Techwatch to Organise First Dutch RF Conference
On 23 November the first Dutch RF Conference will take place at Novio Tech Campus in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. This new conference will include:
- Sessions on product-specific applications with a focus on innovative solutions in combination with advanced wireless technology
- In-depth sessions highlighting trends such as RF energy and RF power and focusing on engineers, designers and technical managers in the advanced RF field
The conference is designed to attract an audience of Belgian and Dutch high tech professionals and companies involved in high-end RF development and RF applications, and the organisers promise sessions that will interest engineers, team leaders, technical managers, product developers and innovation managers.
A call for papers is open until 1 September. Authors are encouraged to submit proposals that are "in-depth, but not academic," covering:
- Low-power RF
- RF energy
- RF power
- Innovative product applications in RF
Submissions with a close link to markets such as health/medical, automotive, telecom and communication are particularly encouraged.
Sponsorship opportunities are also available - check out the Dutch RF website for more details.
Weka mixing English and Chinese for The Elektronik
Weka Fachmedien will publish a combined English and Chinese title, The Elektronik international, as a special issue on November 2nd 2016, just in time for the industry's biggest trade show, electronica. The idea of the publication is to give a flavour of the content of Weka's German titles to other readers, with topics covered including IoT (Security, Software, Communication, Cloud, …), Industry 4.0, Wireless, Microcontrollers and Automotive.
This is the first publication in Chinese and English from a German publisher in our industry - at least as far as we are aware. We think this experimental approach is sure to be a success because of the high number of particularly American advertisers that can be reached at electronica and the other big German shows. the addition of Chinese is also interesting: although Chinese suppliers have be very active in the European market, it's only recently that they have grown their advertising spend to such an important level.
Weka plans to print 10,000 copies, focusing distribution on electronica, with some copies also available at SPS/IPC/Drives. They've planned to distribute the publication within the special ‘Chinese’ section of the fairs, targeting trade press areas and forums within these sections.
Aspencore research shows the content that will get engineers to provide contact details
Aspencore's annual Supplier Interface Study is an important piece of research that provides insight into what drives the decisions their readers and subscribers - i.e. the electronics design industry. The results, as always, provide some great insights for marketing professionals in the electronics industry, and as an agency that believes in using research to make data-driven decisions, we've been analyzing the numbers.
Websites are more important than ever, with more respondents using almost every form of online content than last year (although last year did see some decrease in interest about some forms of content). As usual (and this really shouldn't be a surprise), the data sheets, followed by application notes are the type of information accessed most often. There are, however, some interesting findings. This year, circuit block diagrams were marginally more popular than reference designs, perhaps suggesting that as components continue to get more complex, it's the context in which they are used that matters, rather than the nitty-gritty of how to actually deploy them.
Some of the less popular items were a little surprising. There wasn't much interest in market analysis, with over 90% saying they don't access this information on electronic engineering websites very often. Webinars and virtual events also ranked towards the bottom. As nine out of 10 engineers are not frequently accessing webinars, it suggests this lead generation tactic of choice has an Achilles heel due to its limited reach across the engineering population.
So if webinars aren't the solution, what is the content that will persuade engineers to give up their contact details? The Supplier Interface Study highlights several possibilities. Application notes were most likely generate a form-fill, with 40% of respondents saying they would register, while 38% said they'd give up details for data sheets. With most application notes and data sheets freely available without registration, perhaps it's time for a re-think, although marketers need to be careful, particularly with data sheets, as they will be excluding 60% of the potential customers if they do require registration for this content.
Perhaps most interesting was the inclusion of eBooks. Although eBooks are widely used lead generation tools in many industries, electronics has tended to focus on application notes and white papers. Perhaps that's the wrong approach, and we should be putting more effort into this form of content: more engineers would register to get an eBook than would do so to gain access to online design tools, view circuit diagrams, read a white paper, receive a newsletter or access a forum. [aside: Napier has been generation eBooks for clients for years, and they have proved to be amazing lead generation tools, so we certainly believe the survey findings].
There is some really good news: the percentage of respondents who say they won't provide their contact details for anything has fallen sharply this year, from 25%, to 15%. So keep working on those lead generation and content marketing campaigns: they should be generating more form-fills than ever!
Finally there was one strange result. Less than 45% of the respondents would provide contact details in exchange for samples. We assume this means that the majority of engineers prefer to buy samples, rather than receiving them for free: something that will surprise everyone who has ever dealt with an engineer who is demanding samples free-of-charge. If not, we're struggling to work out how suppliers know where to send the samples!
To get a full copy of the report, contact Steve Cholas, global sales director at Aspencore.
PCIM Europe 2017 issues call for papers
The organisers of PCIM Europe’s conference have issued a call for papers. PCIM Europe is the leading event for the entire power electronics industry and its fields of application, usually characterized by their unique combination of a practise-oriented conference and exhibition.
