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.
With retail sales becoming increasingly volatile, where does subscribing fit into consumer purchasing patterns for magazines? That question lies at the centre of a research project commissioned by the PPA in association with Royal Mail. Brandlab ran
Traditionally, the big consumer publishers have slugged it out at the newsstand, yet the signs are that the conflict zone is widening. Jess Burney looks at the increasing use of subscriptions in consumer circulation wars and what the future has in st
What are the response triggers? What in your copy will prompt your prospect to take up your offer? Peter Hobday reveals how to motivate prospects and how a well crafted ‘long letter’ can even send us to war.
The time to stop and think is too often treated as a luxury, especially in busy circulation departments. Yet, every now and then, it is essential to pause and look afresh at the way you do things. Northcliffe asked Deloitte to assist them in a review
Over the course of three years, William Reed Publishing has developed, with software consultancy Kay Media Technologies, a shiny new CRM system - CRISP. They have high hopes for the new system, expecting it to both open up new revenue opportunities a
The customer rules! Now, more than ever before. What they want, how they want it, when they want it are issues every publisher is grappling with. This is putting pressure on circulation and marketing teams to manage the customer relationship more eff
Some publishers have had their fingers badly burnt by expensive database projects that have failed to deliver the right return. Often the root cause has been a failure by the publisher to clearly set out the commercial justification for the project a
Newspapers might be in long term structural decline, but they are not throwing in the towel. Indeed, the energy and creativity with which the press is fighting its corner is breathtaking. Raymond Snoddy looks at how they are battling for every last r
How do you price your magazine so that subscribers stay loyal? Knowing what keeps them awake at night will, says Michael Smith, enable you to deliver real value, and knowing the dynamics of your market sector will help you ensure that your price is r
Making more money is what most publishers strive for each year. Often the best source of new money is your existing customers – people you already have a relationship with. Jess Burney looks at the secrets of successful cross-sell.
Despite the onward march of the web as a subscription source, subscription marketers are still underperforming in the online world. The reasons are, firstly, a failure to apply direct marketing techniques as rigorously in the online environment and,
As with most marketing disciplines, thorough planning is central to successful subscriptions copy writing. The starting point, says Jennifer Menten, is to do some serious thinking about your magazine and your prospects. The more time spent thinking,
After much research, the Evening News decided that a greatly strengthened direct home delivery service was the answer to its circulation prayers. That was the easy bit. The tricky part was working out how to re-energise direct delivery when they had
Subscription management systems have come a long way in the last ten years, as software developers have raced to stay abreast of changing technologies and increased publisher expectation. James Evelegh looks at how subscription software has evolved a
How many subscriptions do you want? Peter Hobday explains why that is a trick question, and reveals why most publishers find their subscriptions marketing just never seems to take off.
