Ho! Ho! Tweet!?! Social Media & Holiday Shopping

The holiday season is already here. It’s time to call up loved ones for gift ideas and begin combing the Sunday papers for the best deals. Wait. This year when I say “call up loved ones,” I actually mean go to their Facebook page, and by “Sunday paper” I mean Twitter.

The graph below shows the results from eMarketer.com’s study on social media use this holiday season.

Also reported:
- 27% of online shoppers will use social networks for gift ideas. According to eMarketer
- 45% will “use social networks to research items, compare prices and look for offers.” According to eMarketer
- 17% of all Christmas shoppers will use social media to aid their efforts in one way or another this holiday season. According to Deloitte

Since last holiday season, networking giants Twitter and Facebook have been consistently proving their promotional value to businesses. In the last 12 months, their power to share information in real-time has substantiated them as the fastest and most cost effective way for retailers to connect with potential customers. With the majority of people planning to use social media this holiday season to find discounts, coupons and sale information, I’d expect to see many creative social media-driven promotions this holiday season.

If you have already seen promotions like these, feel free to share them with us on facebook.com/dirxion or twitter.com/dirxion. We’d enjoy hearing about them.

Survey on Interactive Advertising in Digital Magazines

I recently read some results from a survey by Smarter Media Sales that were published on Folio’s website. Questionnaires were sent to known readers of digital editions in an attempt to attain some of the first measurements of readers and the new genre of interactive magazine ads. The survey compared how readers responded to ads within digital editions as compared to other forms of media. Though the full results haven’t been released yet, they have found some preliminary results from the first half of the 5,000 readers who participated. Here are just a few findings.

The available enhancements to advertisements within digital editions; like video, audio, slideshows and animation are shown to have a positive impact on the reader’s overall experience. Furthermore, 26.4 percent of readers said that they are more likely to play with an advertisement with these digital extras to see if they “may become interested in an ad.”

Folio and Smarter Media Sales also reported,
“Another stat showed that while 32.4 percent of readers will skip an interactive magazine story that they are not interested in, a third—34 percent—will read a bit of the article and play the ad’s extras, while 21.8 percent will play only the digital extras. In terms of user engagement, interactive edition ads topped the charts at 66 percent as the most helpful and/or interesting form of electronic advertising, beating out TV ads (57.8 percent).”

Something they weren’t expecting to find, so far the survey shows that 36.6 percent of interactive magazine readers spent less time searching the web for content online that was similar to what they were just reading in a digital magazine. Smarter Media Sales said about that statistic, “The fact that this survey discovered that it is possible for niche interactive magazines to reduce readers’ search behavior is a huge finding,” he says.

I’ll be curious to see all the statistics when the final results from this study are published. We, at Dirxion, obviously hope they correlate with the preliminary results, giving proof that digital editions and their enhanced advertising features deliver more positive interaction between advertisements and potential audiences than other advertising mediums. This would not only be advantageous for us, but also magazine publishers who could better sell print ads combined with enhanced web features to help further leverage their investments in print, photography, and design and aid in the monetization of their content across more platforms.

EdgeClix and Performance-Based Advertising

Directory publisher Easier to Read recently added value to their Yellow Pages book by putting it online using Dirxion’s look and feel digital directory product, EdgeClix. In doing so, they discovered a host of new marketing opportunities for their existing local business advertisers.

While some publishers choose to simply use our product in its most basic form, which is designed to highlight and give added value to your existing ads just as they are seen in their printed counterparts, others like Easier to Read, see our list of expanded advertising features and cannot wait to seize the opportunity to not only help their advertisers enhance their online presence, but also monetize their new investment.

Cover Banner Advertising

iPick link appears within Popular Categories in the Table of Contents

When clicked the iPick window pops up highlighting your advertiser

Both the Cover Banner and iPick programs were designed so directory publishers could offer their advertisers exciting ways to insert ads at any time of the year. By selling premium placements like these, publishers can guarantee advertisers additional exposure, while also giving them the ability to keep their promotions current.

Easier to Read is just one excellent example of how our customers are using their digital directories to capitalize on the strong relationships they’ve grown with local businesses. Even without large changes to their sales structure, digital directories can be equipped with many of our advertising programs to help generate new, steady, profitable streams of revenue.

Allow your advertisers to use one or many of our exciting, interactive features to get the most activity out of their ads.

