FIPP Congress speakers discuss more than one way to increase B2B database profitability
“It’s true that the beating heart of a B2B business is its database,” said to Yuko Tanaka, global business development executive for Nikkei Business Publications in Japan today at FIPP’s Congress in Rome. However, there are multiple strategies that a company may adopt to exploit their databases and ultimately create innovative revenue opportunities.
Nikkei BP is a “total solutions company” that is committed to quality. Half of their 800 employees are well-connected staff writers to ensure the highest-quality material for their users. “You don’t need to reach the masses, you need to reach your target with pinpoint accuracy” said Tanaka. Creating a focused brand that offers quality content to an exclusive audience allowed Nikkei BP to set subscriptions up to $200 USD per year, which is a uniquely expensive subscription. Nikkei BP decided to aggressively launch magazines to increase the subscriber base, which now holds over two million names. Nikkei BP also launched paid web access, that hosts a personal profile database of over 6 million business professionals.
“Uniting power of magazine brands, and the synergy between print and digital,” are two of the keys to increasing revenue when exploiting B2B databases, according to Tanaka. Nikkei’s brand exemplifies quality and exclusivity, reaching for a hyper-specific audience to further the brand integrity. Tanaka revealed that the average salary in Japan is $40,000 USD among business professionals. However, there are 7 million business professionals making more than $70,000 USD, and Nikkei wants to reach them all.
While paid content may work for one company, Co-founder and CEO of Editportale.com in Italy, Ferdinando Napoli, explained that free content may be the right path for another. It is very important to exploit databases through Direct Email Marketing, and newsletter advertising. The keys are to avoid spam, maximize email delivery, and click-through rate and to minimise “unsubscribers”.