PCIM will be held from the 16th-18th May 2017 in Nuremberg, Germany, aiming to demonstrate varied expertise, and provide the opportunity to exchange specialist knowledge, informing an international audience about the latest results and developments in the field of power electronics.
The conference will be held in English, covering a wide range of topics including recent developments on power semiconductors, passive components, thermal management products, energy storage, sensors and new materials, as well as systems. Drives in automation will continue to be a subject in 2017, providing experts with inspiring and wide-ranging subjects in the field of power electronics.
The ‘Call for Papers’ gives the go-ahead for experts from industry and academia to submit their papers on power electronics, and allow speakers to have the opportunity to present their latest results and developments within a lecture or poster presentation. With the deadline on 18th October 2016, experts should be quick to submit their papers, as the more fortunate selected papers will be included in the official PCIM Europe proceedings, as well as in the scientific databases of IEEExplore, Scopus, Compendex and IET Inspec Direct.
Outstanding papers will be recognised with awards; the winner of the ‘Best Paper Award’ will receive 1,000 Euros and the chance to participate at the PCIM Asia 2018 Conference in Shanghai. Also, three ‘Young Engineer Award’ worth 1,000 Euro each are available, giving outstanding writers no older than 35 the opportunity to be awarded at the opening ceremony of the PCIM Europe conference on the 16th May 2017.
Congratulations to the winner of the Fitbit Surge
At Napier we believe in using real data to drive marketing decisions and plans. So we do a lot of research to ensure we understand the views of our clients' potential customers. A recent project looked at the European distribution market, and we'd like to thank everyone who participated. We usually offer some form of incentive; for this survey Mr. Pete Shepherd of Telesoft Technologies won a Fitbit Surge. Congratulations Pete!
In memory of Tommy Jägermo
Like most industries, electronics has its fair share of good and bad characters, and it's always the good ones that you really remember. Tommy Jägermo was one of those good guys. It was always a pleasure to see Tommy; even when he was chasing for more advertising business, he was a real gentleman who was always friendly and helpful.
When we heard that Tommy had died as a result of his diabetes, we were shocked. His energy and enthusiasm made him one of those people that you just always thought would be around, even though he did suffer from ill health. Losing Tommy, particularly at just 68 years old, makes the industry much poorer. RIP Tommy.
Over 10,000 people visited PCIM Europe 2016
10,053 people from 67 countries visited PCIM Europe 2016, an increase of 12% on the previous year. This impressive headline growth shows that – in Germany at least – trade shows continue to be an important part of the electronics industry’s marketing mix. Other facts and figures provided by the organisers include:
- The show was international, with 33% of the visitors from outside Germany
- 94% of the visitors would recommend PCIM Europe to their colleagues and are likely to visit the exhibition in 2017 again
- 79% of the visitors claimed to be “decision makers”
- The conference attracted 771 attendees (59% from abroad)
- 295 presentations were given during the event at the conference
- 94% of conference attendees also wanted to see the exhibition
It’s good to see PCIM continuing to flourish, and I’m personally looking forward to visiting an even bigger show next year.
How to win at Facebook marketing…even though reach and referral traffic is at an all-time low thanks to a new update
On the 29th June, Facebook announced another tweak to its News Feed that effects which stories and updates users get to see. Facebook’s engineering director Lars Backstrom has written on Facebook’s blog, “We’ve heard from our community that people are still worried about missing important updates from the friends…so the things posted by the friends you care about are higher up in your News Feed”. Whilst this might be an improvement for personal use, how does this change affect business users?
Download our B2B Facebook Marketing Report.
The Shareability Factor
This update is the second in 18 months to affect the News Feed reach and referral traffic which has led to a decline in visibility for Business Pages. You can read our initial post from May 2016 about B2B Facebook Marketing here. So, what does this new update mean in reality? Facebook always encourages its business users to post relevant and engaging content that will attract their target audience. According to Facebook, if the majority of your referral traffic is from people sharing your content and their friends liking and commenting then your business will see less of an impact than if your page gets most of its traffic directly from your page posts alone.
Pay to Play
If you post regularly to Facebook you need to carefully consider your post content to ensure that its shareable and is seen as having value, not only to your page followers but to their followers too. If you’re not already on board with content marketing then you can get started here. Our B2B Facebook Marketing report showed us that businesses cannot rely on organic traffic alone, so if you’re already using Facebook Ads as part of your online marketing strategy then you may need to consider adjusting your tactics and reconsidering not only what content you post but whether you choose to use Facebook’s ‘Promote Page’ Ad’s or ‘Boost Post’ Ad’s. If you are not currently advertising, this update suggests that carefully curating your page posts will only get you so far, so adopting a paid approach is the only way to guarantee visibility.
At Napier, we undertook our own 3-month research project at the beginning of the year to monitor the success of Facebook ad’s and how their use affected brand visibility and engagement. This research was invaluable as we used real data which means greater insight.
