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Thoughts on subs marketing

Andy Guy Operations Director

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outline

• subs marketing – past, present and future• renewal activity• acquisition activity• what else can you sell to your customers?• the top five factors in an effective campaign• a key challenge for the next decade• a sign of things to come

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subscription marketing – past, present and future

• past• nerdish and ignored• Direct Mail centric• lacking the glamour and “easy” money of display advertising

• present• Marketing magazine – “Publishers are increasingly turning to subscription marketing as the

recession forces ad rates downwards”• cost and availability of newsstand • Audience Development in the spotlight – three jobs placed on InPublishing last week• challenge for small-to-medium publishers

• future• expert in multiple delivery channels• in charge of primary revenue streams as ad revenues decline further• in media res

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renewals - basics

• typically 3-4 letters, 2-3 emails and 1 phone call• make hard copy forms easy to use and include ID for easy order

processing• freshen up the images regularly• welcome letter for first time subs • different letter for first time renewals (danger point)• renewal at birth – try 2 or 3 year offer • concerted renewals start at 6 issues to go (for monthly titles)

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renewals – more advanced

• if not available, collate your renewals history as starting point for future analysis

• offer DD with every effort – 90%+ retention (speak with your bank ref Originator or your agency if don’t meet bank’s criteria

• if people subscribe online, concentrate on email for first renewal efforts

• allow people to renew online & recognise the same offer• send covers & content page in lieu of grace issue - offer to provide

issue FOC if subscriber renews• ask subscribers why they are not renewing • remember – the only way is down

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acquisition – basics

• top the search rankings – no excuse• use portals such as I-Subscribe, Unique Magazines and

Magazines.co.uk • if international appeal, use portals in US, Australia, NZ & South

Africa• all promotional activity from the Editor• URLs for website and subs form on all material• don’t hide the subscription form!• no surprises – brief your team and agency on new offers• work with organisations in your field – data swaps or overlays, link

exchanges, joint offers

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acquisition – more advanced

• in specialist media, encourage collection to help retention - offer binders

• create personalised reactivation programme using benefit statements derived from expiry survey – test timing of this but at least 6 months after expiry

• build a geo-demographic profile of your live subs as starting point for data research

• offer free newsletter & RSS feed to stay on radar, then build offers into the content

• build your own community – use social media to retain existing customers and attract new ones

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what else could you sell to your customers?

• develop a range of additional products on which you could make a margin

• additional paid-for online content of your own• package and sell annualised collections of content • work with book publishers to see relevant titles through your channels• sell relevant consumer products –try CDs, DVDs, and tickets to concerts,

exhibitions or leisure attractions• sell useful business products – try personal development books, training

courses and tickets to relevant business events or cross sell other business services such as hotel rooms, car hire or travel

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the top five factors in an effective campaign

• #5 – learn lessons from past campaigns• #4 – think about what motivates your customers before starting to

write copy • #3 - vary the offer• #2 – make offers clear, concise and easy to respond to• #1 ??? – ask the audience!

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the most important factor in any campaign

• ..... is also the skill which media owners most need to develop within their organisations

• and the skill which all Audience Development, Subscriptions, Circulation and Marketing teams need to master

• the most important factor is data• what these people need is the opportunity and skill to manage,

interrogate and segment their organisation’s entire data universe

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name that year!

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1999 – easy sources

Exhibition data

attendeespre-reg non attendeescrossoversacross all years

Conference data

delegatesinquirersspeakerssponsors

Magazine data

paid subscriberslapsed subscribersqualified circreader inquiriespromotional pool

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1999 – other possible data sources

in-house data held in Access, ExcelGoldmine, MS Outlook& paper files

directory data & downloads

staff in other officesor working remotelywith useful databases

data provided byexhibitors to generateattendance at events

3rd party lease data

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a decade on – and the challenge has grown

active magazine paid subs active mag paid subs - digitallapsed magazine paid subs lapsed mag paid subs - digitalqualified magazine circ qualified circ- digitalpromotional pool paid newsletter subsreader inquiries free newsletter regsdirectory data word-specific alerts regsconference delegates online content – paid subs conference inquirers online content – alertsspeakers Facebookexhibition attendees Twitterexhibition pre-reg no shows Linked-Incross-over visitors e-reader customersdownloads iphone app customersdata in Goldmine et al ipad app customers

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the next 2-3 years

• media owners seeking to take advantage of developing channels to broaden their brand reach

• media owners seeking to sell range of products through these channels

• media owners needing to integrate data from these channels to provide a single view of their customers

• media owners needing an affordable integrated IT solution

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discussion

• Circle Publishing have one such solution already in place using Circdata’s FusionTM system

• discussion and audience questions