Originally presented at HubSpot's 2015 Inbound Publishers Summit by Seth Nichols. There’s a fundamental shift in publishing that’s occurring right now. Publishers are still thinking in terms of reach and brand strength, but advertisers are measuring leads generated and revenue. Seth makes the case for why (and how) publishers need to think like marketers to survive and thrive.

1. #HubSpotIPS
Why Publishers Need to
Think Like Marketers
Seth Nichols
Owner/CEO, Longitude Media

2. Owner, CEO
@CAD_Mktg
SETH
NICHOLS

5. FUNDAMENTAL
DISCONNECT

6. Publishers value old
business models
• Brand strength
• Reach
• Audience Demos

7. Marketers value
campaigns’
measurable ability to
increase sales
pipeline

8. Transportation vs. Railroad
Marketing vs. Publishing

9. Challenge #1:
Diminishing customer
value of display
campaigns

10. Challenge #2:
Our Prospects are
Our Competitors!

11. Challenge #3:
CPLs negotiated as a
commodity
• All leads are NOT the same
• Not all customers understand
ROMI

13. Source: Forrester Research

14. 1) Align and Re-train your entire organization!
2) Acquire the tools and expertise required to remain relevant!
ACTIONS NEEDED TODAY!

15. Action: Align Sales Organization
Must know marketing metrics, funnel metrics, language:
Contact to MQL (32%) ➔ SQL (32%) ➔ Pipeline (28%) ➔ Close (26%) = 0.75%
1000 contacts ➔ 320 MQls ➔ 102 SQLs ➔ 29 Pipeline ➔ 7 deals
Cadalyst: 420 SQLs ➔ 309 Pipeline (74%) ➔ 146 Close
(47% total / 69% to client)

16. A word about “Value
Add”....
• Market intelligence
• Buyer’s journey research
• Campaign best practices

17. Action:
Align Editorial
• Team should understand
context: attract, identify,
nurture and convert high
quality prospects

18. Source: Forrester
Editorial and Content Marketing

19. Action:
Align Circulation
Reach vs. Quality
• 60,000 readers vs. 5,000
prospects in an active product
sales cycle, TODAY

20. • Industry benchmarks
• HubSpot workflows and automated
emails to launch surveys on content
and lead quality
Revenue:
$1,457,430 from $30,000 ➔ 2% ROMI
Pipeline:
$3,086,250 from $30,000 ➔ 0.97% ROMI
ACTION #2:
Acquire the Tools and Expertise Required to Remain Relevant

21. How to Prove It
• Map content to the buyer’s
journey
• Use content to pick up explicit
and behavioral purchase intent
HubSpot Implementation:
• Lists, workflows, event triggers,
CTAs, lead scoring etc. combine
to make the bigger picture

22. Reminder: We are a
valued marketing
partner because….
1) Publishers have better visibility
to pick up purchase signals
• 70%+ reality

23. Reminder: We are a
valued marketing partner
because….
2) Publisher’s content is more highly
valued by prospects.

24. 2) Use tools and processes your customers use
3) Prove your value for each campaign: Return on Marketing Investment
4) Build products for business predictability and inevitable downturns
1) Align organization with customer goals
• Publishers/sales teams of consultative marketers
• Content teams understand the buyer’s journey
• This is hard!
Be Marketers, Not Publishers