Bits and Chips Smart System Event 2016
Techwatch are hosting one of the biggest High Tech events held in the Netherlands, the Bits and Chips Smart Systems event on 28th September 2016. This high tech event is being held at Hertogenbosch, and Techwatch has guaranteed a thrilling exhibition surrounding amazing new Dutch high tech, and the opportunity to attend exciting conferences surrounding ‘The Internet of Services’, ‘Printed Electronics Autonomous Driving’ and ‘From make to start-up’. With many experts traveling far and wide for this event suggests this event in previous years was a huge success.
Bits and Chips are the leading new and opinion magazine for high tech industry owned by Techwatch, with their main focus in the new items on the influence of technology. Bits and Chips magazine has a great reputation within the high tech industry in Belgium and Netherlands, presenting them as a reliable and exceptional source to help provide information for this event.
Bits and Chips Smart System event, is an easy place for experts in the industry including researchers, designers and engineers to meet, share their knowledge and expertise with each other. This amazing event allows experts of all fields within the high tech industry to contribute and help each other with their knowledge, whilst also establishing and reinforcing their tactical partnerships with each other.
You’ve Won The Customer – Is Your Job as a Marketer Done?
Your hard work has paid off and your marketing efforts have won you business but now is most definitely not the time to take your foot off the gas. Many companies use retention strategies as each customer represents an opportunity to make a customer loyal for life. If this sounds a lot like hard work then you’d be wrong – here’s some simple tips on why marketing to your existing customers is so important. If you're looking for inspiration, read our recent content marketing blog post.
If you're keen to get started straight away then Download the PR, Content Marketing and the Sales Funnel Tip Sheet Now.
Delight your customers
At Napier, we are big fans of the Inbound Marketing methodology, where you attract visitors to your business, convert them to leads with your outstanding content and then close them as customers. But the process does not stop there – why stop the momentum? Don’t forget about marketing to your existing customers - ‘Delight’ them and ensure they stay a customer and even more powerful than that, allow them to become a brand advocate by delivering more for less with a great content strategy
Tools for delight
By now you are well on your way to mastering content marketing, you’re doing something right if you’re moving visitors through the buyer’s journey. So what does delighting customers look like? Hopefully you will have built up a profile of your customer types or personas through the purchasing process but now it’s time to find out what they need after they have made a purchase. The best way to do this is to ask. You can use online survey’s or voting buttons in targeted email campaigns to get these answers and find out what gets them clicking on your online content. If you’re using a marketing automation platform such as HubSpot you can employ the use of smart calls to action on landing pages that present users with offers that change based upon their buyer persona.
Harness Social Media
If you’re not quite there yet then don’t forget you can also utilise social media. Monitor what customers are saying about your brand, take on board the good and the bad and create content and take action accordingly. A good example might be a customer complaint about installing a product, they might take to social media to complain they found it tough. Rather than seeing this as negative, take it on board...if you find this is a trend then consider creating instructional video’s. This will not only delight the customer but can also be used as marketing content that is easily shareable online.
Buyers are even more empowered today, information is everywhere and is much easier to find, which means retaining customers can be tougher. In order to stay ahead you need to deliver the goods, provide excellent customer service AND stay top of mind for all the right reasons. A well thought out content and email marketing strategy delivered through marketing automation will ensure you keep one step ahead of the competition, delight your customers and deliver more with less effort from your marketing team. it's win-win all round!
Congratulations to PowerPulse on reaching 20 Years
We would like to congratulate the popular power publication PowerPulse on 20 years of publication. We normally blog about European media, but for big anniversaries like this, it’s worth breaking the rules and talking about a success in the USA. Well done to the team at Darnell!
About PowerPulse
European readers might not know much about PowerPulse. Unsurprisingly they cover all aspects of power electronics, servicing over 50,000 subscribers. With a daily newsletter, this means that they deliver over 1 million email updates monthly, as well as generating over 3 million page views monthly on their website. With a creative approach, they offer lead generation solutions as well as providing advertising opportunities for awareness and click-throughs. Although it's US-based, PowerPulse has a global audience, with around 1/4 of readers based in Europe.
ETN offers range of marketing opportunities in Finland
We recently reported that Elektroniikkalehti had rebranded to ETN, making things a lot easier for those of us with limited Finnish to discuss this title. The publication has also been working to offer a wider range of ways to reach the Finnish market. For companies wanting editorial-like promotion with complete control, ETN is offering native advertising: the digital equivalent of the good old advertorial. Interestingly the publication has also built an email list that can be rented. Although it consists of only 2000 contacts, the Finnish market isn't as big as many other European markets, and this must represent the largest rentable list of Finnish electronics engineers. For more information, contact Napier or ETN.
Bits and Chips celebrates success of ASML
Bits and Chips is the leading magazine in the Netherlands for the high tech industry, and five years ago they published a special issue entirely focused upon ASML. This Dutch company is the biggest supplier in the world of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry, and they are aiming to make history by having their Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) platform ready for mass production by the end of 2016.
Bits and Chips have decided to publish a follow up special issue dedicated to ASML, to celebrate the major milestone they have achieved in semiconductor history. This special issue is to be published on the 16th December 2016 and will focus on a series of interviews and technology backgrounders.
