Media Library (14)

SIIA Applauds House Energy & Commerce Committee Hearing On Dangers of American Competition with China

by PolicyPress Release

The following statement can be attributed to Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Policy, Software & Information Industry Association.

SIIA applauds the House Energy & Commerce Committee for holding a subcommittee hearing on the economic dangers of American competition with China. The hearing incorporates a number of important issues, including protections for access to American’s sensitive personal information and that a federal privacy law should ensure that companies disclose whether their personal information is “sent to, transferred, or otherwise made available to China, as well as other foreign countries including Russia, North Korea, and Iran.”

SIIA has long advocated for the passage of a federal privacy law, which is a high priority for the information industry. We agree with the Committee that the US should enact federal privacy and data security standards to ensure “regulatory certainty” and a uniform set of rules for all companies, regardless of their market size or scope. A national privacy standard will bring positive returns for the state of the economy, strengthen national security, and encourage continued growth in the innovation ecosystem.

As noted in the briefing memo, Chinese companies enjoy a nationalized privacy and data security standard, which, coupled with U.S. inaction on data privacy and security, would provide a competitive edge.

SIIA also applauds the Energy & Commerce Committee for requesting Tik Tok’s CEO to testify in March about the company’s data privacy and security practices.

 

Cusromer receiving automated marketing message, tiny people. Marketing automation system, automated advertise message, marketing dashboard concept. Bright vibrant violet vector isolated illustration

FOMO, Timeliness, no all caps and ‘Inviting’ Leads Can Make Subject Lines (and Readers) Special

by Uncategorized

OptinMonster reports that 47% of email recipients still decide to open your email based on the subject line. Their advice is to “leverage natural human tendencies and psychological principles.” That’s a bit heavy but when you break it down to things like FOMO (“Don’t Miss Out!” “See Who’s Attending”) and timeliness (“Just Added!” “UPDATE”), it makes a lot of sense.

“A poor subject line is more than just bad: It can contribute to your email being marked as spam, dinging your reputation with your customer and search engines. In fact, 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line.”
—Campaign Monitor

When it comes to length, they write that “the sweet spot is a subject line that’s between 6 and 10 words in length.” As for thinking more concise for mobile, it’s hard to say now. Prior to the pandemic, the number of people opening our emails on their mobile device was climbing. But desktops have now risen back to 3-to-1 for us. As more people go back to the office, that should change.

Of course, everyone advises to A/B test. One common way—which can be automated on many platforms—is to send out 10% of your email to two lists with two different subject lines, see which wins and send the rest to that one. Also test the times you send. The work-from-home revolution has changed a lot of open habits.

Here are more subject line best practices:

Lead with your strength.
The National Endowment for Democracy sent me this one: “INVITE | Democratic Deconsolidation and Declining Rule of Law in Poland: Restoration, Resilience, and Resolve |” The invitation peaked my interest. The International News Media Association starts their weekly newsletter with, “What’s New at INMA” before giving some headlines. “Reminder” is a good way to start if it’s something we’ve signed up for. I just received one: “Reminder for Award Winning NatGeo Documentary Short | Q&A w/ Director |*LIMITED SEATING*” The limited seating also got me to open it quickly. These days, signing up for something is just half the battle. We need to be reminded of the event and why we signed up. These words also score well: update, alert, weekend, thank you, bulletin, upgrade, new and available. I’ve read pros and cons for the word free.

Use the fear of missing out (FOMO) and a… trip?
I liken this to passing by a restaurant or brand store and seeing a line outside. What am I missing? I need to be there. “Almost sold out.” “Today’s your last day to save.” Framebridge sent out an email with five green boxes and the line, “Solve for 15% off.” The email led you to Wordle, where the answer was “frame”; but you had only until midnight to use that word to get a 15% framing discount. Sounds like an interesting way to partner. Alliance Francaise sent out an email with this subject line: “We are taking you to the South of France…” (for a virtual talk.) I’m sure that got a good open rate this time of year.

Personalize and make the recipient feel special.
This just came: “You’re invited to the Halcyon Incubator Future Builders Showcase!” (I came to the last one.) If you have members and/or subscribers, reinforce that what they’re getting from you is especially for them. “Wow, RONN, check out your benefits,” Aetna wrote. Writes Litmus: “80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences.” Sharing location-specific information tells your subscribers you’re paying attention to them. People have an innate curiosity about events taking place in their local area.

