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While many of the world's most historic publishers have struggled to maintain relevancy as consumer attention shifts to digital and mobile, The Economist has thrived as a true 21st-century publisher.
Though much has changed since The Economist was founded in 1843, this publisher has successfully reinvented itself in lockstep with the shift from print to digital and mobile. With many publishers continuing to struggle with monetization and digital engagement, The Economist's moves to prioritize retention, digital, and mobile are ensuring that its legacy will continue, and perhaps inspire other media enterprises to innovate.
Stepping into the era of digital publishing
Legacy and modern publishers alike face challenges in driving revenue, increasing pageviews, and engaging the "always-addressable" consumer. In a Q4 2015 Sailthru customer study of over 125 publishers, 69% of media leaders said they wanted to increase visits for email subscribers, and 55% cited a general goal of increasing repeat visits to their sites.
Personalization, dynamic content recommendations, and micro-segment targeting - all used together across email and web - are key to improving on these metrics and meeting short- and long-term revenue goals.
Starting in 2014, The Economist teamed up with Sailthru to begin personalizing each subscriber's experience. Recognizing the importance of the cross-channel play, the publisher focused its efforts on truly understanding each individual reader's behavior both on-site and via email, and with this information in hand delivered unique experiences for every reader to connect email and web.
By understanding the interests of the individual readers online, The Economist and Sailthru were able to better serve increasingly relevant content. If a reader had previously consumed content via email or on site, that content was suppressed in all channels in favor of something he or she had not yet seen, truly tailoring the cross channel experience and creating the most efficiency possible for readers.
Since then, The Economist has far exceeded its goals for increasing both the quantity and quality of traffic from email marketing efforts, in addition to further increasing depth of site visits and visit frequency through website personalization.
Serving readers what they want
Sailthru's work with The Economist has been recognized by the Association of Online Publishers as one of media's "best technology partners" after delivering the following.
- 160% lift in web pageviews from email subscribers
- 79% increase in pageviews per click
- 17% increase in email click-through rates
"We're using Sailthru to serve readers more of the articles we know they like to read," said Anna Rawling, The Economist's vice president of digital engagement and retention. "The results of personalization are impressive, delivering a 160% increase in web pageviews while at the same time being infinitely more customer- and resource-friendly."
What makes Sailthru unique is its approach to customer data collection and the ability to automate insights development, cross-channel personalization, and experience management. The marketing platform is one of the most innovative cross-channel solutions and allows publishers - and marketers from other verticals - to derive the most value from their digital channels with the most efficiency possible.
To learn more about how to increase pageviews, and for more examples from leading publishers, download "Increasing Repeat Visits: A High Impact Strategy Guide"!
This post is sponsored by Sailthru.
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