Testing times for subscription marketing

Every year our industry is responsible for tens of thousands of spam emails, unsolicited telephone calls and pieces of junk mail. In recent years, direct mail has become even more demonised by increasing concerns around the environment.

Even though we are producing publications of high quality and integrity, the methods we use to sell these products are already stigmatised in the minds of a majority of our target market. DPA, TPS, opt-in, opt-out, shake it all about – all mean that, put simply, we have to be pretty damn good at what we do.

We do have advantages of course. A response rate of less than 1% can constitute a successful campaign. Lifetime value means that we can calculate the ROI of a campaign over a number of years. Some of us are lucky enough to have instantly recognisable market leading publications.

And, here at RCN Publishing, we have some of the best marketing people in the country. Although subscription campaigns are built on fairly basic marketing techniques, you still need the marketing expertise to add the creativity and innovation to enable a campaign to produce an optimum return.

At RCN Publishing, we publish eleven nursing publications, one weekly, eight monthlies and two quarterlies – all market leading titles and all subscription based. We use three main routes to market – direct mail, email and telemarketing, using internal and external lists and have been proud to win several PPA subscription marketing awards over the past few years.

Importance of testing

As we all know, the quality of the lists is the most important part of a campaign. But one of the key elements of our success is the testing that forms a major part of each campaign, and the intelligence gained through that testing to enable us to produce more effective efforts the next time.

And test we certainly do. We test incentives - a shower radio against a digital clock, a digital clock against a price led offer. We test price led offers – £1.99 a month for twelve months against three issues for the price of one. We test lists – students against newly qualified, internal against external. We test acquisition methods - direct mail against telemarketing. We test distribution methods - Royal Mail against UK Mail and other suppliers. We test creative – all-in-one mailers against envelope and letter, text heavy against illustration heavy. We test emails - html against text, sending in the morning against afternoon. We test one telemarketing agency against another. If you aren’t including a level of testing in your campaigns, you are probably missing a trick.

In terms of what to test, stay open-minded and don’t rule out anything. As long as your lists are of a fairly decent size, you don’t have much to lose by testing a small cell with what may seem an off-the-wall idea. For example, a cell in one of our recent direct mail campaigns was sent a large four-piece text-heavy letter, not a creative execution we would usually use, but early indications are that it has produced good results from certain segments of the market. You don’t know what will work until you try it.

Include your editor in your campaign meetings. In general, they will know a lot more about your target market than you do, and may well come up with some innovative ideas for creative testing.

But don’t make assumptions. Different segments of your lists will respond better to different offers. Some may actually respond better to higher prices or maybe no offer at all. Don’t automatically assume that your market is price-sensitive.

Obviously, it’s pointless testing anything unless you analyse the results, and use them to plan your next activity. You may be surprised at the results – discovering that a section of your market isn’t as sensitive to price as you thought is always welcome, finding out that no-one is taking up the offer of a free mouse-mat with a picture of your editor on it, isn’t.

Telemarketing

Looking at our overall marketing strategy, telemarketing is increasingly becoming a major part of our acquisition mix. The use of professional telemarketing agencies to sell across our portfolio has produced really excellent cost per acquisitions. The flexibility of the salesperson to gauge the potential subscriber’s requirements and pitch the most relevant publication from our portfolio, adds another dimension to our acquisition armoury.

But direct mail is not dead. Although we have certainly seen a decline in results recently, it is still an important part of our marketing strategy, and postal addresses are still the most reliable contact methods in terms of accuracy. It also gives us the most flexibility in terms of testing creativity.

While email marketing doesn’t currently produce a great number of subscriptions for us, the low cost per acquisition still makes it worthwhile. With increasing numbers of our target market becoming internet literate, this method may prove more effective in the future.

The migration to email communication is an example of how we need to continually challenge and test our methods of acquisition. We know what is currently working for our market, but each market is different. While our market may be more receptive to being mailed or called at home, yours may produce better results from being contacted at work.

To a certain extent, market forces dictate our approach. We may well see a further backlash against direct mail due to environmental concerns. Telemarketing may become even more cost effective due to the ability to make calls over the internet and more market competition. You need to be continually aware of what is working for you at one particular moment, and move with the market. But if for example – and leaving your corporate social responsibility aside for a minute - direct mail is still proving the most cost effective method of pulling subscribers from a particular segment of your market at an acceptable rate, keep using it until a better method comes along. And you will know when it does, because your testing will tell you.

The challenges faced by subscription marketers are many and ever changing. But, by continually analysing your acquisition campaigns and by gathering detailed market intelligence as to what works and what doesn’t, and using this to plan your next activity, you can ensure that you are constantly on top of your market and producing the best results possible from your budgets.