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.
What a year it’s been, with lots of challenges, but also opportunities. Ahead of next week’s Campaign Publishing Summit, we grab five minutes with Lucy Howard, head of marketing at Haymarket, to discuss the key takeaways from this year.
For many companies, digital transformation has accelerated this year. We grab five minutes with Affino CEO Markus Karlsson to discuss some of the options and opportunities facing publishers as we head into 2021.
Individuals and institutions can now subscribe to the fully-searchable digital edition of new monthly magazine The Critic through Exact Editions’ web, iOS and Android platforms.
Bi-monthly art magazine Orientations has launched a new digital edition, available for subscription through digital platform Exact Editions.
Celebrity and lifestyle magazine OK! has launched the Beauty Edit, a new monthly beauty box, curated by OK!’s in-house team of beauty experts.
Current affairs magazine New Eastern Europe has launched a digital subscription service for individuals and institutions in partnership with archiving company Exact Editions.
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It is not just the newsstand which is under pressure again as a result of the new shopping restrictions in England, according to the latest mediafutures report.
Hearst UK yesterday announced that one of its consumer lifestyle brands, Prima, is increasing its print magazine edition from 12 to 13 issues a year, starting in 2021.
Guardian Media Group has announced the appointment of Paul Kanareck as chief customer and commercial officer to lead its global reader revenues strategy.
Guardian News & Media has added The Guardian, The Observer and its international news magazine Guardian Weekly to the Readly platform.
Lifestyle magazine The Idler has launched a new digital archive in collaboration with publishing platform Exact Editions.
Subscriptions, as a route to market, has thrived under lockdown. Is your subs operation performing as well as it should be?
The new magazine will hit newsstands on 21st October, with subscriptions also available to purchase online.
A collection of Australian Foreign Affairs’ back issues are now available for digital subscriptions in collaboration with archiving company Exact Editions.
