"You may have already won $10,000,000!"Remember getting that in the mail? And the disappointment of realizing it was all a ploy to sell magazine subscriptions? Well, you have marketers like Patrick Hainault to thank for that. But since American Family Publishers' legal troubles and bankruptcy in 1998, Hainault has moved on to more honest promotions as Group VP of Marketing for the highly respected business magazine Inc.Originally from Montreal, Hainault somehow funnelled an anthropology degree into an impressive publishing career that also includes titles such as Popular Science, Time and Fast Company. He'll share some of what he's learned along the way at the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Conference on March 6. Here's a preview of what's to come.You oversee events, databases, registrations, partnerships, education and awards programs. Are these all revenue streams?Absolutely. Well, not registrations, but if you get into our clutches you're a hot lead. Registering on Inc.com is an entry point for the funnel. Everything else leads to revenue. If you only rely on advertising dollars, it's risky business.Does it feel like a similar sand box as American Family Publishers?This is far more interesting, far more useful to the reader. Inc. became a voice of the entrepreneurial community, so we try to offer products that are of service for them, and get a portion of the value we've created. We feel a lot closer to the audience. In contrast, AFP had mailings that went to 150 million households. It was a ridiculous scale that couldn't be replicated.What's the challenge for you now?It's extremely competitive, not necessarily from competitors that look and smell like us, but just from people's time. Trying to sell media to people when their attention is solicited from every angle and input. We're competing not just for their family and business, but their smart phone and Facebook. Our job is to offer compelling products that convince you to spend your time with us.How does Inc. do that?We're a trusted voice. There are so many upstarts and amateurs, fly by nights, and fads. But what we have for us is our authority. So it's a delicate balance of leveraging that, cashing in on that, without hurting it at the same time.What's an example?To build the Fortune 500 list, it's two Google searches, but those who make The Inc. 5000 list are private companies. It's precious data. They want to tell the world they've made it, so we allow them to licence the logo that says, "I made the Inc. 5000 list in 2015." If they find value in it-if they want to put it on their business cards or delivery vans-we want to get a share of that value. It's our logo, our trademark, our brand. And they're all businessmen, so they get it.What are the risks of these projects?The risk is reputation. There's only so many bad products you can put out there before people start losing an ear. The other risk is you start diverting attention to projects that aren't going anywhere. We created this program called "Inc. Advisor," where we put all of our material in a very topical and highly curated and edited collection of articles-how-to guides, best-of selections of articles, exclusive videos by a star entrepreneur. We offered a guarantee that it wouldn't waste your time but what we found was within our website our own search box competed with us. Google did just a good of job as the humans did.What are covering in your session on capturing and creating audiences?I'm asking, what kind of relationship do you have with your readership? If you're a trade pub, or an enthusiast title, you're at the nexus of the community and what you're saying holds weight. So you have a relationship with an audience, you're trusted, you have experience and access. So, from there, ask yourself, What can I offer this audience that makes sense for me and that I can benefit from?Your other session is about de-mystifying analytics. Why should publishers care about analytics?They need to know that it's OK to place a lot of bets on the analytics front. There's a bit of a conflict in people's minds between highly sophisticated, big data and the baby, basic, cheap-o things that yield tremendous bang for the buck. But people don't have the discipline to step outside of their job for a minute and ask, "OK, what kind of analytics do we want to measure and to what avail?"How do you know the difference between useful and useless data?Work it backwards. Start with the outcome. You know your businesses better than anyone else. So start with a basic science model: Here's my hypothesis and can I act on it? I'm advocating the right tool for the right job.By Omar Mouallem
