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 cost-of-living crisis is changing the way people shop and what they buy. Publishers need to take these trends into account when considering the composition and marketing of their brand portfolio. Marketforce’s Emma Carey tells us more…
James Evelegh picks some of the best quotes from our subscriber acquisition special feature.
Publishers are forever looking for ways to increase engagement and build brand loyalty. One proven way is through a rewards programme. We grab five minutes with HH&S’s Mike Halstead to get his advice on setting up a successful programme.
With consumers feeling the pinch and spending less, how should publishers and their advertising clients react? According to Brand Metrics’ Sean Adams, they should invest in brand marketing activity and measure the right metrics.
Boss Class, a new limited series podcast, is one of the first offerings of Economist Podcasts+, a new subscription from The Economist.
Welcome to our latest subs special, this time taking a fresh look at new subscriber acquisition. All of the insights and opinions come from leading suppliers to the publishing sector and from subs experts at UK publishing companies.
Welcome to our latest subs special, this time taking a fresh look at new subscriber acquisition. All of the insights and opinions come from leading suppliers to the publishing sector and from subs experts at UK publishing companies.
Welcome to our latest subs special, this time taking a fresh look at new subscriber acquisition. All of the insights and opinions come from leading suppliers to the publishing sector and from subs experts at UK publishing companies.
Pricing is the cutting edge of strategy, writes Jim Bilton. The right-pricing of content-based products and services will determine the future of every media business. That is a major theme running through mediafutures.
The Sun, one of the UK’s best known newspapers, is investing heavily in its digital future. Paul Hood explains the thinking behind their online strategy.
Subscriptions to a digital archive of literary and art magazine The Capilano Review are now available through publisher services platform Exact Editions.
Reach has published its Q3 trading update for the 3-month period to 24 September 2023.
The latest Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index from the AOP and Deloitte reveals total digital revenue for Q2 2023 was £155.9million, up by 0.3% from Q2 2022.
Predicting the future can be a thankless task, but here is what our sector might look like in ten years’ time…
Beginning mid-October, The Economist’s full slate of podcasts will be available exclusively to subscribers of The Economist and Economist Podcasts+.