“Avoid spammy words, special characters, and SHOUTING.”
“Nothing says ‘spam’ to email recipients and internet service providers more than special characters (#%*@), [exclamation points] and messages in ALL CAPS,” writes Campaign Monitor. “At best, these will earn you an unsubscribe. More commonly, they’ll end up right in the spam folder.” I have read that putting the first word in ALL CAPS drives open rates up and that we shouldn’t shy away from emojis. The National Academy of Sciences did both today with this subject line: “TOMORROW Wrong Answers Only Wine Edition 🍷🍇.” I’m in.

Remember to add preview text.
“If your email’s subject line acts as the title of your email, then the preview text is like the subtitle. It’s that small bit of text after the subject line that displays in your email subscriber’s inbox before they click into the email.” Gives you a chance to tell a little more about what’s in the email.

Use numbers.
Numbers can speak volumes—and feel louder than words because we know that what’s coming up will be finite and manageable. “5 Associations Using Social Media the Right Way,” GLC writes. “13 Inclusive Images that Avoid Tokenism + more!” writes Brevity & Wit. “Three Steps for Building a Successful Marketing Strategy and more.” Those are in my in-box today. (I preferring using the numbers to spelling them out.)

Incandescent bulb and colorful notes on turquoise wooden table. This file is cleaned and retouched.

‘Our Strategy Is Rooted In Our Audience Insights’; Are You Asking the Right Questions?

by Media

At the end of an interview with WNIP at the Web Summit in Lisbon last year, Joy Robins, chief revenue officer of The Washington Post, offered publishers this advice: “You must pinpoint your true value proposition, ask what do you do better than any other publisher serving the same audience? Then you need to ask how else you can serve those readers.” That service begins with building better relationships.

“Increasingly, we’re seeing personalities matter—journalism was the original creator economy so how do you also ensure that you have journalists who are increasingly developing relationship with readers?” Robins asked. “Getting the right mix of personality and brand isn’t easy to achieve, but it’s worthwhile.”

Pre-pandemic, publishers were able to augment those writer-reader relationships at in-person events. That’s starting to come back now. It will be interesting to see if a company like Workweek or Substack enters the in-person events world, featuring their content creators. It’s almost like a great bookstore we have here in Washington, D.C. called Politics & Prose that has nightly readings. They bring people into the store, illuminate the relationships people have with authors, and increases loyalty.

Building a trusting and two-way relationship with your audience matters more than ever now. In a recent Association Benchmarking Report, only 38% of respondents said they are conducting communication-specific surveys at least once every 12–24 months to stay on top of audience/member needs. And only half believe they have a good understanding of their reader, member and advertiser needs. That’s not enough.

Here are some ways media organizations are talking more to their audiences:

Ask the right questions. National Journal president and BIMS 2023 speaker Kevin Turpin has spoken about the importance of asking the right questions. “We had a really deep dedication to getting to know our audience as best we could. Knowing what their top challenges are, how those challenges are changing? ‘What are the new things that are getting into your budget that wasn’t there five years ago? How are you managing the office differently?’ We spent a year with our customers, asking them a set of questions over and over. The most important one was, ‘What keeps you effective?’ …Let’s take the challenges of what we learned in spending time with top clients. This is where our transformation is going to go.”

Spend more time “outside” your own organization. Previously, Turpin had spoken more broadly about transformation. “When businesses are trying to recreate themselves and change, they spend too much time inside, in strategy meetings, batting around ideas that they think will work. We don’t spend enough time going around. How are [our customers’] jobs changing? What are they thinking about? What are they investing in this year? This will give you solutions.”

Go beyond the norm. Of course, “going around” means something different these days—phone, Zoom, social media, Slack. But the idea of asking important questions of your customers remains paramount. Sales consultant Ryan Dohrn once told us that “What keeps you up at night?” just isn’t good enough anymore. “Your questions simply have to be better. One of your main questions that makes me nuts and that I hear in my ad sales training is this: ‘Tell me more about your business.’ C’mon, you’re better than that… And then, ‘What’s your budget?’ You can do better than that. Those are three questions we do need to ask, but maybe ask them in a more vibrant kind of way so that we don’t sound like every other media salesperson that’s calling on that customer.”

Inspire connection and trust. Asked if Workweek’s content-creator concept worked as they expected, founder and CEO Becca Sherman said: “Yes, we believe our creator-first model is both the key to our growth and the future of media. Each creator is building a brand with an audience of fans who feel personally connected to and deeply trusting of them, which in turn enables rapid organic growth, lower-than-average CACs, higher-than-average CPMs—and, ultimately, a very high RPU and LTV.” That’s a lot of acronyms.

Determine audience needs. “Increasingly we are trying to ensure that our product focus follows what the audience needs, as ultimately this drives the business,” Robins said. “Our entire business strategy is rooted in our audience insights, and being able to better serve our readers will ultimately lead to a stronger business. So much can be missed by not focusing on the reader. We’re spending a lot more time understanding the user journey, the user story, where they come from, what experience they are having with our content, etc. By understanding this better, we can continue to evolve the product in a way that gives readers a better experience over time.”

