On Tuesday, we held our latest top tips webinar, ‘5 Strategies Publishers Need to Thrive in an AI-Summarised World’, presented by AdvantageCS's Philippe van Mastrigt.
With the rise of zero-click searches, Philippe showed that any publisher with a dependence on referral traffic was in a vulnerable position.
For me, the key takeaway from the presentation was that publishers needed to take control of the situation, by protecting their content, building direct relationships with their audience and diversifying their revenue streams.
Philippe outlined five strategies in detail (you can watch a recording here – you will need to register first and you will then be redirected to the recording).
Below are a few of the key messages I took away from his presentation:
- Decide which bots you want to access your content. It might be none, it might be some, but you should be the one deciding which and on what terms.
- Invest in newsletters. As Philippe said, they might be one of the oldest means of building direct relationships but they are still one of the most effective.
- Be distinctive. Publish less but publish better. Create content that is not easily replicable by AI, such as on-the-ground reporting and expert analysis.
- Publish less but publish better. The volume game is over. The future for professional publishers is not who creates the most content, but who creates the best. Philippe showed how The Times had significantly reduced the number of stories it published each day whilst simultaneously increasing traffic.
- Measure the right things. Instead of focusing on driving up the number of pageviews, focus on these metrics that measure subscriber value, such as conversion, engagement and retention. Those metrics will be the ones that tell you if you are on the right track, or not…
Those publishers that take control of the situation are likely to be the ones coming out on top. Good luck!
(Our next webinar – AI Special - Q&A – will take place on Tuesday, 24 November. Click here for more information and to register.)
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