With a circulation of 20,000 copies to be published, this special issue is not to missed. It will reflect extensively on this technology milestone, celebrating this great accomplishment. ASML’s sales are growing due to the system enhancements that are part of the holistic lithography suite. This has helped these additions become a must rather than an attractive option, proving ASML continues to grow as a company, suggesting they will continue to provide further developments.
EE Journal warns of the "Media Mafia"
Many people are warning that the Utopian days when any journalist could write whatever they wanted, without commercial issues (i.e. the advertising team) interfering with the independence of the press. They point to the growth of native advertising, and the hard commercial realities of running a modern publication.
It's also very true that there are lots of other people saying that those Utopian days weren't quite as good as we imagine, and our rose-tinted hindsight is a bit misleading.
However I was surprised to read how blunt Karen Simon was in her piece on EE Journal, entitled The Media Mafia. She makes some very specific accusations:
"Last week, while I was meeting with customers at the annual Design Automation Conference (DAC), I was told by more than one of my contacts that they make sure to reserve some of their marketing budget for certain publications, out of fear of what the editors from these publications will write about their product if they do not “pay up”…er, I mean, purchase a program."
She even issues a call to arms for advertisers, telling them:
"Trade publications hold a lot of power. Only you can stop the bullying!"
Of course Karen has a clear motive: to position Techfocus Media as being different from other publications. A case of "she would say that, wouldn't she?", perhaps?
I think only time will tell the future of the trade press, and the electronics media in general. It is true that some publications link advertising to editorial coverage (if you've ever bought advertising in Israel, you'll know exactly what I mean: this country is perhaps the most extreme example, but there are examples in a wide range of industries and countries).
In the US, the recent consolidation of a huge percentage of the electronics media has made everyone very nervous. Is Arrow some kind of benevolent benefactor that has bought publications to ensure their ongoing success and survival or some kind of movie villain hiding in a secret lair and hatching an evil plan to hold the industry to ransom? The truth is somewhere in the middle - without doubt the acquisition of publications has been done to benefit their distribution business, but with the relatively low cost of entry to publishing, I can't imagine they would think for a minute that they could turn the publications into tools to force electronic component manufacturers to do what Arrow wants, without seeing startup titles overtaking their established brands.
The future, however, is very uncertain. Publishers sell data as much as content, and it's really hard to make enough money in publishing to be able to invest in large editorial teams. On the other side, advertisers are putting more emphasis on owned media - we can see this from the rapid rise of "content marketing".
Overall, I'm an optimist. I think people, particularly when it comes to B2B, value journalists and their work. Although I'm not going to predict a golden age for publications, and at Napier we're certainly putting a lot of effort into helping clients used owned media effectively and successfully, I don't see publications disappearing completely. If journalists produce great quality, they will survive and thrive: in fact it's the publications that decide their editorial content based upon the advertising budgets they receive that, in the long term, will probably have the greatest challenges.
AMEC launches new PR measurement framework
If you could identify the perfect way to measure the value of PR, you'd be rich and famous. There have been lots of attempts, and personally I liked the Valid Metrics Matrix (VMM) that was created a few years ago by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC). I've taught it to many students in my role as a lecturer in digital PR, and I believe that if you explain the logic behind the VMM, its a tool that everyone can understand and use effectively. We use it at Napier to talk about how to set objectives and measure the results of our clients' campaigns, and I know it works.
So I was excited to see the new Valid Metrics Framework that was launched at the receive International Summit on Measurement. The AMEC members are all in the PR industry, so it wasn't surprising that the first press releases trumpeted the enthusiasm and endorsement that the new tool has received. But what is it, and how good is the new AMEC PR measurement framework?
The Theory of the AMEC PR Measurement Framework
It's good to see that the tool is based upon a simple model of PR (which extends the model used in the VMM). The new tool uses six stages:
- Objectives - what the organisation wants to achieve
- Inputs - target audience and strategy
- Activity - the key things to be done in the campaign
- Outputs - what the campaign produces
- Out-takes - how the audience reacts to the campaign
- Outcomes - the effect of the campaign on the target audience
- Impact - the effect of the campaign on the organisation's business
These stages are those found in the research: The Kellogg Foundation program logic model (Kellogg Foundation, 1998/2004) and the University of Wisconsin Extension (UWEX) program logic model (Taylor-Power & Henert, 2008).
The AMEC Online Tool
To make things easy there is even an interactive online tool, which helps PR professionals use the approach. Its simple "fill in the boxes" approach means that there is no excuse for anyone to skip the process of planning how a campaign will be measured. The tool is also designed to allow you to identify whether you are using paid, earned, social or owned (PESO) channels, allowing for planning beyond just a PR campaign.
