How publishers can develop a content-to-commerce strategy

• By Rande Price
• For quality publishers with strong consumer relationships, a content-to-commerce strategy offers a valuable revenue diversification approach. The International News Media Association’s (INMA) new report, Content-to-Commerce Brings Revenue in Post-Advertising World, outlines key considerations, strategies and their implementations to help publishers build this line of revenue.

While ecommerce may sound straightforward, successful implementation is not easy. First, a publisher’s brand must have a purpose, a reason to exist for the consumer. It needs to be authentic, possess an emotional quality, and present a personality. If a publisher meets this high bar, then it can begin the work of developing a commerce strategy because its content connection to a purchasable product will be valuable to consumers.

The major models

The INMA report identifies three basic content-to-commerce models:

1. Affiliate models,which send customers to an outside product link, earning the publishers a percentage of the purchase revenue.
2. Attribution marketing…