Every subscriber who leaves has to be replaced before a subscription business can grow, which makes retention the quieter half of reader revenue and often the more profitable one. The first renewal is the real test of whether acquisition brought in the right people.
Retention starts with habit. The publishers that keep subscribers longest engage them well beyond the welcome emails, and renew on the strength of the brand rather than another discount. A surprising share of churn isn't a decision at all. Expired cards and failed payments quietly lose revenue that can often be recovered.
Some brands are losing subscribers and hard-fought revenue that could be saved with some attention and effort.
Tracy Larner Our subs retention strategy: William Reed
When someone does want to leave, how it is handled matters. Understand why before offering anything, and make the exit easy, because subscribers treated well on the way out are far more likely to come back.
Below you'll find some of our best feature articles on subscriber retention and churn, from engagement and renewal pricing to payment failure and cancellation, alongside our latest news and industry commentary.
Does your CEO know what your subscriber retention rate is? The chances are, probably not. But, according to Julian Thorne, author of our Guide to Retention Strategies for Publishers, this number should never be far from his or her (or your) mind.
A subscriber’s first 30 days are important to build habit but so is every day after, says Emma Robinson, head of customer experience.
You cannot improve a process until you have documented it, and you cannot achieve an objective until you have a process and system to support it, says Rosa Sherwood, head of CRM, engagement and loyalty.
It’s a well-known fact that engaged subscribers stay for longer, says Susanne Kinnaird, head of digital reader revenue.
It’s important not to lose subscribers and hard-fought revenue through involuntary churn, says Tracy Larner, subscriptions director.
It’s important to understand the reason for cancellation and to ensure the retention offer directly addresses the subscriber’s stated concern, says Mike Halstead, managing director of HH&S.
What determines pricing power is not only the category of need, says Andy Burden, founder of Substribe, it’s the stakes.
Making it super-hard to cancel a subscription does no one any favours.
The Survey now in its seventh year, conducted by the AOP, between 15 June and 17 July 2009, during the full effects of the current economic downturn is a snapshot of the mood and views of the UK digital publishing industry.
Speaking at the World Young Reader Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on Tuesday, Jeanne-Emmanuelle Hutin of leading French newspaper Ouest France, gave an update on her paper’s attempts to attract young readers.
Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s largest independent private client investment managers, has strengthened its decision-making capabilities and reduced costs with a Corporate Licence to the Financial Times’ global intelligence, analysis and research.
That’s easy – it’s digital! Close the presses and head online. But, are we being too hasty? After all, the advertising downturn has hit online too, and with the notable exceptions on niche and B2B, we haven’t got our online charging mechanisms right.
The credit crunch continues to bite; ad revenue is still depressed; the publisher is itching to reduce pagination. What should a subs manager do? Ask for more subscription pages! And Jenny Moseley has fifteen tips to help you maximise their effective
Price is one of the most effective weapons in the subscription marketer’s armoury, but it needs to be used with finesse. Market knowledge, audience segmentation and wider business objectives all need to be factored in. Jess Burney outlines some of th
At long last the future of newspapers, print versus online editions, charging for online and the industry’s relationship with social networking sites can all be reduced to a series of numbers. Ray Snoddy explains.
A brilliant headline will only keep your readers’ attention for a split second. What you say next is what will keep them reading... right through to your order form, says Jennifer Menten.
Athletics Weekly, the track and field magazine, published by Descartes Publishing claims to be the first magazine in the world to start selling subscriptions to full digital editions via the iPhone e-commerce store.
CDS Global has released the following analysis of the recent ABC results.
British consumers are buying more craft, decorating and gardening magazines and economising on glossy monthlies according to sales data released last week.
A new-look Heritage Commercials motors onto the newsstands on 3 September.
The Financial Times has announced the launch of a new online clipping service, where registered users can save, store and share articles and webpages through FT.com. The clippings service is available at www.clippings.ft.com/
iSUBSCRiBE, the magazine and newspaper subscription site has signed an exclusive deal with Jamie Oliver’s magazine brand, Jamie Magazine.
One of the many annoying things about a recession is that customers spend less and spend differently, meaning that businesses need to rethink their marketing plans and question the assumptions on which they were made. Christina Lucas looks at how cha
