SC US taps new sources of online marketing

Data from online readers represents a growing source of advertising revenue and may prove to be a good complement to display advertising for business-to-business publications, according Gill Torren, associate publisher of SC Magazine US.

Customers enter their data on the SC’s IT security website to gain access to restricted or gated content such as webcasts and industry white papers. “The webcasts are created by our editorial staff or by a partnership of staff and advertisers,” said Torren.

The data collected from customers viewing the content is then passed on to advertisers, who use the data as leads for potential marketing opportunities.

Torren added: “SC US has also developed virtual conferences that offer multiple sessions throughout the day all based upon a common subject. During session breaks, participants can visit virtual booths on the expo ‘floor’. Virtual conference sponsors receive all leads of attendees to the sessions they sponsor and booth sponsors receive all leads from visitors to their booths.”

Although this type of advertising is particularly successful with a highly targeted IT audience such as SC US’s, other business-to-business brands can benefit from producing similar gated content for advertisers, according to Torren.

Torren presented on SC US ’s lead-generation advertising at a recent panel hosted by Search Engine Strategies (SES), which organises conferences across the world to educate marketers on the latest online search and advertising trends.

Murray Gaylord, another panel speaker and the vice-president of marketing for the New York Times, also emphasised the use of lead generation in integrating print and online advertising – as well as the increasing importance of social networking for the advertising industry.

Other panellists spoke of cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-action (CPA) as the major advertising trends now taking over cost-per-thousand (CPM), the measure used in traditional display advertising.

Around 5000 traditional media and digital marketers attended the SES New York conference. SES also held conferences in Paris, London and Amsterdam earlier this year.