Using the Valid Metrics Framework
The Framework combines all the inputs onto a single page, with a layout that follows the natural flow of the model. And this is where we're a little disappointed. It's true a lot of people had problems getting their head around the VMM, and in my opinion most of the value of this matrix was in the way it sparked discussions around the objectives, activities and metrics. The new Valid Metrics Framework is different. For sure, it's easier to use and understand. it's also applicable across a wider variety of campaigns. The "but", however, is that it feels more like an exercise in generating lists of things, rather than a holistic tool that sparks discussion. It's still early days, so maybe I'll change my mind and decide that the new process is a better way of thinking about measurement, but I'm not throwing away all my copies of the VMM just yet!
Striking a balance between "owning" and "renting" contacts
Marketing has changed dramatically over recent years, as the cost of reaching contacts you have in your database approaches zero. Twenty years ago, things were different: it was expensive to reach contacts in your database as postal direct mail, telemarketing and sending sales people were all expensive pursuits. Databases could become out of date before marketing teams had sufficient budget to reach contacts and therefore accessing third-party relationships (for example mailing lists, readers of publications and trade show visitors) was a cornerstone of marketing practice.
Today there are even more places where you can take advantage of another company's relationships: social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn have gigantic audiences and are more than happy to take your advertising money. At the same time it's easier than ever to reach people on your database. Direct email is fast, cheap and simple, while marketing automation and modern CRM tools provide the intelligence to ensure communications can be highly targeted (although not every email marketer has got there!).
Many people characterize the situation as a conflict between "owning" an audience vs. "renting" the audience, as if the choice is mutually exclusive. If your relationship is directly with the contact, then you "own" them, while using third party platforms or publications to reach people is "renting", and you should pick one or the other. We'll see this is a very misguided approach.
It's pretty clear that B2B marketing budgets are moving towards ownership of contacts: while marketing automation tool vendors prosper, we're seeing trade publications struggle. To be fair, most social media budgets are growing, but this is probably more due to the newness of the medium, and often the budget is growing at the expense of other "rented" sources of contacts from trade shows to publications. At Napier, we've seen the trend and are actively helping clients develop their marketing automation and Inbound marketing strategies that make use of, or build, an "owned" audience.
Despite the excitement, attractive economics and shiny new marketing technology toys, we've not given up on other approaches. The ability to build a database of your company's fans is great, but it's important to remember that there are many potential customers who haven't yet graduated to fandom, and they're much less likely to give up their details for your white papers or email newsletters. These potential customers represent the biggest opportunity for growth for many companies. If you focus on only the contacts in your database, you'll be talking in a private bubble. Yes, the vast majority of contacts will be interested, and they'll click on your email links, but many of the were going to buy your product or service anyway!
Our approach looks at three distinct stages of the marketing funnel. At the bottom we help clients generate engagement with the contacts on the database. But before you can gather contacts and generate leads that can be engaged, you need to generate awareness. Potential customers with limited awareness of your company, products or their benefits are not going to be on your databases, and so you need to reach them on platforms like publications' websites, newsletters and social media.
The key to effective budgeting is understanding your marketing funnel and addressing the weaknesses. Not enough leads? You need to focus on the top-of-the-funnel awareness and lead generation activities. If, however, you've got a lot of great leads who are not yet customers then your time and money should focus on engaging them with marketing automation and other direct tactics. Understanding the situation and getting the budget right means you're then in a great position to move prospects through your sales funnel. At this stage, it's all about the speed that you can convert awareness into opportunity. Increasing the velocity of prospects through the funnel is one of the core competencies of Napier, although the explanation of how we do it will need another blog post.
Mary Meeker's internet trends report 2016 now online
Although it's rather consumer-focussed, Mary Meeker's annual internet trends report always makes very interesting reading. Although the growth of internet use, particularly on mobile, is not surprising, there are some interesting issues and trends that are discussed. Some of the topics we found particularly interesting were:
- The growth of mobile advertising
- The growing impact of ad blockers
- The way new online-first brands have used personalised distribution to grow in popularity with millennials
- The importance of shared video and images to storytelling, and how creators, consumers, and advertisers are taking part.
- The innovation coming from China in areas such as e-commerce, messaging, travel, financial services, and on-demand transportation
To find out more about internet trends, view the slides or read the report.
A new website for Napier in just 4 days!
When you're designing a new website, whether a client or an agency, you want to see results quickly. Despite this urgency, website projects seem to drag on forever, with sites often being delivered weeks or months late. At Napier we've done pretty well at hitting our deadlines for past projects, but the average website redesign still takes several weeks and the process is so painful that often the site receives very little attention for months after the new design is launched.
Now some people have decided enough is enough. Building on "lean" concepts, there is a real movement towards Growth Driven Design (GDD) as a way of getting website projects to deliver impactful changes in very short periods of time. Although many people are jumping n the GDD bandwagon, it is a concept that was pioneered by HubSpot, and as HubSpot Partners we felt obligated to try it out.
Growth Driven Design fits perfectly with Napier's philosophy. We're all about helping clients increase the speed that their prospects move from awareness to opportunity, something we achieve this by focusing on what's important, stripping out the irrelevant and then reviewing performance to ensure the campaigns are continually optimized. GDD is very similar - create your minimum viable product and then keep iterating to optimise the performance of the site based on metrics tied to your marketing funnel.
