Print media is one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished industries. Yet, the turn of the century has brought some difficult challenges to business. The rise of the internet has meant the paper model has had to adapt and change to fill a new role. Revenue can no longer rely on paper sales and advertising revenue has become key to success.

On the flip side, CRMs are a relatively new technology. As time goes on they can only become more powerful. If implemented properly CRMs can become the driving force behind any print media business. And these are the reasons why.

Knowing your customer

One of the most important aspects of print media is knowing your customer. This means understanding the content they like, the adverts they want to see and their spending patterns. In traditional print media this can be difficult to gauge organically. Fortunately, with the advent of online newspapers, cookie tracking and tailored advertising, it has become much easier for print media to track the preferences of their customers. This is where an intelligent CRM implementation comes in.

A CRM system can collect data from a wide range of different sources and organise that data to suit the goal of the campaign. It also allows a company to merge data from every department in the business to truly understand your customer. For example, an advertising campaign can use data from the subscription service team to tailor each advert towards the subscriber’s preference.

Online vs digital print media

Since the advent of digital media, print media have struggled to merge both sides of their business. Yet as digitisation has improved the quality of online media it has become more apparent than ever of the need to improve this collaboration. 

Data captured online is more robust and reflective of the customers wants than data that is captured through paper. A customer’s preferred genres or the topics that they engage with through the comment section are all valuable pieces of information when targeting content for your customers. You can improve the quality of your content, drive production of relevant content or remove content that is lagging behind in performance. CRMs are crucial in this analysis process. They capture data from all the media channels within your company. This then allows your business to compare and contrast media channels, content and viewership for potential opportunities.

Sales

Like all business, sales are key to success. However, the products that print media sells (such as advertising or subscriptions) tend to be complicated products relative to other industries. Moreover, sale cycles within print media are long and value is placed on loyalty over long periods of time. This means it can be tricky to organise all your data and products in one place. A robust CRM has the capability to manage all of these products and opportunities coherently. This gives your sales team more time to focus on the selling aspect of their job as well as becoming more productive when they are selling.

Breaking Down Silos

Collaboration is key in many businesses. Print media is no different. Alongside the online vs print collaboration discussed above, CRMs also allow your print business to break down the silos between marketing, service and sales to truly understand what your employees need. For example, sales can collaborate with service to understand the needs of current subscribers. Reports on preferences in marketing can also help sales develop tactics to close deals and maximise their efficiency. Similarly, up-selling and cross-selling opportunities increase as employees have a complete view of the customer base.

Maximise your advertising revenue

Advertising is a vital revenue point in all print media. Similar to marketing, it is essential that media companies have a clear view of what they want to sell and who they want to sell to. CRMs allow you to generate the data you need from your customers so that you can help get the most out of your advertising space.

Click data analytics along with cookies and customer preferences can all be tracked in CRMs giving your sales team the ability to create the tangible from the previously intangible. This can be a key driver in generating revenue.

In conclusion

Print media has been revolutionised beyond comparison by the internet. Yet, it is still possible to use newer technologies such as CRMs to keep striving forward. Big data is only useful with the tools that allow you to manage it and the ability to share it. With the vast wealth of data generated from print media, CRMs are a sure fire way to generate sustainable growth well into the future