Case Study: Greentech Media on Monetizing Its Digital Audience
A growing digital audience, shrinking digital revenue.
Sound familiar? It was the reality that business-to-business renewable energy site Greentech Media faced in early 2015. Instead of trying to get by on tighter margins or cutting editorial staff, though, Greentech Media, found a new way to monetize the readers already on its site.
Our latest case study details how, through a combination of understanding the needs and preferences of its audience and a smart selection of technology partners, Greentech Media was able to successfully launch a subscription offering that has garnered thousands of subscribers in the first year.
Monetizing a Digital Audience
Ultimately, we wanted to highlight why Greentech Media succeeded in its monetization efforts when so many others still struggle with this challenge: GTM understood the unique value that its readers got out of its services, and found an unmet need that an additional product could help meet.
President and co-founder, Rick Thompson, emphasized that Greentech Media has never set out to conquer the world by scale. Instead, it has kept a laser-like focus on what the renewable energy industry needs to know about and paid attention to how its readers were responding.
The company has always had a diversified revenue stream as a result. In addition to the online news site, where it also had recent success with sponsored content offerings, the company delivers in-depth reporting through its research practice and has created a must-attend conference and events program for those who work in the solar, next generation electric grids and energy storage industries.
In the Weeds: How GTM Made it Happen
The digital team at Greentech Media is small and lean, and it works closely with technology partners to make sure it can deliver its readers the best experience possible. This means that it works with a long-standing agency for major development work. This mindset also led the company to begin working with Parse.ly in 2012. The whole company, but especially the editors, quickly appreciated having information about its audience that didn’t require translation from an analyst.
Read the case study to find out how the team’s lean approach led to its ideation, creation and execution of a premium subscription offering — GTM Squared. Launched in the fall of 2015, now thousands of subscribers have proved that the B2B site knows how to monetize its digital readers.
