By February of 2019, media companies had already declared 2018 as the worst year of layoffs since 2009. By that time, Buzzfeed had eliminated its entire national newsroom and Gannett had made cuts to journalism jobs across the country. Business Insider recently tallied over 3,200 jobs lost in 2019 and media companies are still tightening their belts.
Why? Digital still isn’t making up for the losses in print and media companies are going to have to figure out how to respond.
While your company may be considering layoffs, you can still stand out as a strong offering for brands that want to reach a quality audience.
Don’t cut your content.
Don’t cut your audience development efforts.
And keep leaning into growing your most valuable assets - your leads and your audience!
Content strategy begins with defining your audience and the story that you wish to tell about your business offering. Any media is counted as content - written, video, ebooks, audio, ads - and should have a well-planned purpose. You must also define the channels in which to publish the content. Audiences are looking for variety, unique and consumable content that entertains, informs and educates. Where is your audience and how will you draw them in?
Examples of a digital content strategy include:
Any media that you can use to bring audiences to your website, over and over again, is part of an overall strategic campaign to keep eyes on your content.
See also: 6 Lessons from Innovators in the Publishing Space
Your audience will determine the types of content you produce, the story you’re sharing, where you will publish it and how often. Audiences are continually being drawn away by the competition so audience development is more important than ever. While it may be tempting to work in silos, audience development and content strategy can be challenging to meet cross-departmental goals.
If one vertical of your media company wants to engage a particular audience, it’s important to diversify which needs are matched to particular content and ad pricing. It’s important to work together to develop more eyes on your platform but also be aware of the goals of other parts of the organization.
Audience development and content strategy must also be measured by setting attainable sales goals and auditing their success. A sales pipeline can offer real-time data to forecast revenue and determine which efforts are working. Sales professionals at media companies can rely on sales enablement tools that are available any time and from anywhere to forecast sales lead growth and conversions. An investment in these tools and your sales staff can help determine trends, offer personalized customer experiences and maximize the efforts of your team.
LaunchPad Media Management‘s mission is to provide an enterprise software suite solution that covers end-to-end publishing management and makes departmental collaboration easier. The platform is fast, intuitive and secure to meet the demands of media companies large and small.
To learn more about the capabilities of LaunchPad, schedule a demo by clicking here.