Our Experience of Growth Driven Design
The conventional route of building a site, getting it as close to perfect as you can, and only then launching it can be comforting. Even though there are a few nerves, when the site goes live you're pretty confident that it will work and there will be few, if any problems.
GDD is different. Just get the new site up and fix any issues later. At the start it was terrifying: past experience meant that I knew you couldn't launch that quickly without having a few problems. So we put ourselves under huge pressure: we committed to get the site up in less than one week (we picked a week where the Monday was a public holiday, and committed to launch by close of business on Friday). I may have even said we'd get it done in a day, although we all smiled a little bit at that optimism.
Our project involved quite a lot of work. We committed to a new look and feel, including removing things like the sidebar completely (we'd already found that people weren't clicking on the sidebar). We also wanted to create a new home page, new menus, change the hosting service, do SEO work on a bunch of our key pages and refine the messaging that we use to describe Napier. With a team of just four, and the inevitable client projects that couldn't be delayed, we didn't have a huge amount of resource to make it happen.
Very quickly the GDD approach became liberating. There was no way to meet the timescale without stripping out all the unimportant "work" and focusing on the things that were the critical success factors for the project. Our favourite bucket in the project kanban board was the one called "Ideas for the Future", which meant we were able to crack on with the development work that really mattered.
On Friday, after a fairly hectic and stressful few days, we switched over to the new site. It wasn't perfect, but it was very close. We got a great response to the new design and messaging, and our leads and landing page conversions have already improved significantly. We addressed the performance issues that we were experiencing by moving to a new hosting service, and now have a site that loads much faster (almost an order of magnitude improvement in time to first byte). Although there were a few problems, most of the things we corrected after launch wouldn't have even been visible to visitors.
GDD - An Ongoing Process
Growth Driven Design is an ongoing process. There's lots of things we want to look at and improve. Whether it's the graphics and layout of some of the pages, or the order of content on the home page, we'll be tweaking the site for some time to come. And that's the point of GDD: websites are living channels, and they should be continually improved, rather than left for a couple of years until the next major redesign. Having spent just four days to create a new site, we've got none of the burnout associated with traditional websites, and are full of enthusiasm to use analytics to make data-driven changes that improve the performance of the site.
Thanks to the Team
Of course this project could not have been successful without the huge effort put in by the website team. Particular thanks go to Diana, our digital marketing manager and Wordpress guru, Sophie, the SEO and content queen and Rob whose design work was responsible for the fabulous look of the new site. Thanks to the team and everyone else for putting up with our diva-ish stress during the first GDD project Napier has undertaken.
Arrow to buy UBM's electronics publications
So it has finally happened. Arrow has purchased UBM's electronics titles, including the American and Asian versions of EE Times, EDN, ESM, Embedded, EBN, TechOnline, and Datasheets.com. This long-rumoured acquisition has finally happened, giving Arrow control of a large proportion of the electronics design media in the USA (and a significant presence in the Asian market too).
The move continues Arrow's strategy of acquiring content platforms, data and online traffic in the industry, providing them with an impressive media platform around the world. The reception to the news has not been entirely positive, with David Manners asking:
Will Arrow lean on journos to promote its franchises once it is paying the journos’ salaries?
Will manufacturers who don’t use Arrow, and Arrow’s rival disties, want to use EETimes to cover their products when every click through will be showing up on an Arrow-controlled computer?
Will EETimes feel free to criticise managements or products in which Arrow has a commercial interest?
How will EETimes journos take to being owned by a company with widespread commercial interests in the industry which they are supposed to report on objectively?
UBM tells us the price was $23.5 million, which doesn't sound a huge amount for such strong brands, but as these publications only generated $16 million from on-line sales and $3 million from print sales in 2015, it is going to take a long time to make that money back from the low-margin business of publishing.
To be fair, Arrow have treated the publications they have acquired to date pretty well. They've not turned them into Arrow promotional vehicles, and seem to continue to prioritise editorial quality. Of course other distributors felt uncomfortable about working with the publications Arrow has already purchased (it never feels good to get an invoice from a competitor), but we've not seen anything out of order yet.
In the announcement of the acquisition, Matt Anderson, chief digital officer of Arrow Electronics, is quoted as saying, “Our internet media is guiding innovation forward by making technical decision making easier for designers, R&D groups, and engineers. This is a step forward in our digital transformation, positioning Arrow as the preeminent, unbiased technology internet media, design, and eCommerce option for companies, from those on Indiegogo all the way to Fortune 500 global leaders.” Other than hoping the writing in the publications will be more readable than Matt's quote, the idea of integration he describes is a little worrying. if Arrow is this wonderful one-stop-shop, then surely at some point in the future, will sense to link the elements together and drive readers straight to the Arrow website to buy the products they've just learnt about?