22 Magazines That Are Seeing Increased Ad Revenues

The Business Insider recently wrote an article about 22 Magazines That Are Actually Kicking Butt In 2009. They discussed how the Magazine Publishers of America keep records of 249 different magazine titles and of those 249, 227 saw a decline in their ad revenues in 2009 compared to 2008. Over 91% of the industry is suffering from the recent decrease in advertising.

Looking at the 22 titles that are earning more revenue than they were last year, five are published by Meredith Corporation. Patrick Taylor, of Meredith Corporation, says these magazine titles “do a good job of building their brand” especially on the Internet. He went on, saying that magazines can find a larger audience by making content available on the internet. Also, by going online, publishers can find new forms of advertising and creative ways to boost their print subscriptions. This is just another example of how going digital can help support your print and keep you afloat during tough times.

Here is a quick run through of the 22 Magazines that have muscled out increasing ad revenues over the last year.

Better Homes and Gardens - Up 1.9%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $547,346,531
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $557,534,448

Ladies’ Home Journal - Up 2.5%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $220,113,560
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $225,511,330

Soap Opera Digest - Up 2.5%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $12,894,257
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $13,217,837

Executive Travel SkyGuide - Up 4.0%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $5,470,212
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $5,689,007

Family Fun - Up 4.3%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $75,434,521
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $78,651,596

Woman’s World - Up 5.4%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $23,708,020
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $24,987,610

Endless Vacation - Up 5.7%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $10,493,050
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $11,091,905

Women’s Health - Up 8.8%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $58,709,640
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $63,900,299

More - Up 12.7% (Meredith,
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $82,346,521
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $92,812,076

Muscle & Fitness - Up 13.2%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $71,483,698
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $80,948,436

Scholastic Parent & Child - Up 14.5%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $34,688,914
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $39,682,262

Flex - Up 15.4%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $24,595,411
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $28,379,120

Organic Gardening - Up 17.4%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $3,198,473
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $3,754,516

OK Weekly - Up- 17.5%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $47,755,400
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $56,099,244

Fitness - Up 17.5%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $70,798,273
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $83,200,149

Saveur - Up 18.9%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $8,678,312
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $10,322,035

Family Circle - Up 21.8%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $254,590,657
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $310,058,104

Twist - Up 22.1%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $2,635,592
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $3,217,460

The Week - Up 30.4%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $19,760,226
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $25,766,774

People Style Watch - Up 32.2%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $19,675,743
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $26,005,532

Fine Cooking - Up 66.2%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $793,914
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $1,319,440

Spry - Up 550.6%
2008 Ad Revenues through September: $5,508,047
2009 Ad Revenues through September: $35,837,667

More Reason to Socialize

Over a short period of time, sites like Facebook and Twitter have grown from messaging tools between friends into widely adopted means of self-promotion, advertising, and interaction. Most recently, the growing popularity of sharing useful information through these networks has caused a shift in the way the internet is being used, blurring the lines between its informational and social atmosphere.

As of last week that gray area got a little grayer. Microsoft announced that they struck deals with the two social networking giants to start integrating real time search results that will come directly from Twitter and Facebook users but will be listed within the Bing search engine results. Google also announced that they cut a similar deal with Twitter and would soon be launching a whole new search tool called ‘Social Search’. So it appears that now the influence of your tweets and updates will expand beyond just their narrow social circles.

This all came about as increasing amounts of traffic to websites were coming from Facebook and Twitter, taking some potential business away from search engines. The search engines, rather than compete, realized that when people are seeking information they are finding that content is often more relevant when it comes from someone within their sphere of influence online and not a mysterious and complex algorithm. Also, social search is predominantly based on recency because more times than not the most recent information is also the most pertinent.

What does this mean for publishers? There are larger marketing opportunities in growing your online social circle and actively participating within it. This is also important because for the first time these new forms of search are giving you some control over being found.  Instead of solely being bound by the strict rules of search engine optimization and highly competitive keywords, now by making regular use of Twitter and Facebook you are vicariously using search engines to reach an even larger audience. The more social you become with your marketing, the more traffic directed through your links.

Search Engine Optimization & Your Publication; What is Dirxion Doing?

As a publisher looking to move your printed material to the web, you’ll find that the majority of the digital publishing options out there are fully Flash-based. To most people this may actually sound more than acceptable. Flash content is great as there are hardly any limitations to building interfaces, designing, animating and creating user interaction. It has all the elements that give a site the heightened experience that today’s users are looking for. Flash is used to break all those conventional rules associated with flat, lifeless HTML pages.

