The Story of Us

The Story of Us

About BridgeTower Media

When print magazines and publications gained popularity, the b2b buyer relied on direct mail, magazines, and newspapers to conduct research and make business decisions. Foot traffic was a necessary step to complete business transactions. In fact, many companies were limited to the companies they knew of or that were in their proximity for this to be possible. The introduction of the Internet brought a first wave of transformation to the b2b buyer, increasing potential reach of companies. Consequently, companies created a digital version of their print magazines to satisfy online readers but kept print advertising as the priority. BridgeTower Media entered the market among these circumstances, acquiring several publications that were over 100+ years in existence. We faced the realization that the b2b buyer has become more reliant on digital information and savvier than ever. Here is what the current b2b buyer looks like:

  • The majority of b2b shoppers who research online considered 2+ brands.(1)
  • Today’s typical B2B shopper utilizes multiple resources for decision making including online catalogs, multiple Google Searches, and visiting branded websites(1)
  • Buyers regularly revisit online information to inform decision making(1)
  • Buyers who shop offline respond to online engagement(1)
  • 80% of the average B2B sales journey happens online.(2)
  • Email marketing is the primary channel for 59% of B2B marketers(2)
  • 57% of b2b advertisers use both print and digital avenues(2)

This brings about a new era of B2B shopping behavior — buyers are sitting at the intersection of online and offline. The controllable, measurable, and scalable nature of digital advertising has brought b2b buyers to advertise online. Print advertising has not gone away, but digital advertising for even those who do print advertising exists and is increasing. Consequently, companies must transform the way they attract and conduct business to survive and grow. We must meet our customers where they are spending their time and our marketing efforts must reflect the needs of our customers.

Enter: BridgeTower Media’s Digital Transformation

BridgeTower Media provides unique and authoritative content within the legal, business, construction, legislative and home furnishings sectors through more than 40 print and digital brands across the U.S. We own top national and top regional brands that reach 75+% of top companies in each market​. We are the go-to for news, research, events, and industry information in each represented market. But we are far from being just a publication company—

Excellence

We have FIRST-PARTY DATA.
The changes in the environment became too obvious for us to ignore. And we needed to look deeper into our data and see what we can find. In fact, we’ve always had data that has existed and kept growing over the years – we just needed to draw out insights.

“Before we created the data team, we were using less than 1% of what we knew about our customers to make decisions to better serve them.”
VistaPrint, Think with Google, 2022

We found that we had 1.3 million decision-makers in our audience, which means we can help advertisers get in front of the people they need to reach to build their businesses; we found that we know exactly where our audience spends their time online, both on our own properties and beyond; …Ultimately, we found that we have a differentiated ASSET that needs to be utilized. Here is where we stand:

Audience email database

1.3m

Monthly website visits

3.2M

Publication Readership

800K+

Social Media Followers

223K+

% of audience with buying authority
80%

Not only do we have a large audience, but we also know who our audience is (e.g., name and contact info), what they do (e.g., firmographic data), and what they care about (e.g., types of content they engage with, events attended, etc). This makes it possible for us to help advertisers reach decision makers across a variety of industries. This unique data not only prepares us for the changes in the b2b buyer environment but gives us an advantage over other organizations.

Accountability

We have TRUSTED RELATIONSHIPS.
Our publications serve as the go-to for authoritative content on their respective industry, some in existence for over 100 years. Which means our readers and advertisers trust us— to deliver them the right information so that they can make decisions with confidence. This trust is valuable to us and not taken lightly by our company. We can use these trusted relationships to help b2b buyers gain the insights and connections to build their business. We are in fact the #1 source for advertising needs as well, because we reach a verified audience of business leaders and decision-makers.

Diversity

We have CONNECTEDNESS.
We have an audience that is engaged with us in many ways: when they wake up and check their email, go to the office and read a print magazine, check our website for the latest industry news, browse the open web to check the weather, attend a webinar or in-person event.

This is a significant benefit to advertisers because reach and frequency is critical to connect with the current b2b buyer – multiple touch points are essential, and we provide that.

So, when we consider – WHAT ARE WE?

Are we a print publication? Not just that.

Are we a magazine that went digital? True, as was necessary.

Are we an online magazine? We are much more than that.

Are we a data company? We’re getting warmer.

What are we?

We are a data and insights organization, that uses first-party data to gain deep understanding of industry decision makers and their needs so that we can (1) provide them with the most authoritative information possible, and (2) provide connections to ignite business growth.

(1) Think with Google – Vista Case Study
(2) Webtribunal, 2022