I think Arrow are going to be more careful. Although Arrow is entitled to run their business in any way they want, and we didn't see many other companies fighting to invest their money in electronics publications, I think Arrow will care about credibility. If they do start adding different ways to monetise the publications, I suspect it will be a fairly slow and gentle process.
I'm more interested in what other companies will do. If you're a supplier to Arrow, you'll probably want to assert some independence from your distributor, and if you're not one of Arrow's lines, you'll almost certainly want to take back some control. There are so many opportunities! Whether we will see new independent publications launch, manufacturers begin to have a more direct conversation with users of their products or distributors finally realise that quality matters when producing in-house publications (I know that there have been some good distributor publications: there have also been many bad ones too), this move is bound to drive some exciting innovations in the American electronics media market. At Napier, we're working hard with our clients to help them take advantage of this interesting situation.
Happy 10th Birthday, Bodo's Power Systems
Congratulations to Bodo Arlt, who celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the launch of Bodo's Power Systems. After a rather challenging launch, the publication has grown strongly over the years, proving that a print title still has its place in our industry.
A Brief History of Bodo's Power Systems
The first print issue was launched in June 2006. In January 2007, Bodo introduced his email newsletter, which continues to deliver insight along with a healthy dose of Bodo's unique personality. After a couple of experiments with local language content, Bodo's Power China launched in 2012 and then as the circulation in North America grew he started printing in the USA in 2013. Most recently, Bodo announced a partnership with new publication EE Power, which is the exclusive English language digital channel for Bodo's Power Systems content.
Happy 10th Birthday Bodo's Power Systems!
Electropages launches Development Kit App for Android
Electropages continues it's commitment to delivering engineering tools on mobile platforms with the launch of their mobile Dev Kit App that will keep design engineers up to date with the latest kits from manufacturers and distributors. The app is available for Android, and takes its data from Electropages' editorial reports and reviews on development and embedded tools. The new development kit app joins the existing popular mobile Electronic News Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android users.
Engineers are faced with an incredibly diverse number of Dev Kits from semiconductor companies, component suppliers and distribution companies. There are plenty of statistics that clearly indicate just how rapidly this market sector is expanding and industry analysts ABI Research reckon the installed base of development kits will reach 21 million by the end of the decade, and currently almost half of all electronics designs are facilitated by use of development kits.
Craig Dyball, publisher and founder of Electropages told us:
“Engineers have a mind-boggling choice of Dev Kits, whether it’s a member of the Arduino family, a Raspberry Pi or an Intel Galileo or one of the many thousands available. Consequently informed comment via independent journalists is an unbiased way potential users and providers of Dev Kits can research the market and this is precisely why the Electropages Dev Kit app has been created.”
It's great to see Electropages continue to invest in tools for mobile platforms as well as their conventional online publishing activities. The number of development kits is growing at an incredible rate as manufacturers recognise their value and also build kits to address specific amrkets such as makers. Many engineers are going to find this tool a valuable aid to selecting the right kit for their needs.
The return of What's New In Electronics
It's easy to think that the glory days of the past are gone (particularly if your football team is Ipswich Town). I even dream that perhaps some of the old publications that I read when I was an engineer could return in a format that's optimised for the new internet economy. That's not going to happen, is it?
Actually it is! One of the best-known British publication brands from the past, What's New in Electronics, is returning. NEW Events Ltd are rebranding National Electronics Week Expo to What’s New in Electronics Live. Even better, they're bringing back the name in a new publication.
Wide Range of Content
The new publication promises a wide variety of content, including:
- Industry Listings - company and product directories
- News Feeds – news feeds from the industry
- Recruitment - a service to match candidates' CVs to vacancies
- Newsletters – a monthly newsletter about industry trends
- Training - training opportunities and courses
- News - Guest editors and partnerships with trade magazines, associations and other key industry bodies
- The Library – white papers, technical information and even digital versions of magazines
- Webinars – webinar service for vendors
- Exporting - the latest news from Electronic Exporters Group (EEG), CEMA, SCS Exhibitions and UK Trade & Investment
Guest Editors and Partnerships
Perhaps the most interesting thing is that What's New in Electronics won't have an editor. What, a publication without an editor? That's crazy... or maybe that's brilliant.
The approach will be to invite guest editors in to work with What's New in Electronics. In fact Claire Saunders, managing director of NEW Events Ltd, told me,
"We don’t want to be seen as a magazine as this is not our intention"
Claire went on to explain that she thinks the new site will be an opportunity to existing magazines to expand their reach, saying:
"In fact we want to encourage the magazines to join the site. Our aim is to create a hub for industry and encourage content. The drive for this site is to create a buzz and get industry talking and reenergised. We have a good database and want to maintain contact with it and deliver a easily accessible platform for knowledge."
What's New in Electronics is also taking a long view, and hoping to develop the electronics industry in the UK. Clare is keen to make a positive contribution:
"We also want to encourage new blood to join UK electronics and want to get universities and training facilities onboard to publish their courses."
Will What's New in Electronics Succeed?
