NEW YORK – August 18, 2009 – The newspaper industry is in a transitional time, with a number of well-read publications moving to online content only, and others disappearing from the landscape altogether. It is now more important than ever for news organizations to get the best return on investment for their marketing efforts. As a result, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has turned to Alterian’s integrated marketing platform to automate its marketing campaigns, utilizing targeted segment analytics to increase the number of new subscriptions.
In an effort to save time and money while continuing to generate revenue resulting from new subscriptions and retaining current subscribers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) partnered with Marketing G2, a database development and marketing automation provider, to enhance its understanding of customer data and improve their database marketing capabilities. The addition of Marketing G2 and Alterian’s analytical platform has given MJS the ability to harness its comprehensive database to determine which segment of its potential customers would be best to target with each direct mail marketing campaign. In the first six months of 2009, MJS increased new subscriptions acquired through direct mail by 36 percent and reduced expenses by 41 percent, compared to 2008. Through the use of analytics to understand responders from previous campaigns MJS targets the prospects most likely to be interested. MJS has been able to successfully increase response rates from .54 percent to 1.20 percent.
Marketing G2’s Open Intelligence marketing database is refreshed daily with MJS subscribers and transactions, as opposed to the previous weekly updates, which in turn allows the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform to execute automated marketing campaigns, with minimal manual intervention. Transaction triggered campaigns are fully automated and run on a daily basis. MJS is now armed with the database, tools and partner to be truly data driven.
“Marketing G2’s solution, based on the Alterian platform, has opened the door for us to focus our marketing efforts and resources on the prospective customers that will give us the most bang for our buck,” said Steve Ewig, Sales Manager, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The analytics behind the solution have not only enhanced our marketing campaigns, but have also allowed us to automate multiple solutions throughout the business. This, in turn, is allowing us to focus on delivering a better product to the people that want it in a timely and not on daily execution chores.”
“The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s success in an industry plagued by the recession is a testament to the power of the analytics delivered by Alterian’s Integrated Marketing solution,” said David Eldridge, CEO, Alterian. “We applaud the success of companies who understand the value of using analytics to engage with customers and use the data to provide a solution to each need.”