John McNicholas Marketing Director, Databases and References- Getting to know your customer, improving overall user experience
- Aviation Week Group - mags, newsletters, conference products, database products, includes homeland security directory
- Key custs b2b, played with enthusiasts
- Click analysis - know where they come from, where they go to [COMMENT: EXCELLENT graphic analysis tool]
- World Aviation Directory - Print standalone, 20,000 company listings
- four years ago a Web site that wouldn't interface with anything else, buyers' guide that didn't' do much, needed world class DB
- Fully integrated products in site, my awin, find a fleet, find a supplier, program tracker links built as buttons into content level, not segregated
- Tools help users mine database effectively [COMMENT: excellent content integration and design]
- Give people personalized information the way they want it
- Used to carry plane fleet data, pricing still around $600, buy it just for the fleet data alone [COMMENT: don't worry which component rationalizes the premium sale, whichever one works for the user. Implications for bundling]
- Marketing - use free users for conversions. Can personalize searches,
- Directory evenly split between ads and subscriptions, subs complained about having to pay for ads, but at the end of the day they didn't complain, ads made the site lively, surround users with the info that they want.
- Sites are all about the database [COMMENT: Ad content as contextualizing database]
- 100 percent increase in site usage after DB integration, renewals up slightly
- Small custs biggest challenge, need small business solutions like BusWeek
- Future - all about transformation to meet clients' needs
- Need to sell what we have to existing subscribers, need to keep learning [COMMENT: Managing in a saturated market is a challenge, can't grow more aviation experts, have to cater to them more effectively via DB integration]
Bill Baird, President, Baird Direct Marketing Inc.- To bride: what time is the wedding and when is it being held? Context
- Context is king, key drivers, drowning in content, etc.
- Vast majority would like personalized content in email- 87 percent of 18-24s
- PAVE - Positioning, Accessibility, Value, Exclusivity - magnifies content value
- HighBeam library of content, with alerts, RSS options well placed
- ThomasNet - Receive the latest industry news links in context
- Taskbar icons, e.g. XML feed links, system tray icons with alerts updates
[COMMENT: Good stuff, but basic - yet many don't do these things]
John Barnes, EVP Strategic Business Development, THomson Gale- How we've shaped our thinking about search
- Thomson Gale, 8.5 bil company, in learning segment with e-learning company, had almost no web business
- Reference, journals, primary sources (image docs), still some microfilm, still large direct sales force, great products that libraries love
- Getting less connected with users - library usage still up, but no longer first place that they went
- Very little search activity makes its way back to users.
- Private collections accessed least. [COMMENT: Quality not a powerful venue, quality gains value in a venue]
- Premium content not first choice- EPS report shows librarians see few using subscription DBs, users see even less need
- *** "If the library is the store, the user had left it."
- ECNext has held the hand of publishers, tried a few things. Goliath - offered xactional model, subscription, ads, traffic soared
- Pros using Goliath, closing the Google gap, 4 million users a month, one of the largest ad campaigns on Google, go for company keywords, sell company profiles
- Still want to sell to libraries, how can users get back to the library?
- Search a powerful way to reach users, answers.com, wikipedia has good answers
- Content granularization and online marketing is the key - search box on your own site needs to be flipped, create pages for engines, turn database upside down
- The rules of the game are quite different; users do seek premium content and will pay for it.
- OPA stats about 1 billion in content commerce, mostly music but research growing
- Bridging the gap between search and libraries - Access My Library; just starting, 5,000 libraries, inviting publishers to come join, not all altruism, looking to push renewal rates
