As publisher of a 40-year-old subscription newsletter reporting on the wholesale distribution industry, I've seen a rapid shift in how our audience of wholesale distribution executives increasingly accesses our online offerings - on the Web, mobile devices and email.

Here are some of the lessons I've learned as we've built out our online information service in the past five years.

Lesson 1: Web site = Marketing Hub
Web sites have tended to grow haphazardly to serve many masters within a company. Marketing has to drive its development and architecture, and integrate transactional functions under the primary objectives of lead generation and customer service.

Combine the current successful marketing mix with e-mail and search engine marketing (SEM) to funnel customers ...