In today’s evolving media landscape, leveraging first-party data is no longer an option, but a necessity. To help media companies unlock the full potential of their audience data, the Family and Independent Media Sustainability Lab recently hosted an 8-week sprint for seven participating organizations.

Led by Apryl Pilolli, Knight x LMA BloomLab director of innovation and technology, and Julia Campell, LMA’s chief business transformation officer, the program focused on refining existing data strategies and exploring new avenues for growth.

While each participating company already had a foundational data strategy, the sprint delved deeper, examining how to augment and expand existing data and monetize it more effectively. The program covered a range of critical areas, providing insights and actionable strategies for media companies.

Here are five areas of focus for the sprint:

Optimizing newsletter signups

A key focus was on strategies to bolster newsletter subscriptions. This included crafting compelling value propositions for subscribers, such as frequency, social proof, and a clear indication of pricing.

An example of a page barker from Nice News that showcases social proof and frequency. A page barker (sometimes called a page marker or content barker) is a prominent visual element that serves as an attention-grabbing promotion. It’s similar to a barker at a carnival who draws attention to attractions.

The sprint also emphasized simplifying the signup process with clear calls to action and minimal friction. Furthermore, it explored targeted campaigns, utilizing segmentation and personalization to deliver tailored content to specific subscriber segments.

Leveraging event data

Live events, whether in-person gatherings, webinars, podcasts, or live streams, offer a wealth of opportunities for media companies to connect with their audience, generate revenue, and gather valuable consumer data.

Peter Newton, president of Big Rock Consulting Group and former chief operating officer of Gatehouse Media, led a session on building a successful event strategy. He emphasized the importance of delivering high-quality experiences while effectively capturing attendee data. Outsourcing key functions, such as venue selection, promotion and ticketing, particularly in the initial stages, can streamline operations and allow media companies to focus on their core competencies. Furthermore, establishing a branded ticketing platform not only generates revenue through ticketing fees but also provides a direct channel for capturing valuable consumer data from ticket purchasers and registrants.

The power of contests and sweepstakes

Contests and sweepstakes emerged as powerful tools for growing email lists, boosting audience engagement, and gathering valuable data.

The sprint explored strategies for incentivizing participation in contests and sweepstakes in exchange for email addresses. The focus was creating engaging and interactive experiences encouraging user participation and social sharing. Notably, the program emphasized collecting valuable data about participant demographics, interests, and preferences through these initiatives.

Liz White Notarangelo, LMA’s new co-CEO, led an engaging session that shared her insights from running Readers’ Choice promotions for years at the Record-Journal in Meriden, Connecticut. Over 20 years, the event evolved from a print-only initiative to a giant red-carpet event with more than 300 categories of winners.

Photos from Record-Journal’s Reader’s Choice promotions.

Maximizing customer lifetime value

Understanding and maximizing customer lifetime value (CLV) was a critical sprint component. This involved analyzing customer data to predict behavior and identify high-value segments. Additionally, emphasis was placed on identifying and addressing customer churn to retain valuable customers.

While very few people in journalism and news like doing math, the program tried to make it as easy as possible using templates. This allowed the group to input their key metrics and have the template output the CLV for their audience or segments of their audience.

Enhancing customer data through data appends

The sprint explored the benefits of data appends in enhancing existing customer data. This included strategies for improving data quality by appending missing data points such as email addresses, phone numbers, and demographic information.

Curtis Marshall and Brandon Smith, cofounders of Archetype Data (formerly known as Linq360), joined the session and elaborated on how they work with companies to use data appends to enrich customer profiles with valuable insights such as income levels, lifestyle preferences, purchase history and hundreds of other details. They emphasized the importance of using enriched data to create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns while ensuring compliance with all relevant data privacy laws and regulations.