- Audience segmentation is crucial for effective online marketing and content personalization.
- Focus on content valued by potential subscribers rather than casual visitors.
- Determine which content goes behind a paywall based on uniqueness and value.
- Track and optimize registration rates and conversion funnels.
- Understand what registered visitors value through research.
- Create enticing subscription propositions tailored to different market segments.
- Continuously track and optimize conversion rates and offers.
- Nurture new digital subscribers for maximum retention with effective onboarding and engagement measurement.
The article emphasizes the importance of subscription revenue in today’s media landscape.
Subscription money is better than ad money!
Carolyn Morgan just published a great article titled Best practice in registration, metering and digital subs. I’ll summarize her main points along with my commentary.
She starts with the assertion that the free to air display ad-funded model is starting to unravel. It seems to me this has been a long, slow process, but perhaps we have reached an inflection point where more and more people realize that the ad-supported model isn’t so great.
In any event, subscription revenue is where it’s at. So … on to Carolyn’s 8 points.
1. Analyze and segment your audience
You need to think of segmentation in a few different ways. First, people who might subscribe vs. people who never will. Second, your market will have different roles and interests.
Think of both as ways to focus your online marketing, and also to target and personalize content. A customer data platform can be useful for this.
2. Understand what content is valued — and where the gaps are
The question is “valued by whom?” Content that’s valued by the drive-bys might work for the ad-supported model, but it doesn’t help you on the subscription side. You want to focus on the content that is valued by the people who might subscribe. Identify the content that your core audience likes.
3. Decide where to set your registration wall – and what stays free
Carolyn is either recommending or assuming that you’ll have some free content and some content behind a paywall. She says “content that is unique, hard to find, provides value and insight, and appeals to your core segments, should be behind a reg wall.”
Of course there are many different paywall models, and you should study them before you pick one.
4. Track what prompts visitors to register and optimize sign-up rates
Think of a funnel with 3 components. Free, stop, convert. (“Stop” means the people who have hit the paywall offer.) Carolyn says your stop rate should be greater than 5%, but I think that depends a lot on your market. In any event, monitor all these numbers carefully and experiment.
5. Understand what registered visitors value
This is going to take some careful research, especially if you have several market segments, but it’s crucial to know what content drives the buy decision.
6. Craft an enticing subs proposition
After you figure out what content drives the buy decision, focus on how that content benefits your potential subscribers. If you have several market segments, find a way to present different offers to each segment. Once again, a CDP can help with that.
7. Track and optimize conversions
Without falling into analysis psychosis, you’re going to have to track several different things here. First, separate out the drive-bys. It doesn’t matter what they do. Second, focus on the percentages in the three parts of your funnel: free, stop, and registered. Remember that the goal is registrations over the long term. A short-term increase – by, for example, exposing too many people to the paywall offer – might not be in your best interests.
Also, remember to test different offers.
8. Nurture new digital subs to maximize retention
Registration isn’t the end of your work. You have to onboard them and keep them engaged, so develop an effective onboarding series, and make sure you have the tools in place to measure engagement – especially with new sign-ups.
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