But with all of its pros comes one very large con – unlike HTML, Flash content can’t be indexed by search engines. And if people can’t find your content on Google, Bing or Yahoo, it’s up to you to put it directly in front of them. But even with Herculean marketing efforts, your content will never reach its full audience potential.

Dirxion understands that if you want to maximize your reach and circulation, it’s critical that the content of your pages can be properly crawled by spiders for search engines. It’s for that reason we have introduced a Search Engine Optimization method designed specifically for digital publishers. We call it Trax. When you send us files for your new digital publication, we not only convert your data into Flash but also run it through Trax making a search engine friendly format called ASP. ASP is a dynamic code that is first sent to an ASP engine, where the file can be read – line by line – and then returned to indexing spiders and browsers as plain HTML. So it works just like HTML. And with Trax laid, this data will run behind the scenes solely for Google, Bing and Yahoo to crawl and navigate through your pages. But on the front end of your publication, your readers will still have the rich media experience of Flash.

Our SEO efforts, in a nutshell:

–Presenting all of the pages in your directory in a format that can easily be indexed by the search engines. Search engine users can now find your directory by searching for business names, categories, addresses, phones numbers, and more. Not to mention, search engine results open up pages inside of your directory with searched keywords already highlighted!

–Creating dynamic, search engine friendly landing pages that are designed for intuitive the optimal user experience.

–Providing additional ways to share pages from your directory with friends and family.

–Implementing URL strategies to optimize traffic to your site.

–Updating or adding more content when possible.

Our ultimate goal for customers is maintaining the familiar experience of print, while using the web to increase readership and engagement. Marketing is always going to be king, but there is no reason not to have SEO on your side. With the help of Dirxion and Trax, more readers will find your content. That’s already been the case with the customers we’ve converted.  Search engine directed traffic has been increasing drastically. Some publications are currently seeing up to 78% of their traffic coming from search engines.

Contact a sales representative to learn more about how Dirxion can have your publishing put in front of a larger audience now. Call 888.391.0202.

What Marketers Want

Since the introduction of moving type, never has the world of publishing seen so much refinement. Even if that may be a little exaggerated, you’d think it was true by the constantly breaking news and blog reels spinning out of control with stories of new websites, applications and devices that will change the way people read forever.

If you were following the events of the last month, you’d probably think the publishing industry was going to make a complete about face away from paper. It almost seems logical with devices like desktops, laptops, iPhones, smartphones, the kindle and a slew of new tablets and e-readers being introduced what seems like everyday. On the surface, it seems like the publishing industry could start saving the truck loads of money it costs to print and deliver mountains of books, magazines and catalogs to their large audiences. But what many articles aren’t considering is the actual driving forces behind print - advertising.

Subscriptions to magazines aren’t a publisher’s main source of revenue. It’s the advertising inside. Marketers believe that those physical pages of a magazine continue to prove enticing to potential customers in a way that computer text and images cannot. In the same way, catalog publishers keep showing statistics that by paying the price to mail catalogs they are actually helping advertise and drive more sales to their web sites. One study showed that consumers who received catalogs from a retailer spent 28% more on that retailer’s website than those who didn’t receive catalogs.

We believe that print and web are two elements that, when working in harmony, are stronger than the sum of their parts. Why not mail a catalog or magazine to subscribers, but also make yourself available in the same outstanding visual quality on the internet. A digital edition is the perfect medium between a printed magazine or catalog, and a website or e-commerce site. It brings the reader and/or customer that same intuitive look and feel that you spent such resources designing and editing, while providing them with a fully-integrated, media-rich web experience.

It’s finding that right balance between digital and print that’ll maximize your audience and appeal to advertisers like never before.

Flights Go Digital

There is nothing worse than being couped up in a tight airplane seat with nothing to do. If you’re lucky enough to have an in-flight movie, there is a 90% chance it will star the Olsen twins. And your choice in reading materials range between the Airplane Safety Instructions, SkyMall, and … SkyMall. If I buy another ramp or staircase made for dogs, I’m going to have to get a dog.

Finally, there is another option; something never before possible. Airlines have started introducing in-flight wi-fi.  For the ‘low’ price of about $10 for flights under 3 hours long and $13 for longer flights, your laptop or smart phone can surf the web while you are 30,000 feet in the sky. Using cellular towers, this air-to-ground connection can deliver speeds comparable to DSL modems.

