Consumers are at the intersection of an ever-changing world of online content and ways to access it. As such, publishers need options to keep building, retaining and engaging audiences through relevant and personalized content across channels. 

The new guide by Powerinbox, a multichannl messaging platform for publishers provides insights for publishers to take back control of their audience strategies and maximize their revenue potential with engagement that works. 

Building a multichannel allegiance with audiences

Publishers have been facing many challenges in recent years. They've competing with the likes of Google and Facebook for ad-revenue and walled gardens make it impossible for publishers to dig into search and social traffic and analyze audience behaviors. On top of all that, the upcoming eradication of the third party cookie will impact their ability to target — the bedrock of digital marketing. Talk about a bad deck of cards eh? But the guide provides a few steps to help publishers increase their only trump card, the publisher-audience relationship.

The Realization - During this phase of revenue diversification and third-party cookie demise, publishers have realized that their audience is their biggest asset. From preferences to consumption behavior and other first-party data, publishers are building strategies using the data audiences generate. Many publishers plan to use this first-party data for competitive advantage, post third-party cookies. In addition to gathering data, publishers have limited resources and realize that to use data to its fullest for reaching audiences requires an element of automation.

The Solution- Publishers with an understanding of audience behavior across channels can build relevant and personalized content experiences — and use this deep understanding to diversify revenue, Publishers can only gather these valuable insights by building trust with the community.

The Execution - Publishers can leverage the numerous content access options to build a multichannel allegiance with their audience, ensuring tone of voice is consistent across all channels, diversifying content to stand out and ensuring content is relevant.

The Outcome - Building audience affinity with the publisher’s brand boosts a trust that results in revenue-driving behaviors and this allows publishers to take back control and stop relying on third-parties to build their businesses and inform their strategies.

The personalization and automation mix

E-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands are built on personalization — tailoring and recommending products based on consumer preferences and using consumer data to remain relevant and keep engagement high. Once publishers take back ownership of their audience, they can learn from e-commerce and personalize the content experience. Publishers can no longer send out blanket communications of top stories and content without segmenting and personalizing the experience. Multi-sector publishers need to be extra vigilant in communicating the section and sub-section for their content piece and keep the same level of relvancy while recommeding as well.

The balance between editorial and algorithms

Efforts to personalize content requires both human as well as automation efforts. The personalization plus-automation process is about combining editorial efforts around keeping content differentiated and curated with automation. The goal is to stand out from competitors.

Steps to further the multichannel personalization journey

Contextual Awareness - The first step is understanding what content is available for the target audience. Metadata and tagging helps but it’s an arduous process. Leveraging AI and natural language processing (NLP) is a critical way to determine the context of any given content and then enables teams to match that content with the right audience.

First-party Data - Publishers need to be within their limts with regards to privacy regulations. They must build on their ability to construct unique user profiles using consented firstparty data.

Mapping and Timing - Combining contextual awareness and data-enhanced audience profiles gives publishers the ability to send the right content to the right audience. Adding additional AI focused on time of engagement provides publishers with the ability to intelligently identify when it’s time to send a notification, newsletter or social post — catching audiences at the right device and the right time.

Multichannel Management - Publishers will also need to develop a solution on how to avoid managing multiple messaging systems so as to be more effective in distribution of their message.

The pandemic has introduced new challenges to publishers as ad budgets were fluctuating and in-person events were hosted virtually. With the demise of the third-party cookie underway, publishers need to build trust, loyalty and a sense of community with their audience in order to retain them and build new revenue streams.