Media Pitch: StoryPorts Wants to Take the Grunt Work Out of Email Production

Email is an increasingly important channel for publishers, and for many it is a major driver of website traffic and revenue. But email takes time and resources that can put a strain on publishers already stretched budgets. Technology startup StoryPorts hopes to alleviate that strain with its automated email creation platform and workflow management tools. The platform allows marketers and editors to automatically pull in content from a variety of feeds into their email templates and better manage approvals and workflow. In the following interview, StoryPort founder and CEO David DeVore explains how streamlining the email production process can save time and money and improve audience engagement. 1. Who are you? What is your technology and how does it work? Who are the entrepreneurs behind it? Email marketing shouldn’t be complicated. By combining the power of a search engine with real-time automation and a simple drag-and-drop content studio, StoryPorts helps media companies save 95% of the time needed to create outstanding email and content marketing campaigns. StoryPorts was started by myself, Mark Campbell, and Tom Reed in 2014. We previously spent a decade building direct-to-fan marketing programs for some of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies including Viacom, Universal Music Group, Major League Soccer, and AEG. 2. Explain your existence: What problem are you solving or opportunity are you enabling? How are you unique and innovative? 90% of marketers say managing content is their biggest dilemma (MarketingProfs) and 62% of marketers spend more than two hours building a single email marketing campaign (eConsultancy). StoryPorts simplifies email production and workflow by automating email content creation, approvals, and workflow. Over 30 social, publishing, media, event, and ecommerce feeds are built into StoryPorts, like YouTube, Wordpress, Instagram, and Facebook. That allows our customers to search, curate, embed, stream, and automate the most relevant web content for your audience with the click of a button. 3. Inspiration: How did you come up with this idea? How does your new tech solution reflect changes and trends underway in the media world? Over years of consulting with clients and producing direct-to-fan marketing programs, we built thousands of email campaigns. All the while, we asked ourselves if there was a better way, We began trying to “scratch our own itch” by retrieving content directly into our email campaigns, rather than constantly fighting with templates, WYSWYG, and text editors. The media industry has some big challenges with shrinking budgets, yet the continued need is to more effectively communicate and distribute content. Finding ways to “do more with less” and upgrading email production with a streamlined workflow that saves time and cost, is a no brainer for digital executives. 4. Results: How have you or do you plan to help media companies increase revenue or cut costs? Can you quantify this? Time-savings and engagement lift is self-evident. We see up to a 98% reduction in email production time. Another interesting trend we’ve seen is the use of native ads and sponsored content in email campaigns. With StoryPorts, media companies can sell sponsored content in their email campaigns using content channels that a sponsor is currently promoting, without any hassle. For example, a media company could include a sponsor’s latest YouTube playlist or Facebook post in their email newsletter automatically. Here are some results our clients have reported: Warner Music Group – Hundreds of hours saved monthly, 300% engagement lift Northstar Travel Media – 66% cut on email production time Vail Resorts – 90% reduction in time and costs, 120% engagement lift 5. Share some wisdom:What do you think are the most important trends affecting the media business today? What do you see that no one else sees? The balance between advertising and great content will continue to be a challenge. As AdBlockers proliferate, media companies will be looking for creative ways to grow their email subscriber base, deliver great content, and make money from native ads and sponsored content. In addition, media companies will be looking to do more with less and to streamline bulky production hang-ups across channels. 6. What’s Next? How do you plan on expanding or improving on your offering? Where do you see opportunities for growth? Over the next year we’ll be expanding our Email Workflows product to help streamline email productivity, content procurement, approvals, and creation throughout the campaign creation process. We’ll also be investing in more relevance, context and targeting capabilities. Pitch Us: If you've launched a publishing technology startup, the Media Pitch blog is an opportunity to tell your story to the media industry. Check out the contributor guidelines here.

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Media Pitch: StoryPorts Wants to Take the Grunt Work Out of Email Production

David DeVore

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David DeVore