Following the vertical publishing theme last time, I thought I’d explore this a bit more. In particular to consider how we’ve broken out our vertical market of craft into one of the fast developing businesses we’re running today.

I’m happy to admit to something of a mistake I made back in 2009 when we originally launched our consumer and eCommerce businesses. At the time I was new to both publishing and craft (I’m still learning a lot about both). I assumed that craft was our niche, and that’s where we should focus. It felt like a category with opportunity, scope for growth and it was clearly a strength of our publishing list. Much of that was true, and we have enjoyed good growth on the back of the general explosion of interest in craft.

Craft may be described as a niche vertical, but it’s a large market. Reports size the arts and crafts market in the UK between £1.5bn/£2bn and almost everyone has crafted at some level, or has a relative or friend that does. When you think about it, craft is hardly a niche at all. It’s ubiquitous, whether it’s embedded in your family through an ardent crafter, out of necessity to repair the odd button or something to entertain your children on rainy weekends.

So, back to my mistake. I thought we needed to build an online monster in craft. An exhaustive all encompassing giant shopping offer that covered all categories and where you could get every product you needed. What I’ve learnt is that this was probably not the best strategy. We could do it better.

This was spurred by a couple of recent posts on Futurebook about vertical publishing and discoverability.

I was reflecting on the changes we’ve made at F&W Media International to focus on our vertical markets. While we had a leg up into consumer marketing through our (now closed) book club businesses, we’ve done a tremendous amount in recent years to really tie together our publishing and consumer businesses. The changes we’ve made as publishers are extensive and far reaching, but if I had to focus on three key areas it would be these:

Audience development
We’ve made audience development, and specifically email name capture, a company wide goal. A small part of this is having an Audience Development Manager position (replacing what we used to call publicity). The bigger part is making it part of our every-day conversation. Each new proposal, new potential partner or new project is viewed with audience development in mind.

SEO and web analytics
We’ve had company wide training on SEO, and at least half our staff can more than competently complete keyword analysis and have an understanding of its importance. Sure we review sales data and Nielsen, but we use web analytics and keyword analysis in the content decision making process. We apply a vigorous SEO process to our online content to drive traffic and audience growth.

Consumer marketing for everyone
Marketing is a company wide responsibility and not a department. Our marketers do great work and run specific campaigns, but an important part of their role is to conduct the wider orchestra. Our editorial and content teams, marketing and audience development work together daily. Our editors write blogs and post online, they encourage and support authors to do the same and they manage social media content.

Maybe all publishers are doing this, but I would group these and our other changes into an overall theme of not thinking as publishers. Certainly what we see is that these changes and more are contributing to our flourishing and fast growing craft business, Stitch Craft Create.

The search for the Holy Grail
So what is the Holy Grail? Much of what we’ve done so far has been about building an audience to sell stuff we have already created, whether it’s books or other products. Now, we’re generating enough data and insight to actually define new products. In part we can ask our customers what they want, but more valuable is that we can see how they behave. We can review the performance of online content, search results, conversion rates and behaviour and use this to identify gaps and opportunities. We can take that data and make, or find, new products that we know we have an audience for.

It’s hugely exciting and has tremendous potential, but the best bit is that we’ve really only scratched the surface.

The advice for publishers on Futurebook is spot on: Get vertical and get going.

It’s been a little while since I blogged, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to celebrate some of the things that have been going on recently at my company, F+W Media International

Our business is all about serving niche communities, and our focus is on craft and the creative arts. Earlier this year, we defined our ‘why?’ as ‘Inspiring your creative life’ and this is our goal and the mantra by which we want to move forward by.

We want to be a source of inspiration, and we want to support our customers when they are being creative, crafting and making. We took some big steps forward towards doing this recently with some new projects and launches:

Stitch Craft Create (@craftcreateUK) is our new online content and community brand for the community we call the ‘lifestyle maker and baker’, it’s multi-craft and for all skill levels and packed full of projects, advice, ideas and more. From January next year, our existing RUCraft shop will rebrand to be the Stitch Craft Create shop.

Stitch Craft Create Business (@SCCBiz) is a partner brand to Stitch Craft Create and will serve crafters and creatives who are looking to turn their hobby into an income. With advice, ebooks and education initiatives, this is a great place for aspiring craft and creative arts entrepreneurs.