I think this is a really interesting move. It's great to see an old name make a comeback, and I love the idea that someone is trying a different approach to electronics publishing. NEW has a decent database, although arguably it's rather manufacturing-focused, but this will give them an audience from day 1. From a financial point of view, the site seems to be engineered to provide several different sources of income in addition to advertising, including white papers, sponsored news stories, recruitment and the industry listing section. However success probably depends on getting a few other publications to buy into the concept and provide the news feeds.
I really hope it works. If the partnership with other publications can be engineered to benefit both sides, I'm sure that other publishers will be prepared to experiment. NEW also can, to some extent, consider the publication as a promotional vehicle for the show, What’s New in Electronics Live, which perhaps means the site will be given the time and investment that it will need to once again establish a great reputation for the What's New in Electronics brand.
PSD offers online purchase option for smaller campaigns
It sometimes amazes me that an industry as technical as ours can be slow at adopting new technology. So I was pleased to hear that Power Systems Design is adding online purchasing of advertising as well as easy upload of artwork. Although they will be able to accept credit card or PayPal for any campaign, Power Systems Design anticipates that smaller campaigns, such as the "Must See" emails around shows such as electronica, PCIM, SPS, APEC, etc. will be the main beneficiaries of the new capabilities.
The Power Systems Design "Must See" emails cost $750, and I can see that not only will the new approach simplify things for the publication, it will also make it much easier for many smaller companies: frequently they are spending significant amounts on their credit cards for Google AdWords, and I don't see why it shouldn't be as simple to buy advertising in an electronics publication.
I understand that the system is in the final stages of development and will launch next month. I will check in with PSD in a couple of months and find out how well it is working: if it's something that benefits clients and makes it easier for them to spend money on advertising, I hope to see other publishers taking a similar route.
Fare Elettronica and Firmware sold as Inware exits electronics market
Inware Edizioni has exited the electronics publishing market, selling Fare Elettronica and its other remaining electronics titles to Tecnoimprese/Assodel. This follows the sale of Firmware to Elettronica Open Source last September.
Tecnoimprese is the publishing arm of Assodel, the Italian association of electronic distributors and manufacturers, which has a 30-year heritage and represents more than 300 companies. In addition to Fare Elettronica, they also acquired IEcloud, the Electronic designer’s blog.
Fare Elettronica is a strong brand in Italy, which has been published for more than 30 years and is now a blog and digital magazine. The publication has a large team of more than 50 contributors. Antonio Cirella, former director at Inware Edizioni, will continue in his role overseeing the publications within Tecnoimprese.
The fact that Inware has found buyers for all its publications is a positive reflection on their quality and the robustness of the Italian electronica industry. Although we'd prefer to see more publishers, rather than the consolidation that Inware's exit has triggered, the Italian market still has several strong companies creating magazines and websites, which must bode well for the future.
Inbound Marketing: Europe is Catching Up with America
"The State of Inbound 2015”, a report by HubSpot, reveals the most successful marketing practices in over 150 countries based on a survey of 4000 respondents. Europe stood far behind the USA a couple of years ago, but now stands right next to North America in terms of inbound marketing strategies and tactics. According to “The State of Inbound 2015”, 36% of European marketers have seen greater ROI through the use of inbound marketing techniques.
HubSpot’s report reveals that American marketers are keen on generating demand and sales, while European marketers are more focused on loyalty and relationship marketing.
According to the State of Inbound report 2015, although European marketers are thriving, they still need to improve upon the three key related to inbound marketing.
Service Level Agreement: Implementing marketing-sales service level agreement can help to bring a higher Return on Investment (ROI).
The State of Inbound 2015 report says, “Our survey showed that a formal SLA between sales and marketing departments leads to increased budget and increased ROI. However, only between 30% and 40% of respondents in each region, we polled indicated their organization has one.”
Improving the alignment of marketing and sales team not only enhances the efficacy of ‘lead to customer lifecycle’, but also helps your company to benefit from it.
Tracking the marketing Return on Investment using an automated marketing platform: It has been found that the marketers who implemented automated marketing platform have been successful in drawing the maximum return on investment (ROI) with the least diminution in ROI value. A good automated platform can readily take care of social media scheduling, audience segmentation, emailing and lastly, everything.
North America leads in ROI tracking as the State of Inbound report conveys. It is also found that marketers in North America rely mostly on ROI tracking tools.
Keeping a frequent track of ROI: The report says that the Americans more often keep a track of the ROI and monitor it at regular intervals. A matured inbound marketer should prefer to give priority to the performance of the marketing campaigns.
The European marketers should use the conclusions of the State of Inbound 2015 Report to grow their businesses in the coming year by:
- Implementing sales and marketing SLA to attain increased ROI
- Using automated platform to track their ROI
- Observing the marketing results carefully to speed up the rate of growing return on investment (ROI).
Inbound Marketing strategies can be extremely useful to grow a business when applied with the proper strategies and with the help of proper marketing tools you can easily achieve your marketing goals.