or you can try building community with conversation. Tweet new headlines, participate in Follow Friday, retweet conversation lines, create trendy topics, and ask readers to retweet your material. 

For example, hop on board topics people care about by using hashtags (#) to promote your material through trending topics. For example, if you’re a publication about music – like Carnegie Hall or The Recording Academy (Grammy), use hashtag #MusicMonday (on Monday) to reach an audience of music lovers. Recommend other businesses, and be promoted in return, by using #FF (Follow Friday).

Talk to your Account Manager about how to create a strong social media campaign to get people talking about your publication. Be sure to follow Nxtbook Media on twitter and join the conversation.

What Being a Best Places to Work Company Means to Me

Written by Owner and CEO Michael Biggerstaff

Pennsylvania has a great program like a lot of other states, called the Best Places to Work in PA.  It is a program that is driven by the Best Companies Group.  The program is in 19 states and 7 regions around the country. I really have no idea why this program doesn’t exist in all 50 states but I digress.

In Pennsylvania there is a partnership between the Best Companies Group and the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal along with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development and finally Team Pennsylvania Foundation.  These groups have done a great deal to create a wonderful program that is well executed and very valuable for all involved.

As a company, you enter the program, basically by telling the Best Companies Group you want to be considered as a Best Places to Work Company. As long as you meet some additional requirements – size of company, located in the state, etc. – then you move into the next phase, the surveys.   There is a two part survey process that is managed by the Best Companies Group. The first survey is filled out by the company where we have the opportunity to talk about our benefits, policies, practices and other things that make us special or different in some way. This survey accounts for 25% of our total score.

Now here comes the good part. The second survey goes out to ALL employees (in the medium company category) and they are able to answer questions about the company and the job in total anonymity. There were over 32,000 employee surveys done this year alone, so you can see how many companies try to be a part of this list.
 The employee survey is a whopping 75% of the total score.  As a company we get group feedback telling us exactly what our employees think about the company and the jobs they do.  This gives Nxtbook Media feedback on what we do right and in areas that we could improve.

The easy thing is to concentrate on the things you need to improve upon.  That’s what most people do. However, it’s my opinion that you have to also give as much time to the positive feedback and look for ways to tweak it. I believe that everything is possible for improvement, the good and the bad!

So being part of the Best Places to Work in PA provides us with an opportunity to look at ourselves from really, “the inside”. Having employees tell you what they think about the company allows them to be more engaged in the overall company.  We were told last night at the event that the average US Company has about a 30+% employee engagement while the average Best Places finalist has a 90% employee engagement, obviously a huge difference. That’s the big win for Nxtbook Media as a company, but it is also very big for our clients.

Our employees at Nxtbook Media care more about our clients and the company than anyone I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. It is such a pleasure to be a part of this organization and work with the people here at Nxtbook.  Just know that our people are more committed and do their best to have the best relationship possible with you, the customer. We aren’t perfect, but boy do we try to be. And know if we make a mistake or drop the ball we will do our best to correct it.

When Nxtbook was awarded the #3 Best Place to Work in PA last evening it was a great testament to our people and their commitment to what they do on a daily. We are proud of the fact we have been in the top 3 the last 3 years. Number 1 is always our goal but we find a certain pleasure in knowing we are very fortunate to provide a great product, delivered by a terrific team of people that are here working for our clients. As a client, it doesn’t get any better than that!

So congratulations to all of the employees of Nxtbook Media for this terrific honor. It is well deserved; enjoy it, you work hard at it every day. Please know your efforts are appreciated because without your dedication, Nxtbook would be just another company.

Cheers!

Michael

Question Asked, Question Answered

A couple days ago, Folio published this article giving the state of custom media use. 200 people and/or companies were surveyed and responded to questions regarding their investment in custom media for their brand’s promotion.

Today, I read this article complaining that too many magazine apps look like basic replications of the print edition. It felt like a "Question asked, question answered" scenario (or rather, the answer was posted before the question.) If your readers are asking for an experience catering to a specific device or medium, try custom publications. More and more publishers are taking that route, as was indicated in Folio’s post.

It’s important publishers know, however, that some of the more interactive magazine apps – like Martha Stewart’s Living magazine – have full creative and sales teams dedicated to making and selling the app version. The truth is not every publisher has that kind of resource base yet. Having a replication enables publishers to push their content onto multiple devices without having to change their work flow or their personnel.

