We live in an era of technological progress, and it has affected every single sphere of our lives tremendously. Whether in your personal life, business, or education, you can feel the digital impact. This means that digital transformation in publishing is only natural.
Today we are going to talk about the influence of major digitalization on publishing B2B enterprise clients. Let's start by stating the obvious: in a world of fast technological development, B2B communication needs an entirely different approach.
What does that mean? The answer is quite simple: no matter what you do, you are bound to adapt to what modern customers and consumers expect from you. Due to this, it is safe to say that every company or business needs a certain digital plan to incorporate into their marketing strategies.
Digital Transformation in the Publishing Industry
What does digital transformation in publishing look like? Every publishing company rushes to adapt to constantly changing technology as well as to the needs of its customers. That is precisely what digital transformation means. To put it simply, there are at least five main areas of development that every publishing B2B enterprise must address to keep their business on top. These areas are:
- Content storage
- Metadata
- Discoverability
- Content agility
- Automated collaboration
Let’s have a closer look.
Content storage
Not so long ago, every enterprise needed millions of folders and various network drives, not to mention shared-content systems. These days, all that is required for a successful operation is a global, cloud-based repository. Such an approach ensures that any necessary information can be shared between the people involved within seconds and without piles of different documents stacked on a desktop.
Metadata
Some unlimited labels and tags can be applied to files manually or automatically. This ensures that any file can be found in the system with the help of a keyword or semantic search.
Discoverability
As the name suggests, this is where content storage and metadata sync together to provide the user with the best and most relevant content.
Content agility
This is when an enterprise client learns how to respond to the demands that come from the outside. Valuable content is being reused, which means that no matter how old the content is, or what its original format was, it can still be presented as a new digital copy.
Automated collaboration
There is no need to send separate copies to multiple editors for review. These days it is possible for different editors to work on the same document at the same time. Such an approach speeds up the process and improves the quality of the enterprise.
The authors among you may be wondering: what’s in it for me? The faster the publishing process, the sooner your work will see the market, and that is clearly a tremendous benefit to consider.
Essential Digital Strategies That Modern Publishing B2B Enterprise Clients Use
Besides the areas that every enterprise must address to transform digitally, there are also essential strategies that they need to stick to thrive in an overcrowded market. There are six main strategies that every B2B publishing enterprise is quickly adopting. They are:
- Website development
- SEO and content development
- Integration
- Social media
- PPC campaigns
- Redefining targets
Website development
A high-functioning website just doesn't stand out these days. Considering modern trends, it is safe to say that today's audience is more demanding than ever. This means that when digitizing your publishing B2B enterprise, you need to consider every tiny detail to win over the customers.
Your B2B website should:
- Correspond to the target audience’s needs
- Be mobile-responsive
- Be updatable
- Be informative
- Include links to all social media pages
All in all, a proper and functioning B2B publishing enterprise site should be as informative as possible, simple to use, and better than what the competitors have to offer.
Read also: Website Development for Publishing Industry
SEO and Content Development
No SEO = no customers. It's as simple as that. And a business with no customers is as good as dead. This means that investing in productive SEO is one of the most important things to consider when trying to digitize your enterprise. These days, many businesses hire a personal SEO specialist or use companies that offer SEO optimization services.
Content development is also an important component of a productive digitized website, which is why many companies opt for blogs. Such an approach allows you to spread the word about yourself faster. The more people know about your site and your services, the more customers you will attract.
Besides the blog on their own website, some companies also use guest articles that are posted on other platforms but link back to their site.
Last but not least, video content is the best type of content. People prefer a short and informative video to comb through page after page of text.
Integration
Integration is your interaction with possible customers. The easier it is to get in touch with you, the more involved the targeted audience will be. To achieve that interaction, many companies invest in reliable customer service.
Social Media
It's not a secret that most people can’t imagine their lives without Facebook or Instagram. That is why publishing enterprises that want to increase their influence over their target audience must use social media to their advantage. It's very easy to popularize your content via interesting posts on Facebook. Informative visuals are also helpful when it comes to spreading the word about what you do and what you are experienced in.
Many publishing enterprises tend to leave the strategy out. However, that is surely their mistake, which may result in tremendous target audience loss.
PPC Campaigns
This is a paid strategy, and it needs to be emphasized that, if your budget is low, this may be a strategy to avoid. However, companies that can afford pay-per-click campaigns tend to admit that it is more than resourceful.
Redefining Targets
These days there are all sorts of analytics available so that you can easily decide whether or not your target will prove to be productive. What is more, it is possible to redefine the target, even in the middle of the campaign. Such an approach ensures that most B2B publishing enterprises can easily influence the successful outcome of the campaign.
Read also: Why Use Drupal for Media and Publishing
The Main Publishing B2B Enterprise Client and Its Approach
Taking all the above information into consideration, it seems like there is only one thing missing – suitable examples. We are going to discuss Time Inc. and their successful approach to the digitalization of their production.
To begin with, they provide their own successful strategy:
- Interesting content.
- Innovative design.
- Data visualization.
- Videography.
- Impactful storytelling.
- Targeted brand positioning.
Using this 6-step strategy, the company has become one of the leaders in the UK market, which proves that the strategy is highly effective.
Summary
To sum everything up, it is safe to say that the modern world is developing at a rapid speed and any business, be it online or offline, has to adapt to it. As the technology is developing and improving, so are the needs of the average customer. This brings us to the point when it becomes clear that publishing as we know it will soon be extinct. Major B2B publishing enterprises have got the point and changed as well as upgraded their strategies already. If you want your business to be as thriving as Time Inc., then you should take all the above information into careful consideration!
Starting digital transformation, get involved with the support of a reliable partner. At AnyforSoft, we know how important it is to have confidence in the result and we take care of each stage on the way to achieving business goals. We build highly motivated development teams that use state-of-art practices and their experience to develop custom and relevant products for each individual issue: we know how to build your success. If you have an idea or additional questions, please contact our manager and we will definitely find the digital solution you need.
