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.
Pharmaceutical Press and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union have announced a partnership, supporting IPU members with a special rate subscription to essential information through MedicinesComplete.
Informa has issued an update on trading, confirming the Group’s performance for 2020 will be in line with the revenue guidance provided at the Half-Year Results in September 2020.
What do the next twelve months have in store for the publishing sector? We grab five minutes with Adam Sherman, CEO of Air Business, to get his take on the challenges and opportunities facing publishers.
Digital editions of five outdoor leisure titles published by Warners Group Publications are now available on the Exact Editions platform.
The Guardian says it has gained 268,000 new digital subscriptions and recurring contributions over the last year, an increase of 43%.
Digital subscription services like Readly are popular ways of consuming magazines and newspapers. We grab five minutes with Readly’s Chris Couchman to talk about developments, past and present.
eMagazines has collaborated with Hearst UK to launch instant digital access on their webstore, hearstmagazines.co.uk.
The initial media response to the pandemic was utter panic. Yet after the first flurry of hyperactivity, things have settled down to something that is more measured, strategic and planned – although everything is still being executed at high speed…
The Lawyer has been on quite a journey, successfully transitioning from a controlled circulation ad-driven model to a high value enterprise subs one. Andy Baker talks Meg Carter through the key stages and what they’ve learnt along the way.
Quizzes are a great way of driving traffic to your site and increasing engagement. But subject matter, timing, tone and accuracy are all crucial. Get them wrong and expect a backlash. Martin Belam has some dos and don’ts for prospective quizmasters.
Meg Carter looks at how B2B publisher Chemical Watch successfully switched from a subscriptions model to a high value membership model, and from product-led to customer value-led.
Roula Khalaf started her editorship in January, full of ambitious plans for what she would achieve in her first 100 days. And then Covid (“the biggest story ever”) struck. Khalaf talks Ray Snoddy through her eventful first year in charge.
These are the attributes that set The Economist apart from many of its peers, Chief Product Officer Deep Bagchee told attendees at the Campaign Publishing Summit.
The British Museum has partnered with archiving company Exact Editions to offer digital subscriptions to their membership magazine to institutions around the world.
Zephr, a technology platform that helps media companies grow their subscription revenue, has raised $8 million, led by BDMI and financing from SVB.