Something to consider: according to Folio’s survey, the total average spending on electronic branded forms was $118,957 less than the total average spending on print forms. The breakdown? "The average spending for print forms of branded content is $256,655 on personnel, $214,874 on production, and $125,343 on distribution." There isn’t a distribution cost for the electronic content.

With the money you save going digital, you can invest in custom media. For example, call Talefoundry, content marketing agency specifically catering to publishers. Talefoundry’s services enable publishers to make their branded content more interactive and engaging. They can help take your content beyond the replica stage. Contact them here.

 

Best of the UK…..

In the States we’ve been helping publishers generate revenue through rich media and sponsorship positions in their Nxtbooks for over 8 years. If you needed inspiration from another 40pg monthly title that had been increasing revenue through up-selling banner ads we could easily source a sample of publisher who had been there and done it. Our Digital Revenue Guide www.bestofnxtbook.com has made us the first choice for some of the worlds’ most forward thinking publishers who want to ensure their digital magazines work as long term investments. However if you’re in Europe and just getting started with digital over 40 sponsorship positions and rich media elements to choose from can leave you wondering where to start. With this in mind we have come up a UK version of our popular revenue guide – The Best of Nxtbook (UK), reflecting what our publishers are currently finding successful. This includes a variety of blow-in cards, flash animation and ad-gen features to up-sell to advertisers along with interactive ways of engaging readers through slide-shows, surveys and video elements. Click on the link to see what UK publishers are doing to make their digital editions successful: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxteu/NxtbookMedia/bonb2010_amber/ – For support, advice and training on generating revenue through your digital publication contact your Nxtbook Account Manager who will be able to advise.

 

So what else is happening this side of the pond? Well for the 3rd year in a row the European office is supporting Key 103 Radio’s Cash for Kids Campaign, a great charity that embraces what Christmas is all about raising money for toys for local families, please find details below:

http://www.key103.co.uk/Article.asp?id=2024449&spid=24139 

 

Just in Case You’re a Workaholic (Or British)

True story: I’m very proud of the readership of this blog and one of the main ways we get readers is through our Thursday newsletter push, which has a very healthy open rate, except for one day of the year: Thanksgiving.

Oh yes, like clockwork the newsletter will go out on Thursday, but also like clockwork, my in-bin will be swarmed with hundreds of out-of-office messages, all with some variation of "I’m putting up with my extended family in the name of being a glutton." And to all of you, we say, "Happy Thanksgiving."

But in the event that you are British (or of another non-Thanksgiving-celebrating nationality) or are actually reading this newsletter, it wouldn’t be right to not give you any content, so I offer you a Google search of Nxtbooks offering Thanksgiving recipes. This proves at least two points:

1. Nxtbook content is searched by Google and other search engines.
2. There’s a lot of great food out there for this holiday. So pull up a chair and dig in.

Stats on Mobile Usage

"Mobile" has been the word on everyone’s minds since before the dawn of the iPad, but it’s hard to gauge the actual impact of the devices based on hearsay and general hype. That is why Nxtbook keeps a close eye on up-to-date facts and statistics concerning this very issue.

Nxtbook Media uses Omniture to track readers’ behavior within our clients’ digital editions to help inform clients about their reader engagement trends. One of the other services Omniture provides is access to anonymous aggregated Internet data – such as the operating system and mobile device profiles – of users accessing Omniture-tracked sites.

Currently, desktop users still have a landslide lead over users who access the sites with mobile devices (tablets included). However, of those who use mobile devices to access Omniture-tracked Internet sites, the following devices claim the listed percent of use:

Apple iPhone – 42.7%
Apple iPad – 11.5%
Motorola Droid – 9.2%
Apple iPod Touch – 7.4%
Nokia 5800 – 4.5%
HTC Evo – 4.5%
Nokia 5230 – 2.4%
Blackberry 8530/Curve – 2.0%
Blackberry 8330 – 1.9%
Motorola Droid – 1.8%
RIM Blackberry 97000/Onyx – 1.6%
Nokia E63 – 1.5%
RIM Blackberry Tour 9630 – 1.4%
Nokia E71 – 1.4%
HTC Droid Incredible – 1.3%
(Other devices are tracked but have less than 1.3% of total usage)

To be clear, when considering mobile usage, it’s important to take your specific readers’ behavior into account. Nxtbook Media clients should check their tracking records to see how their readers prefer accessing their digital editions. Currently, we’re finding about 2% of readers access the digital edition through a mobile device or tablet. If you don’t have one already, it might be time for you to consider your mobile strategy.

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