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