A look at how WTWH Media uses AI for Advertising
One frequently overlooked kind of data in the advertising realm is data about an anonymous audience. Web sites can track activity anonymously. While many companies track a lot of personal data on the web, businesses do not have to violate people’s privacy to find out what users are doing. New kinds of media and advertising companies can combine anonymous user data with databases of subscribers to topic-oriented websites. From such blogs and media outlets, data can be collected about articles topics clicked on, timing, frequency, etc. Such sites can use data analytics and even AI to find out what users on those websites are interested in.
I got a chance to hear about what WTWH Media is doing in the media and advertising. WTWH Media employs this anonymous data strategy, among others, for marketing in the business-to-business sector. Instead of casting a broad net by using search terms worldwide.
WTWH Media gave a recent webinar about how companies can use their customer data platform. According to WTWH, their customer data platform can be leveraged to understand users and align their particular content affinities with advertiser messaging. This affinity alignment helps WTWH deliver the right message at the right time for their clients.
The company says its affinity marketing platform has 825 topic targets. WTWH owns numerous different industry-specific news and media sites. The websites include Design World that covers 3D printing, Fluid Power World, which covers hydraulics, EEWorld Online, Solar Power World, The Robot Report, Medical Design & Outsourcing, CStore Decisions, and Club+Resort Business.
During the presentation, Scott McCafferty pointed out that they have seen the best responses by offering to educate potential B2B customers via reports, white papers, and e-books. Here further noted that white papers and e-books are performing better than straight product offers.
From offers of educational information that is specific to what each user is looking for on the company’s business-to-business-targeted news and media websites.
“The whole point is to make meaningful connections with anonymous behavior,” said Virginia Goulding, VP Digital Marketing, WTWH Media.
Goulding pointed to the exclusivity and relevancy of the company’s affinity marketing program.
The offers to download more information in the form of white papers and e-books link directly to the landing pages of WTWH Media’s clients. So, on their web pages, the clients can collect information such as email addresses for targeted messaging.
In addition to offering a customer data platform and what is known as content affinity marketing, WTWH provides intent-based marketing as well as account-based marketing.
Intent marketing is marketing a product or a service based on an individuals’ or company’s intention to use, purchase, or consume a particular service. A subscriber may have either explicitly or implicitly communicated this intent through actions monitored on a website.
Companies use account-based marketing when they have a list of business or other companies that they are targeting for their products or services. They use information about what that target company is doing to tailor their message to that particular company.
WTWH Media says it uses artificial intelligence and data gleaned from over 100,000 websites of specific businesses to find what these companies are doing. Then they customize targeted messaging to each of these companies based on this information.
The company boasts over 12 million users of its topic-specific media outlets and Scott McCafferty says that the number is increasing every minute of every day. According to Scott, the content affinity-based marketing platform is continually learning about the behavior of those 12 million users. According to the company, about 3.4 million of the 12 million are registered (non-anonymous users) on the topic-specific sites. From the data, the company can figure out individual user interests.
WTWH Media is by no means the only company doing this type of advertising. Another company with similar strategies, and a direct competitor of WTWH, especially in the B2B electrical engineering and manufacturing realm, is Informa Engage.
The offers to download more information in the form of white papers and e-books link directly to the landing pages of WTWH Media’s clients. So, on their web pages, the clients can collect information such as email addresses for targeted messaging.
In addition to offering a customer data platform using AI and data analytics for what is known as affinity-based marketing, WTWH also provides intent-based marketing as well as account-based marketing.
Intent marketing is marketing a product or a service based on a consumer’s intent to adopt, purchase, or consume a particular service. A subscriber may have either explicitly or implicitly conveyed this intent through actions monitored on a website.
Account-based marketing is used when a company has target companies that they are targeting for their products or services. They use information about what that target company is doing to tailor their message to that particular company.
WTWH Media says it uses artificial intelligence and data gleaned from over 100,000 websites of specific businesses to find what these companies are doing. Then they customize targeted messaging to each of these companies based on this information.
WTWH Media is by no means the only company doing this type of advertising. Another company with similar strategies that competes with WTWH Media especially in the B2B electrical engineering and manufacturing realm is Informa Engage.