By Guest Contributor: Julio Medrano, VP of Sales at Marfeel
March 11th, 2025
On the last week of February at the Mather 2025 symposium in Dallas, Marfeel hosted a roundtable discussion with leading publishers on aligning technology and data with business goals to drive growth. The conversation highlighted key challenges and strategies for turning insights into action, maximizing audience engagement, and preparing for the evolving digital landscape.
Connecting Data to Business Goals
One major challenge publishers face isn’t a lack of data—it’s making sense of it to drive results. Industry leaders emphasized the importance of defining clear KPIs and ensuring decision-makers have real-time insights.
A recurring theme was the need for collaboration. Siloed teams working with different datasets often struggle to align editorial, product, and revenue objectives. Some publishers address this by integrating workflows and holding joint strategy meetings between content and monetization teams to ensure business goals inform content decisions.
Turning Data into Action
Despite having vast data, many publishers struggle with delayed decision-making. By the time insights reach key stakeholders, opportunities may be lost. The discussion emphasized real-time analytics and prioritizing actionable signals over data overload.
Balancing short-term traffic spikes with long-term audience development was another key challenge. While viral content drives traffic, publishers must convert these visitors into loyal readers. Best practices shared included personalized recommendations, optimized content recirculation, and strategic newsletter signups to deepen audience relationships. Marfeel was highlighted as a next-generation content analytics platform that can help publishers interpret and take action from their real time data.
Maximizing Audience Growth
Google Discover was a major topic, with some publishers seeing it as an unpredictable but valuable traffic source. Success on Discover requires a strategic approach—focusing on engagement signals, content freshness, and unique perspectives.
Top publishers view Discover not just as a traffic source but as an acquisition tool. Their key question: What happens after a Discover hit? Winning strategies include leveraging subscription funnels, engagement loops, and targeted retention tactics to transform one-time visitors into regular readers.
AI & Experimentation for Growth
AI’s impact on publishing was widely discussed. Attendees highlighted AI’s role in refining editorial planning, optimizing distribution, and enhancing audience engagement. However, they stressed the need for balance—while AI-driven insights can optimize workflows, human editorial expertise remains crucial for maintaining authenticity and quality.
Experimentation was another key takeaway. The best publishers go beyond A/B testing click-through rates, analyzing engagement, retention, and conversions to ensure strategies align with broader growth objectives.
Social Media’s Role in Data Strategy
Social media’s role in publisher strategies sparked a lively discussion. While platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok drive engagement, the challenge remains: How do publishers retain control over their audiences? The consensus was that social media should be used not just for traffic but for building brand awareness and deeper engagement, whether through newsletters, subscriber-only content, or community-building initiatives.
Some publishers experiment with platform-native content while using AI-powered automation to scale efforts. However, measuring ROI remains a challenge, particularly when traffic doesn’t return to owned platforms.
Preparing for the Future: Data, Privacy & Sustainability
The discussion highlighted that leading publishers see first-party data not just as a compliance requirement but as a strategic advantage. Building trust with readers through transparency and delivering real value in exchange for user insights was a key takeaway.
Rather than simply replacing third-party cookies, publishers are seizing this shift as an opportunity to foster direct, long-term audience relationships through personalized experiences and diversified data strategies.
Final Thoughts
The roundtable reinforced that aligning technology, data, and business goals is essential for sustainable growth. The most successful publishers don’t just collect data—they use it effectively to drive revenue, deepen audience relationships, and optimize content strategies.
At Marfeel, we help publishers turn insights into action with real-time analytics and AI-driven decision-making tools. Want to learn how we can support your growth strategy?
Visit Marfeel.com to explore our solutions.
