Ian Eckert Paywall strategies

Paywall Strategies: Technical IssuesPresented by Ian Eckert

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

Abacus e-Media • System integration in online since 1983

• Web development since 1995

• Media 70%, government and recruitment 25%, ecommerce

• Software products, design, development and hosting

• 54 UK staff, 12 offshore

• Locations in London and Portsmouth

• Subsidiary of Bond International Software PLC

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

– UK B2B Market leader

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

The areas of audience development

Editorial content:

• Digital only content

• News and Features

• Premium content

• Multi-platform access

(print, online, Mobile)

Events:

• Exhibitions

• Conferences

• Webinars / Web-

events

• Awards

• Digital value added

services

• Match making

Information services:

• Newsletters

• Data series

• Research

• White papers

• Real time prices

• Deals

• Analytical data tools

• Best practices

Recruitment / HR:

• Search and select

• Tools

• Market data

• Training / coaching

• Job advertising

• Value added services

• Temps

• Micro sites

Community site:

• Online commerce

• Exclusive clubs

• UGC

• Meet-ups

• Targeted advertising

• Social networks

• Community networks

• Best practice

Lead generation:

• Affiliate fees

• Pay-per-click

• Vertical search

• Online commerce

• B2B marketing

• Marketplace models

• Directory

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

Audience transactions• As delivery platforms and products multiply, individual audience

transactions increase exponentially. These include:

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

Functional overlaps

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

Anatomy of a content access system• Access control

• Highly flexible and agile to deal with rapidly evolving business model• Allow instant definition new products and qualifying users• Provide context-sensitive messaging and prompts

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

Anatomy of a content access system

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

Anatomy of a content access system• Access control

• Highly flexible and agile to deal with rapidly evolving business model• Allow instant definition new products and qualifying users• Provide context-sensitive messaging and prompts

• Transaction platform

• Interface directly the access control system to create inventory of available products

• Process payment and provide data to back-office (eg SOP, fulfilment)

• Audience management and intelligence

• Supply pan-system reporting on activity and behaviour to identify new product opportunities

• Produce data feeds for offline marketing activity

• Back office support

• Audit and accounting

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

Challenges for implementing paywalls• Combination of CMS and CAM systems can allow rapid development

and deployment of new products but significant barriers remain

• Inability to identify and market to key targets – inefficient data management

• Integration with third-party fulfilment houses

• Delivery of transactional data to and from back office systems

• Control of ‘master’ customer data

• The links between e-commerce and fulfilment are often fundamentally flawed or broken

• Products are often purchased in real-time but delivery is delayed by batch processing issues or offline validation

• Data obtained during the purchase process is entirely isolated from other systems

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

The solution: An integrated AD approach

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

Technical Platform• Resilient twin data centres with proven SAAS Cloud Platform

Architecture

• One codebase, but each client has own secure database

• .Net development environment

• Utilise 3rd party components

• Acumen/De-normalisation approach for Marketing reports

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH. Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810. [email protected]

Approach to Audience Development• Acceptance that a single unified data source is unworkable

• Multiple generators of data

• Instead put data integration at the core of the approach not as a peripheral activity

• Develop ‘master’ data concept by defining core elements

• People• Organisations• Locations• Brands

• Apply statistical data profiling to understand the data to guarantee quality regardless of source

• Data matching replaces data mapping

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

Audience development tools: Acumen

• Web analytics are necessarybut not sufficient

• Important for volume metrics

• Provide a common currency

• However, even market leaders struggle to answer ‘real world’ questions

• Acumen utilises the AD architecture to provide behavioural tracking across a wide range of variables

• Tracker reports create actionable intelligence

84-86 Regent Street, London, W1B 5RR Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)20 7297 5200

A data-driven product development cycle

Thank you for listeningAbacus e-Media

14 –16 Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4PH

Tel: +44 (0)20 7766 9810

[email protected]