June 2007
From the Editor: Time for tracking
By Danica Tormohlen
I’ll be honest with you. I’m no expert when it comes to online metrics. I recognize the value of tracking online behavior, but I simply haven’t made the time to understand and analyze the numbers on a regular basis — until now.
A couple of months ago, EXPO’s parent company, Ascend Media LLC, launched a Web site traffic-building contest for editors. Our site’s page views and visits are used to determine monthly and quarterly winners. We also receive bonus points for enewsletters and using our print publication’s table of contents to drive readers to our site.
Just becoming aware of a few key metrics has been a real eye-opener for me and my staff. Tracking response rates truly is one of the most powerful tools we gain for both content and sales. Traditional media like magazines and trade shows have moved beyond the point where having a Web site is good enough. It’s a tool to build our brands — and ultimately our revenues.
Most media analysts predict that growth in online marketing will outpace other media — including face-to-face events. In fact, e-media posted the highest gain among b-to-b media last year, and it’s expected to expand at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.4 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) Communications Industry Forecast 2006-2010.
E-media spending rose 27 percent to $1.87 billion in 2005. By comparison, trade show spending increased 6.3 percent to $9.71 billion in 2005, while b-to-b magazine spending increased 4 percent to $10.7 billion in 2005. B-to-b magazine and trade show spending increased by single digits last year, but e-media spending continued its exceptional growth at 28.1 percent in 2006.
How can we harness the power of that growth? How do we generate traffic to shows web sites? Steal best practices and ideas from other shows, as well as other b-to-b and consumer Web sites. For example, Reed Exhibitions’ ISC shows recently launched ISC365, a portal with industry news, research reports, videos of select sessions, product information and user-provided content, such as a video of the week (see page 30 for more details).
BookExpo America (BEA) 2007 created a custom online community for attendees, speakers, exhibitors and press called My BEA, which offers match and collaboration tools, an internal e-mail system, advanced search features, a detailed online exhibitor directory, press center, message forums and a daily planner. Interop Las Vegas also created a similar site called InteropConnect (see page 39 for more details).
While more and more shows are clearly investing in their online properties, the next step is to track usage to improve our online and offline products and services. Believe me, I know it’s not easy to do, but it’s also not that difficult either. By employing a few simple tactics, we increased page views and visitors by 15 percent last month and took second place among more than 50 publications. This month, I plan to take first.
Danica Tormohlen, Editor
dtormohlen@ascendmedia.com
913-344-1303 |
