Every other week for the last two years, BNP Media relaunched a website from its extensive portfolio of BtoB publications.  DistributionCenterMag.com became the 56^th site delivered as part of BNP’s plan to lift its online business by consolidating on a single platform: ePublishing’s Enterprise Publishing System (EPS).

Distribution Center is the official and exclusive publication of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI) and is the primary source for editorial commentary, content and resources designed to enhance the success and effectiveness of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) wholesale distribution professionals.

Beginning with award-winning Securitymagazine.com, BNP set ambitious goals that informed every launch up through the new Distributioncentermag.com:

Increase Revenue

BNP took a bold step to bring itself out of the industry’s advertising decline by choosing a platform that presents multiple revenue opportunities to increase Revenue Per Reader (RPR).

DistributionCenter.com leverages many ePublishing EPS features to deliver value to advertisers and engage readers:

• Events Listings
• Marketplace Classifieds
• Product Catalogue and Integrated eCommerce
• eNewsletter Integration
• Social Sharing, Interactive Blogs, Polls
• Multimedia: Videos, Photo Galleries

By presenting content in context—related events and products with articles, for example—BNP staff enhance site performance, generate leads and encourage readers to buy. Readers gain a more extensive resource, while advertisers benefit from multiple opportunities to interact with prospects.  The result? BNP is monetizing content more than ever.

Brand Consistency

With an extensive portfolio, BNP sought to balance brand consistency with the individual character of each publication. A positive by-product: eliminating editorial and data silos that had hampered effective marketing and editorial efficiencies. 

Each of the 56 sites reflects ePublishing’s flexible site architecture, capitalizing on intuitive navigation balanced with the ability to adjust presentation, functionality and resources for each market. Color schemes, toolbar customization and multiple ad options give editors control to meet the preferences of their specific audience.

Speed to Market

BNP needed a system to transform their brands and start making money without extensive development and maintenance time. Elevating the portfolio required a swift transformation—one that homegrown and open source options simply couldn’t provide—not to mention the ongoing maintenance once all the sites were deployed.

With the ePublishing SaaS CMS, BNP hit their stride early on in the project, launching 20 sites within one year and earning awards. Meanwhile, editors immediately benefited from a short learning curve, posting content from anywhere and deploying to multiple channels from one, user-friendly dashboard. BNP receives expert 24 x 7 technical support along with ongoing best practices consulting from an experienced partner. BNP staff members have more time and money to work with—giving readers and advertisers more resources and opportunities.

Now that 56 sites are up and running, BNP can focus on gleaning even more benefit from the features, functionality and ongoing updates that come as part of the ePublishing Software as a Service model: increased audience engagement, content marketing with contextual selling and new product development – to name a few.