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BEARNE ON MEDIA

Reader loyalty is the new holy grail for publishers

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 | By Suzanne Bearne

There’s a battle going on in online measurement. It’s loyalty versus numbers, or engagement versus unique users. More and more publishers are backing loyalty, and rightly so.

As my colleague Will Cooper said in his column last week, focusing on the search angle, the Daily Mirror is favouring a loyal visitor base rather than ramping up traffic through natural search and keyword optimisation for its standalone entertainment 3am site (nma 10 September 2009).

This isn’t a strategy that suggests it’s abandoning search altogether or that the Mirror will be happy with a few hundred loyal users. But a loyal online reader appears to becoming more important to publishers.

A visitor who loves the brand, visits time and time again and enjoys the content is more likely to notice the ads and sign up to a newsletter or competition, so is worth more than a user who has visited the site by searching for news of the latest Britney Spears scandal and clicking on the resulting link.

A conversation I had last week with a digital director at a top publisher revealed a major FMCG company has begun concentrating on loyal users by paying publishers more for an engaged rather than a unique user.

We’ve become obssessed by traffic numbers, but the industry, which is increasingly favouring engaged users, needs to put this on the agenda of bodies like the Association of Online Publishers and call for engagement to be included alongside unique user figures.

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Readers' comments (2)

  • Jason More | Tue, 15 Sep 2009 1:24 pm

    I think loyalty is by far more important than unique users as not only do you have a customer for a longer period of time, you also get the brand advocacy that goes with it and the word of mouth marketing by way of recommendation.

    It's been proven many times that brand advocates invest a lot more with a brand (not just time) as recommendations by the brand are taken up much more readily, as the loyal customer has an association/identity with it, giving the brand a kind of trust controlling power.

    One of the best ways for brands (and especially publishers) is to build a community consumer panel through which they can communicate with and identify ways in which brand advocacy can be fostered and harnest e.g. online enagagement methodologies (Look at IDG Communications Media in Germany).

    Any publisher can do this with a simple subscription list, getting your readership involved in your content, editorial and part of the decision making process. If you're clever you can even generate an additional revenue through the same approach, benefitting all involved.

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  • Oliver Meakings | Tue, 15 Sep 2009 2:59 pm

    Like anything it's a balancing act. Great search visibility and inclusion in google news drives volume but doesn't guarantee an engaged or relevant audience. However, you need *some* userbase as a starting point.

    I would suggest focussing on driving search visibility through articles most relevant to your audience. As a teen site I define the passion topics / favourite musical acts of my audience and ensure I am writing about them.

    I then use a succession of tools including daily mailing lists and visibility on social sites like twitter and facebook to drive repeat usage. I also use recurring editorial themes delivered on certain days, and a clearly defined remit to ensure not only that my users feel safe in terms of what we deliver editorially, but they know when to return.

    I am confused by your point about junk traffic coming through irrelevant search terms. 3am is a gossip site so someone clicking through on a headline about the latest Britney scandal seems to me incredibly relevant.

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