Interesting Data Points for Digital Publishers

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I recently spoke at the CMO Institute conference hosted by the International Performance Management Institute in Las Vegas. It was an incredible event filled with CMOs like myself from all walks of life. We shared success stories, horror stories, and stories about how we were going to become better marketers.

In the course of the meetings I heard some interesting statistics, including this one from Wildfire's Paul Limbrey. Eighty percent of people will choose not to buy something because they read a negative review on the product from a friend. Also, people will now compare pricing on an average of 12 locations before making a purchase.

This got me thinking…what other interesting data points are out there for digital publishers? I found these fun facts:

• 12 percent of the top 200 grossing apps on the iPad are publications. See more data points like this here.
• Readership of magazines and newspapers on tablets has doubled in the past year.
• Over half of the world uses a mobile phone.
• 52 percent of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in their online purchase decisions.

How exciting! Publishers like you and I are now in the midst of a historical event: a reading revolution. How you and your company take advantage of that is going to determine how successful your 2013 will be.

Take advantage of this year to hone your company's strategy and go-to-market plans by using this five-point checklist:

1. Select one generation and align your marketing to their needs (will you be innovative and reach the millennials, or drive to the bottom line and strive for the baby boomer attention?).
2. Have a full "experience" audit completed on your app. If you are not getting a 4.5 star rating find out why and fix it. Your revenue will increase by 25 percent for each half star improvement.
3. Create a large-scale partnership. If you are a content producer, you have a match waiting to meet you this year. Partnerships are powerful ways to spread the word about your digital publication.
4. Invest in social. See the statistics above to understand how impactful word-of-mouth can be for driving results for your brand. If you don't have a strong social presence in 2013 your brand will not flourish as much as it could.
5. Seek out support from others. Whether you hire an expert marketing team, partner with a supplier or vendor, or even turn to a focus group, 2013 is the time to stop trying to go-it-alone and get help from the experts who know the space the best.

By the end of 2012 there were more mobile-connected devices in use than there are people in the world. That makes a powerful statement. This whitepaper from Cisco will give you data points you need to know about device usage and penetration.

Raining Documents image on home page via Shutterstock.