Content publishers face various challenges on a daily basis. CodeFuel has learnt from both internal and external studies that they face daily worries concerning social media impact, audience engagement, brand loyalty, bounce rates, traffic and mobile penetration.
It is now considered fact that publishers are not only looking to earn more revenue (obviously that’s always a priority), but a key concern is also to attract relevant users to consume their content.
Relevant Content
Users want to read relevant content. It keeps them on site for longer. The trick is to offer the ultimate experience, to deliver everything possible for an incredible user experience. When traffic comes from a social media network, the publishers needs something in place to secure that traffic and keep them on site for as long as possible. To achieve this, content publishers need to understand the end user, to create a loyalty, and to use targeted content with slick monetization units.
Moving In The Right Direction
Creating fresh and trending content is all well and good, but publishers need to take the focus away from SEO and put it more on the end use. They need to understanding his / her habits and trends. CodeFuel’s In-Feed, for example, uses intuitive technology to align ads with key habits and trends.
The right technology is essential to capture intent, to target and personalize content so the end user will stay and explore the website environment and all it has to offer. Publishers need to aggregate internal content from the website with external content such as rich video, Wikipedia snippets and knowledge graphs.
Data oriented companies try to use data to deliver the right content to the end user, but they don’t quite hit the mark. Not a lot of companies have the technology needed to address all issues needed in one solution. CodeFuel manages to achieve this in one swoop. With a simple line of code, it uses Smart Demand to capture certain site and session info to deliver powerfully accurate sponsored content and ads with strong metrics. It also comes with the HUB, a back-end system that allows full campaign control to analyze and optimize performance.
CodeFuel delivers value to the publisher and solves pains – all in one. We essentially offer one provider with multiple solutions which engage the user, monetize content and optimize data. What more could a publisher want? Learn more about CodeFuel here.
As marketers, we’re always looking to better performance of campaigns, both internal and external. We all want to better target our messaging and strengthen click through rates. We have a natural fallback of trying to boost graphics, content and placement, but I don’t think we’re rolling back nearly enough to get to the core of what has the potential to make our projects more successful.
Drilling Down
Are we drilling down our target audiences? Should mapping out target audiences begin with identifying exactly where they fall in the campaign funnel? We need to think of target audiences in terms of acquisition, conversion and audience retention. Audiences are strongly connected to the emotion of a brand, it’s essential we view the entire user journey without just focusing on a one-time purchase. We as marketers need to focus on all elements of the journey, including seeing users as returning customers.
A Case in Point
For example, I suspect a company like Nike would not successfully entice returning clients with an offer to ‘get 20% off a second pair of sneakers’. They’d surely have more success with an offer that connects the user emotionally to the brand, bringing them into the Nike world, making them a real brand user. Once connected, these users can perhaps be more easily and more continually be converted.
This would work well for a brand like Nike- but would it work for everyone? The key with any campaign is understanding your target audience and it core messaging. The CodeFuel technology uses AI algorithms to correctly understand your audience, delivering the right messages at the right time for the right impact.
CodeFuel takes a bold step forward in solving many pain points that both publishers and advertisers face on a daily basis. They deliver high impact visuals and content in multi format placements in exciting and intuitive ways. Their power tech uses algorithms that understands the user and how to deliver ads to them yielding incredible results.
Any type of client management is of critical importance to any company. Account managers act as a face of the company, a crucial entry point. Relationship skills are essential for this role- as it can very much be sink or swim. It’s time to learn the importance of client relationships.
Building Relationships
Client relationships attract a rollercoaster of highs and lows. It is essential to sustain a high level of attention for the client, even more so during the ‘lows’ –this way you will ensure a level of long term commitment that goes both ways.
Being in constant contact is essential. This does not necessarily mean calling every hour, every day, but rather tailoring the right contact frequency to the client. An end-of-year call is also important to learn from the past year and plan for the future.
Client Nurturing
You have to know who you are dealing with on every level in order to successfully nurture any client relationship. My advice? Understand who your client is both as a company and as a person and build a personality profile accordingly. Understand behavior patterns and respond fittingly.
Know Your Product
The most important piece of advice I could offer to anyone on building client relationships is ‘know your product inside and out’. You need to be a primary source of trusted information on your product, remaining proactive, knowing every technical aspect so that you can really deliver.
When you know your product inside and out, you can present yourself as an influencer, expert and leader to your client. In the clients’ eyes, you will hold the position of an advisor, someone whose opinion is always understood and often accepted.
When you have a strong knowledge of your product, you can offer a better, professional and faster service by responding to any question or tech issue. You can alsocan leverage your relationship for the benefit of both parties.
Top 5 Attributes Of A Successful Account Manager
It is no easy task to answer any question about what makes a good account manager, as being one is very much a personal journey. In my professional opinion, there are 5 key tips which can drive self-motivation and professional improvement.
Don’t be scared to learn – take courses, learn from others. Strive to always become a better consumer facing entity.
Understand your industry, your product and current trends.