For publishers going digital, all this means is that there is yet one more place that your readers will always have access to your work.  It may not seem like a large change but more than anything it is evidence that the world is continuing to adapt into a digital atmosphere. For the first time your audience will have the potential to read your magazine and do their Christmas shopping in your catalogs while they are miles above the ground.

Virgin Airlines, Southwest, United, Delta, and American have all started integrating this technology into select airplanes. It would be nice if the wi-fi feature was complimentary, but in a time where it costs extra money to check your bags that is obviously not likely.

Paying or not, a very recent study shows that 76% of frequent fliers said they’d switch flights in order to have access to wi-fi. This service seems like a no-brainer for people constantly traveling for business, but it will also be glorious for anyone looking for alternative entertainment options.  It’s sad, but I think internet is the only up-charge I could talk myself into paying on an airplane. The ability to read a digital magazine while chatting with friends on Facebook would be justification enough for me to fork out the cash.

Groundwork For A Better St. Louis: Dirxion & Habitat for Humanity

Over the course of just a day, a group of unlikely heroes – more familiar with cubicles and keyboards – bared the elements and took their carpentry skills from laughable to workable. As volunteers for the St. Louis branch of Habitat for Humanity, Dirxion employees spent most of their Saturday going back and forth between two of the nearly twenty-five houses being simultaneously developed for a large Habitat for Humanity undertaking in North St. Louis. Some wielded hammers, others installed siding, and a few were building and falling through front porches. No matter what the task, our colleagues were like ants on a log, working together with conviction.

Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization, works with local companies and volunteers to eliminate substandard housing in struggling neighborhoods while creating affordable housing for the less fortunate. The program transforms these run-down areas and abandoned properties into beautiful streets and exceptional homes. As a policy, future homeowners of these Habitat houses invest hundreds of hours of their own labor in the way of sweat equity. Alongside volunteers, they happily contribute to the labor of building their own house and the houses of their future neighbors. The organization then finances these homes to them with no-interest loans, and because the bulk of materials and labor are donated, the homeowner’s mortgage payments can be used to build more Habitat for Humanity houses.

The program is something to be proud of. It’s a real win-win situation for the community and a rewarding experience for all those who participate. Nathan Phillips, from Dirxion’s Product Placement Department, said about his experience:

“It was definitely a team effort. There was lots of gravity defying ladder work with hammers and nails. All in all, it was a success and I feel like we accomplished a lot. We showed up to work hard and help make a difference in our community and we saw results! Go Dirxion and go St. Louis!”

Regardless of your level of experience, there are many ways to contribute to the mission of Habitat for Humanity. We encourage you to get in touch with someone at your local branch. Visit Habitat.org.

Customer Spotlight: Ballard Designs

Ballard Designs is the most recent of Dirxion’s clients to get a monitor-sized boost to their brand. In 1982, the home furnishings retailer got its southern roots in Atlanta as a one-woman start-up and has since become a premier multi-channel retailer of unique, European inspired décor.

Not unlike our other clients, Ballard Designs came to us seeking a different way to connect with their customers. What we created for them was a digital edition that mirrors the experience of their printed catalog while giving them the interactive bells and whistles of a website.

Ballard Designs is another great example of a digital strategy done right. Their catalog isn’t just a link to some eye candy. By making good use of our information rollovers (which on a mouse over highlights products and gives shoppers the ability to click on product images within each page), their customers can now more intuitively shop by flipping through their catalog and yet still go straight to their e-commerce site to place orders.

They also wasted no time in doing their viral marketing. Last Friday, Ballard Designs broadcasted the arrival of their new digital catalog with an email to customers and through the usual social media outlets:
From Ballard’s Facebook Fan Page:
“Attn: Ballard Fans! We are very pleased and excited to announce for the first time we now have an online version of our catalog! This is a great interactive online version that allows you to click on an item where it will then take you to the item on …our website. We appreciate you as fans and wanted to share this with you first! Enjoy and let us know your thoughts!”

Our work with Ballard Designs was a classic case of taking two channels of retail marketing, a website and a catalog, and no longer making the two mutually exclusive. Our digital edition was the only real way to offer their same unique look and feel while tying in the ease and interactivity of their website.

See Ballard Design’s digital catalog here.

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