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.
One word that came up repeatedly in the meeting with Warners Distribution was ‘profit’ – not their own, but that of their publishing clients. Too many distribution strategies are focused on one outcome: increased sale, but with little regard to cost.
Jim Foster’s publishing world…
It feels like the companies that used to be known as publishers are morphing rapidly – to become retailers, agencies and providers of data and intelligence. Carolyn Morgan surveys the rapidly changing publishing landscape.
BBC History Magazine is achieving sustained growth across the brand. Editor Rob Attar talks to Mary Hogarth about leading the way in digital subscriptions and why regular podcasts are crucial.
Praise for personalisation and achieving her prime purchasing objective – pleasing number one. Robyn Bechelet doesn't worship Amazon Prime but she does pay respect.
The Times is building on its legal coverage by launching a premium service to accompany its email bulletin, The Brief.
Future plc, the specialist media company, on Friday published its results for the six months ended 31 March 2017.
Readly, the digital magazine newsstand, yesterday announced it has raised €13m in additional funding to drive the next stage of its development.
The literary magazine Granta yesterday announced the launch of a digital archive featuring every issue of the 38 year old quarterly.
Air Business has unveiled its new corporate branding. With its subscription arm changing names from ‘Quadrant Subscription Services’ to ‘Air Business Subscriptions’, all areas of the business will now come under the Air Business brand.
Readly, the digital magazine newsstand, has just launched in Ireland.
The Financial Times last week announced the launch of Due Diligence, a newsletter for premium subscribers that will cover the biggest news and topics in the world of mergers and acquisitions.
WAN-IFRA has just published a new report that describes how data-analysis technology can help media organisations nurture lasting relationships with news consumers.
Mail Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, and Nectar have announced a new partnership with Nectar.
The Financial Times achieved record levels of paid for readership in 2016, secured a number of leading industry awards for the quality of its journalism and sustained healthy profits while investing in new digital products and services, says the comp
