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.
If the regional paid-for dailies are to reverse their long term sales declines then circulation management will need a new mandate. Expertise in logistics will need to be augmented with relationship management skills. Some in the industry are already
The acid test. Your marketing database is ready to use and you’re under pressure to show results. The answer, says Qbase’s Gary Olive, is a communications strategy based on customer segmentation.
On 11 November the PPA held its annual Magazine Subscriptions conference at the Grosvenor House in London. Over 25 different speakers across 13 different seminars and presentations were squeezed into the day. James Evelegh went to the Creative Master
Niche publishers often bemoan the size of their marketing budgets. Yet, says MMC’s James Stringer, they have one big advantage over their mainstream rivals – a clearly identifiable audience. Armed with this, and an intelligently thought through promo
At a time when big retailers are embracing home grocery delivery, why is home news delivery in such a mess? Is it a coincidence that the fall in newspaper circulations has coincided with the decline of HND. Daily Mail circulation director Neil Jagger
Africa was once described in the Economist as “The Hopeless Continent” – a description which might suggest that this particular publication would try to steer clear of the place. Not so! International circulation director Christopher Collins explains
It’s amazing how often publishers send out free copies of their subscription magazines in support of a circulation figure – but don’t grasp the subs sales opportunity this offers. Here, Polygon Media’s Laurie Wedd explains how they use a system of FF
Are you doing a good job? No, I mean a REALLY good job. Doing circulation well means never letting complacency set in, always questioning your assumptions and analysing to the nth degree. BusinessWeek’s Sara Howers poses slightly more than twenty que
Is securing sufficient marketing budget like getting blood from a stone? If it is, then don’t despair. Here Peter Hobday outlines some tried and tested techniques to help you achieve good revenue with even the most inadequate of budgets.
Readers are the most valuable asset of every newspaper. According to Margaret Snowdon, the challenge is for regional newspapers to not only retain existing readers but also to attract new readers. The key to this is in defining your market.
Andy Maslen has written subscriptions promotions for, among others, The Economist Group, News International, VNU, Ziff-Davis and Haymarket. Here he gives us seven essential rules for successful copywriting.
What do you do when your ailing title has a hard core of loyal readers? They are too good to ignore but how do you retain their valuable purchasing power and close the title at the same time? James Evelegh talks to Kent Messenger Group’s Caroline Bri
Subscriptions are important to Opera magazine. Like many other niche publishers, they are increasingly seeing them as their future. James Evelegh talks to Opera’s Alice Lindsay and Megan Jackson about how they market and manage their subs, which are
Subscriptions only account for 11% of UK magazine sales. Royal Mail’s Tom Wasilewski says that, in the light of present and future range reviews, publishers need to focus on subscriptions more than ever before.
For subscription titles billing and renewal series are significant generators of cash. Maximising pay-up rates is vital, yet often publishers treat the process as a mechanical, administrative one and leave it to non-marketers. David Nutt says that di
