theSauerReport is the world’s leading authority on hides and skin prices. Since 1985 it has provided daily raw material prices to its customers alongside market trends and information on the leather industry.
On acquiring it, publisher Edify Digital Media knew it had a great product but how would it properly equip the report for the digital age?
The report ran on a basic website with an outdated design. A daily update was emailed to subscribers, but it wasn’t protected by a login. Premium information was easily forwarded to non-subscribers. Equally, there was no incentive to visit the website and no way to measure user stats.
Edify Digital Media needed to ensure customers could access the information in the simplest way possible and enable a business model based on the provision of smart digital access to its highly valuable content.
Partnering with Publish Interactive enabled Edify Digital Media to make use of its smart content management and publishing system to power the new website it would create for theSauerReport.
‘Commercially, analytics is the most useful feature…’
Edify Digital Media’s update of its online portal ensured subscribers would benefit from useful new features and functions, while also enabling it to attract new customers and, for the first time, understand how its content is used.
“On the commercial side, analytics is the most useful feature,” says Maria Wallace, co-founder of Edify Digital Media. “I particularly like the email alerts that come directly through to me to say someone has looked at a certain report marketing page which can then be passed to the sales team to follow up”.
“As publishers, user analytics is valuable as it provides us with information relating to what content is of most interest (so we can produce more) and with warm sales leads for possible subscription upgrades or new business opportunities.”
“Through the site,” she adds. “we’re able to monitor the number of overall reports accessed – as well as analytics on specific reports – helping us to remain focused on the content of most interest to our subscribers.”
Enhancing the customer experience
In addition to helping Edify Digital Media understand more about its customers and their use of content, the move onto the Publish Interactive platform enabled Edify Digital Media to broaden the range of content it offers to subscribers. It has added a Knowledge Centre and a section for in-depth reports.
“Besides being quicker and easier to use, the new system offers subscribers a number of useful features such as the download and custom report feature, advanced search functionality and, through Dataviewer, the ability to interact with data sets,” adds Maria.
“Content is created directly within the platform, which saves us time and is convenient,” Maria adds.
“Only those with a login can access content, which helps protect our subscription business model. We can also license individual reports or report groups, which provides greater flexibility when it comes to selling.”
In addition, Maria says, Edify Digital Media can publish content in ‘private mode’, enabling it to offer a consultancy service for individual customers alongside the tiered subscription model it uses to manage access to its principal content.
Evolving the business model
Edify Digital Media now has around 800 stored reports and creates around 265 new pieces of content each year. Easy access to this content and its suite of user-friendly workflow tools help keep renewal rates high and subscribers happy with the service.
A recent customer survey found that 80% of subscribers make use of the quick search feature to access content they need from across theSauerReport in the shortest possible time.
As the business grows, adds Maria, as do the commercial opportunities within the platform. Rather than simply offering theSauerReport, the opportunity exists to evolve into a ‘report store’ where users can search and access reports by different industry sectors.