The Creative University (@CreativeUni) is our home for online education. Initially with courses from Stitch Craft Create Business but we have plans to develop much more in future. The Creative University will provide webinars and online courses to suit different skills levels, time frames and budgets. We’re hugely excited about this initiative and breaking into this market.

I Love Cross Stitch and The Pink Whisk Shop are two new eCommerce stores. We were serving all our customers today within one store at RUCraft and wanted to better look after our Cross Stitch and Cake Decorating customers. With exclusive products and a more targeted offer, we’re delighted to be live with both of these sites.

I’m very proud of the talented and passionate team that have made all of these new launches possible and I’m really excited to be improving our ability to serve our communities and Inspire Creative Lives. Please go check them all out!

Brands for whom the web has allowed them to define a unique business model and reach to customers feature heavily this week. For different reasons, the Dollar Shave Club, Etsy and TED  have success born out of the way the web allows them to create a business not tethered to the challenges of bricks and mortar. That, and a helpful reminder to actually do what you say you do!

Second Generation eCommerce

This post on the online-only brand was shared internally at F+W and gives great focus. Primarily this is about the margin potential of ‘second generation’ eCommerce stores that build brands that are enabled by the economies of online selling. Importantly though, it highlights the potential of building a unique character, personality and voice can have in building your audience on the social web. Step forward the Dollar Shave Club – new to me but brilliant.

Product or Customer Focus

In much the same vein as the above, this post asks the question if your business is product or customer focused? I completely agree that you can really see those businesses that are in a “constant state of evolving the product” against those that have customer front of mind.

The power of Etsy

I enjoyed this infographic I picked up on the Mashable site, reminding me of the power and potential of Etsy. The numbers are impressive, 15 million members growing at nearly 700,000 per month, 875,000 shops, 13,000,000 products. For an aspiring handmade entrepreneur, Etsy can be hugely powerful and a way to reach a global audience. What’s more, you can launch your business with an Etsy shop and social media profile for free – allowing you to get out there and start selling, learning and building a community quickly and with little risk.

TED launches ebook store

I’m a big TED fan. I posted only this week on Start with Why, so naturally I downloaded the new TED IOS ebook app, and bought a book. TED is growing a community through making its core content free, and then naturally extends this into generating revenue through the ebook app. It’s a big enough brand, with a big enough following to do this. Smart move.

Just Do it!

This interview with Lisa Barone caught my eye with some good advice, but I was particularly drawn to her answer to the last question: “Don’t forget to actually do what it is you’re trying to be known for.” It’s true. I’m the biggest advocate of having a strategy, a usp and defining your ‘why’ – but ultimately talking about it and thinking about it are nothing without actually doing it!

The publishing industry was taken by surprised yesterday when Waterstones announced an unlikely business partnership with Amazon for the sale of Kindle devices and ebooks through in-store wifi. The predominant view, which I share, is sceptical of this deal for Waterstones but it will be interesting to understand better as more details emerge. The announcement is well covered on Digital Book World who ask the question ‘Is Waterstones Mortgaging Its Digital Future With Amazon Deal?‘.

This is one of a couple of deals I’ve heard of recently that made me think. Faber announced a partnership with Mumsnet which I thought was a smart move. It allows them to tap into the strong Mumsnet community and offer writing courses to a market you wouldn’t otherwise associated with the Faber brand. Also in something close to home for my business Future Publishing and Anova Books announced a tie-up around the new craft magazine Mollie Makes. This is another deal that sounds good on paper and we’ll wait to see the fruits of this.

Success in business partnership can certainly be challenging. Foremost, there’s the commercial challenge of sharing in financial performance and once a partner is involved this inevitably has an impact. You need to be able to agree goals and approach and this can be difficult as partners will have a different focus or culture, there’s the question of who owns the customer relationship, is the partnership equal and much more to overcome.

Nonetheless, what I like about Faber/Mumsnet and possibly Amazon/Waterstones (although the jury is out on the deal for Waterstones) is that these have been driven, you assume, by people putting the customer first to build the opportunity. Once you do that, it makes it easier to agree on the difficult terms that always need tackling and you can focus on growth and opportunity that make the time and investment well worthwhile.