RheumPodcast

Research, Value Proposition, Transcripts and Social Media Help to Grow Successful Podcasts

by Media

“Do we identify the expert [first] or identify a topic?” Meghna Rao, senior editor of Rheumatology Advisor, one of the leading publications in the Haymarket Medical Network, and host of Neal Award finalist Rheum Advisor, asked in respect to creating a podcast episode. “Obviously there’s no one right way to go about that. Doing them in tandem could be beneficial. Aligning your content with your audience’s needs always has to be front and center. I keep reminding myself sometimes of this.”

A question was asked after our last Editorial Council meeting about podcast promotion—how to reach and grow an audience.

One way came across my laptop this morning on LinkedIn, coincidentally from Rao, who spoke at our Editorial Training Session with Soyini Coke, health care transformation and culture expert and host of CEO Exclusive Radio. (Access the recording here.)

Rao “liked” the post from Rheumatology Advisor of the above photo for their recent podcast. “To understand the gaps, challenges, and future opportunities in rheumatology research, Senior Editor, @Meghnavrao, speaks with the co-authors of a recent paper published in Arthritis & Rheumatology: Laura Lewandowski, MD, Evelyn Hsieh, MD & Chris Scott, MBChB. Tune in! https://fal.cn/3vdgH.”

Rheumatology Advisor has 527 followers on LinkedIn and Rao has more than 500 connections, so that’s a pretty good push in getting the word out.

“Having a team of folks specifically dedicated to social media, or [at the least] to have somebody dedicated to social media has been critical” to my success,” said Coke. “I find that with all of these functions, that the person who does social media isn’t necessarily the person who should be production… or guest development.”

For Rao (pictured), it’s more all hands on deck. “Twitter and LinkedIn have been really great for engaging with the audience,” she said. “Just small things on Twitter like once you conduct an episode with a certain guest, writing out posts, tagging individuals and the respective organizations go a long way. I’ve actively taken the initiative to be more present and engage more often on social media… That’s just because we’re a small team.”

Here are more takeaways from the session with Rao and Coke, many of which contribute to growing your podcast audience:

Have a clear plan. “Having somebody that’s dedicated specifically to sponsorship or a donor/patron strategy is absolutely necessary to being successful,” Coke (pictured) said. “You’re launching the podcast because you want to extend your reach, or to build deeper relationships, or get a greater share of mind or greater share of wallet from listeners. Then, having a clear plan for how you’re going to sell those services, how you’re going to sell more advertising, etc., is absolutely critical.”

Do your research. “I can’t emphasize enough how important doing your homework is,” Rao said, “especially if you have multiple people or guests appear and want a well-informed conversation. It provides clarity in thought and speech, and improves outcome. One of the strengths of Rheumatology Advisor is that we spend a lot of time and pay a lot of attention to doing our research, so as to appear well-informed, and have a more well-rounded conversation.”

Have a value proposition. “Niche market strategy is absolutely critical,” said Coke. “…But what is also equally important, and maybe a little bit more subtle is having a very clear value proposition. I don’t have to tell anybody who is watching this webinar how distracted and how much information we all have coming at us every day. And so if I’m going to get a CEO [on my podcast], you’re going to get whoever you’re targeting to give you a half an hour, fifteen minutes of their time. [There has to be a] value proposition for why they’re going to listen. [If] they’re going to share with one of their colleagues, it needs to be absolutely clear to them.”

Work out the functions of your show. For Coke, that’s guest, development and content. “Those tend to go really well together because when I’m working with a guest, I can also figure out what content we’re going to create, what the theme of the show is, and what the lead story is. Do you understand what is going to be the key thing for each show?

Keep an open mind on topics. “Do I choose a trending topic or do I choose a unique topic that people want to know more about?” Rao asked. “A simple answer to this would be to mix it up.”

If possible, include a transcript. “What makes the audience engage?” Rao asked. “What factors drive people to an episode on your podcast? Is it a title with good SEO value? Is it the expert? Is it the topic itself? Is it maybe the duration being aligned with your listeners’ time? Having a transcript was something that really elevated our podcasts. If people want to refer back to something that was not clearly mentioned, or the audio quality wasn’t good at that point, they can go back.”

Evolve your style. “It’s great to have a signature style, but this is the one thing that can evolve over time,” Rao said. “…If you listen to my podcast episodes from the beginning until now, you will see how different my style is. It’s obviously become more casual and more conversational. I recommend that you listen to a couple of popular podcasts to see how you can adapt.”