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.
We all know the theory of effective renewals copywriting. But what does it mean in practice? Here, subscriptions copywriter Andy Maslen provides a few real-world examples.
Karlene Lukovitz looks at how US publishers are using partnership marketing to bring in new subscribers.
With renewal marketing, as with dating; it pays to make an effort and not to make any assumptions. A subscriber, like a date, can decline your offer. Andrew Majewski has some tried and tested techniques to keep these important relationships alive.
It’s nice to feel welcome and appreciated. It gives a warm glow and makes you pleasantly disposed to whoever’s doing the welcoming. And, if the warm glow continues, then you’ll probably want to extend the relationship. All of which means, says David
Brand recognition is a wonderful thing for a magazine to have. Vogue has it, the Economist has it, Reader’s Digest has it. In fact, Reader’s Digest’s standing goes beyond brand recognition; it’s really something of an institution. Why, then, would su
Successful sales letters connect with the prospect. The deeper the connection, the greater the chance of making the sale. That is why, says Chris Gregory, copywriters need to exhaustively research the connections between the product and the prospect
If the sight of Christmas decorations going up before the clocks have changed gets your goat, then a career in subscriptions is not for you. In subscriptions, the wrapper is barely off the last Creme Egg before the first Christmas planning meeting is
The PPA and Royal Mail commissioned Wessenden Marketing to map out scenarios for the future of the magazine subscription by looking at how other industries approach the customer journey and applying those insights to the magazine business. Jim Bilton
Gift subscriptions are growing in importance for consumer magazine publishers of all shapes and sizes. They have also been the focus of industry-wide consumer awareness campaigns co-ordinated by PPA and Royal Mail. One of the leading online magazine
Putting print content online need not involve cannibalising print sales. That was the message from MEED editorial director Sean Brierley and Anthony Ray of Stingray Research, in a presentation at February’s Publishing Expo describing the relaunch of
Customer service is about more than just answering the phone within three rings – it encompasses all the various contact points with the subscriber. Dovetail recently undertook research to find out why people subscribed, their expectations and their
There have never been so many tools at the direct marketer’s disposal, or so much pressure on them to use those tools responsibly. With so many variables in play, it is imperative, says Phil Whomes, that publishers adopt a systematic approach to test
One of the easiest ways to improve the RoI of your email marketing is to increase the proportion of your emails that get through. It’s not rocket science. But, says Paul Crabtree, it’s about more than just RoI. Fail to get to grips with data hygiene
Ever since the dawn of the internet, publishers have agonised over whether to charge for access to their content. The FT had built a successful paid-for operation, but the barriers they put up reduced their online profile and their ability to earn ad
Recent research suggests that one of the barriers to growing subs, is the perceived inflexibility of the subscription offer. The standard set term / single title offer isn’t an attractive enough proposition, especially for gift purchasers. Armed with
