Marketing, Advertising and Metrics
In addition to our print magazine, On the Danforth is creating a complementary website. The following is how group one thought we should market our website and advertise on it.
Advertising is the most important revenue for a magazine. With a web presence, On the Danforth Online provides businesses with another opportunity to advertise. This is beneficial to the magazine as it increases potential earnings.
Businesses along the Danforth that have advertised in the print version of the magazine will have their business logo on our sponsorship page. Similarly, businesses who have an editorial presence in the magazine or even businesses that just want to draw attention to their advertisement will have an OTD badge button on their website that links to On the Danforth Online.
Web analytics “is the study of the behaviour of website visitors.” It is important when designing a website to track user patterns and to collect data from your website to determine who your visitors are, what they are interested in, and where they are searching. By understanding who our users are we can manage and improve our website to best fit their needs.
In order to collect this data the web master must install metrics widgets on the website.
For On the Danforth we would like to measure the following:
- messages/ articles viewed
- ads requested
- active users
- repeat visitors
- time on site
- clicks
How are we going to do this?
-Google Analytics
-Stat Counter
-Bounce Rate (aiming for 20% – lower the better)
Our overall goals with our marketing and metrics strategies are to:
-Increase reach. To obtain a larger target market and increase exposure of our brandname within the marketplace.
-Increase traffic. Keep our readers engaged and keep them coming back for more.
-Increase interaction. Keep readers involved and apart of our community.
-Increase our Google juice. To be accessible to users.
Online vs. Print Magazines
The following was originally written by Andrea, and substantively edited by me.
I posted it because with magazines having an online component i think it’s important to note the differences.
With the Internet becoming a stronger resource to more people every day, it only seems natural that the more traditional print magazines develop a web presence. However, this is not to say that the online magazine will be a word-for-word, picture-for-picture copy of the print magazine because this is far from the truth. On the Danforth Online, will be a secondary, complimentary source to the print version – a place for readers to go and find more information, more pictures, and share their thoughts and opinions with other users.
As just mentioned, On the Danforth Online will compliment the print magazine as well as provide readers with supplementary content. While readers can find the print articles on the website, they will be more concise, subservient and have interactive extras such as video, audio and/or comments. The articles will have to be shortened to accommodate reading from a computer screen and the tone can be lightened for a more casual feel.
As web masters we have to recognize that our print readers differ from our web readers. Web readers “spend five or seven minutes per visit. They look at five to seven pages. Nobody reads the [whole] issue online ever. People come to get questions answered. They come to read one news story. They come to get a stock quote. They come to seek one piece of information” (Angela Delgado, http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall2000/Delgado/effects.html). This quote by Delgado explains that we only have a certain amount of time to intrigue and sustain a reader. As web masters we must do this by an effective layout and informative, yet entertaining, content.
Behind the scene photographs, web links to featured businesses and restaurants, have your say, an events calendar, and blogs are all web features that our online readers will seek and enjoy.