Know your clients’ competitors.
Attend networking events.
Listen to clients’ needs.
Above everything, the most important thing is to have a passion for your product and the willingness to share it with the world.
Working for CodeFuel, all account managers are masters of their craft- they know their clients inside and out, they know the industry, and they know their products. They always put client needs first- if something isn’t right, they will always share directly with them. It’s a wonderful team to be part of. CodeFuel see their clients very much as partners. We offer incredible value and see our relationships as strong, forward thinking and incredible.
Whether you’re a content publisher or not, it’s imperative to have a clear understanding of what’s going on in your market. And even more importantly, you need to understand the future trends of the industry. The content publisher faces extraordinary challenges in this day and age- it’s my job, and CodeFuel’s job to address these in intuitive ways- to solve publisher problems.
Publisher Problems
Publishers constantly have to reevaluate their strategy and business model in order to remain at the forefront of user engagement and content monetization. There is indeed a constant battle between these two elements, particularly in the realm of ads.
Generally speaking, when ads are becoming more and more of a commodity, prices tend to erode. Therefore, in order to increase or even maintain revenue made through ads, there is a need to find ways to increase viewability or add additional monetization sockets to existing ad materials.
Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. This area is a minefield – loaded with potential explosives which can destroy your user experience or monetizing potential.
Can You Monetize Too Much?
You want to monetize your online assets with ads- but how many different solutions can you implement before they weigh down your site? Is one tool cannibalizing the other? Why can’t publishers balance all those separate tools into one orchestrated solution? We’re witnessing a lot of publishers overcrowding their sites with various intrusive tools which result in driving users away. They choose monetization over engagement and are paying the price.
Content Publishing Main Goals
The main goal of a content publisher is it to maximize revenue while maintaining a great user experience – giving the end user a strong UX. Another primary goal is to keep up with the latest trends of the ad tech industry.
“There is a technology battle out there – the publishers are getting left behind.”
Industry Challenges
Mobile ads: We’re witnessing so many changes in the market these last couple of years. We’re in a mobile-first world, this is an excellent thing for the end user, but can be slightly problematic for the publisher who needs to monetize mobile screens. The UX is different, real estate is limited alongside the number and types of ads that are able to be served.
Programmatic ads: Publishers know their brand and audience better than any other party. With programmatic advertising, the direct communication between the publisher and his end user changes, and not necessarily for the better. Without the right targeting, publishers hit users with irrelevant ads which in turn damage the UX.
One Solution Needed
The CodeFuel goal is to help publishers balance between monetization and engagement.
CodeFuel spend a lot of time and allocate substantial resources to understand publishers and THEIR end users.
We study their needs, their challenges and behaviors – And we make it our business to know exactly what keeps them up at night. We improve the UX and increase the user engagement in order to also grow potential revenues.
We develop holistic solutions. Not just sporadic tools and have the unique ability to look at the entire site – as a whole. When you have the holistic view of a site, you have the ability to solve core challenges not just local symptoms.
The market today is indeed crowded with many technical solutions for publishers, CodeFuel remain unique, tackling all publisher pains in one swoop.
It is essential to see mobile as a concept rather than a device. Users love being connected from anywhere, anytime whether it’s through their tablet, mobile phone, or smartwatch. These devices give them access to content providers, and control over their assets and of course a fun getaway when needed. You simply cannot ignore the power of mobile in this day and age.
Learning From The Past
In the 90s when the internet hit, financial markets got excited, yet there were indeed skeptical business leaders who were cynical about the impact of this medium and hence did not react nor invest. Flash forward a few years and companies dominating the business world are online – Amazon, eBay, Netflix, Expedia- offline activity has made its way online and the trend isn’t going anywhere.
Right now we are experiencing another shift- this time it’s from desktop to mobile. This transition is happening at an impressive speed- and is beginning to make noise in every single industry. Now is the time to gear yourself up for mobile before it’s too late.
A Global Thing
Unlike the shift to online that started in the USA and then gradually hit out, this mobile trend is growing massively in many countries worldwide. Instagram for example is booming across China, Turkey, UK and throughout the entire world. People are switching on to the reach mobile tech can offer.
More Engagement
Engagement levels are strong on this platform. End users can interact on the go, wherever they are and are not restricted to being behind a desktop screen. GPS can also be factored in to deliver a stronger UX which in turn will boost engagement levels. All these factors turn content that was once read scrolling down a PC monitor into digestible chunks of information that can be consumed on the go.
Emotional Ties
Research has proven time and again that people have emotional connections with their smartphones- a lot more so than any other electrical device. Leading companies and content publishers everywhere should be realizing this and making their sites as mobile friendly as possible.
Mobile is currently thriving. At CodeFuel we recognize this and tailor our products accordingly. We understand that users are switching over to mobile and this trend will only grow stronger. We make sure our products are optimized for mobile and our analytics platform has incredible mobile functionality. We’re in the middle of a mobile revolution- make sure that you’re part of it.
