It’s easy to forget just how much value the people who come into contact with your organisation can hold – and not just for you, but for third parties too. If you haven’t already thought about monetising your website visitors and database, now is the time to alter your view of them, and treat them as an additional revenue stream in their own right.

As a media publisher you must have good amount of website visitors with something in common – interest, behaviour, need… And there are many companies willing to pay for this!

Here are the most innovative and profitable ways you can tap into that incremental revenue, and the things you need to ensure along the way.

This blog is a part of a media publishing series ‘Revenue generating tips for media publishers’.

Undoubtedly, the most common question I am asked when speaking to event industry leaders is: “Do you think our open rates and click through rates are above or below the benchmark for the industry?”

While I haven’t officially surveyed the conference professionals that I know, I have many conversations to draw upon, and in my experience email is still hugely important to event companies. They really care about the results they are getting and want to know how they measure up to competitors and peers.

Now, when it comes to actual figures, I believe you have to take them with a pinch of salt. Many marketers like to think that they are already taking the right approach, and simply want to be assured of this. In addition, if you were to ask your marketing manager what kind of results they are seeing you will likely induce panic, and cause them to demonstrate only their best performing pieces for fear of criticism. 

But, based on my experiences across the board within the event industry, here are the metrics you should expect to see:

Often companies look at competitors to see if they’re falling behind, or where they’re leading the way for the rest of the industry – but we forget that there’s a lot to be learned from other industries entirely. In this case I’m talking about media publishers. Struggling to generate high quality leads, surely it makes sense to take a little knowledge from the experts! If there’s one thing event marketers do well it’s lead generation – and I’m about to let you in on the top secret business of how they do it:

Aside from publishing high quality content, there aren’t many additional revenue streams media publishers can tap into, right?

Wrong!

There are several ways you can expand your reach and repertoire that don’t necessarily need to break the bank. And if you at least try these new channels, you’ll be able to discover which are more profitable for your organisation and are worth persevering with.

We’ll explore each of these tips in greater detail in the next few weeks, so watch this space for more information!

Here are our absolute top revenue generating tips for media publishers:

There are many ideas event planners use to stimulate engagement during the event. Some bring comedians, others commission Cirque du Soleil style shows, hire magicians etc... You name it and it has been done, especially in North America where events get additional, hype which I think is pretty cool.

I personally see the value events don't necessarily need to be serious and academic and networky all the time. Well, what if you could invest your money in something that will actually generate excitement, buzz, shares, a twitter frenzy, awareness and, more importantly, an everlasting memory of your event?

Try attempting to break a world record title and give yourself the chance to join the likes of Usain Bolt and Richard Branson by being in the Guinness World Records book!