Creating offers to capture readers’ loyalty and convert them into subscribers
Marion Wyss: “How do you build an offer that will win the loyalty of your readers and engage them with you? And convert your audience into subscribers”.
Note:
Not all readers have the same propensity to subscribe to a medium.
Mobile readers, for example, don’t take out many subscriptions. However, we don’t want to rule them out and it’s in our interest to take advantage of them.
🗺️Which method? Follow the guide!
1) Define a value proposition 📈
This answers the following question:
Why should someone look for your services or products?
What added value do you offer them that justifies their subscribing?
This value proposition offers a number of advantages:
it allows you to establish and define your originality in the market compared with your competitors
it allows you to develop and define values that are shared by all your teams
it enables you to turn your readers and members into subscribers
>> An inspiring method: Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
It consists of answering 3 questions
What do you do? What do you do?
It should be very (very) easy to answer this question. For a magazine, for example, you publish articles, columns, surveys, etc. in paper and digital versions…
How do you do this? How do you go about it?
With what people, what tools, what direction, what quality, what layout, etc.? Here again, the answer must be simple and, above all, strictly defined within your team.
Why do you do it? Why are you doing this?
This is a little trickier and, unfortunately, it’s not simply a way of making money. Monetisation is the result rather than the why. Instead, this is where you define what you’re going to say to your prospects to get them to pay for your products or services.
Other questions may complete the picture:
Why does this structure exist?
Why do you get up in the morning?
Why should people be interested in what you do?
Why are you useful?
What makes you different from other players in the industry?
What do you offer your readers to make them spend time with you?
2) Make registration successful 🛎️
>> Launch a registration before launching a subscription
>> Build the registration as a top-of-the-range product
>> When collecting data
Start small and grow big – collect less data and use it well before asking for more.
Alternative economy: they just asked for an email in the beginning
>> Acquisition channels
Make sure you have a wide variety of channels for acquiring registered users
>> Use registration to promote subscription
>> Engage registered users as you would subscribers
Examples of strategies :
Alternatives économiques
To enable non-subscribers to continue reading articles, the site required a simple email registration.
Bloomberg
The site began by offering people the option of registering or subscribing to access an article.
If people chose to register, they were then offered the chance to subscribe to a daily NL, or they were shown their free newsletter that they had for you maybe later, they were then advised to download the app because they knew that they had a much higher subscription conversion rate on mobile apps and that engagement and loyalty were much higher on the app than on the website.
In total, there are only four screens or home screens on our website.
3) Break down the subscription funnel 🕳️
Why is it so important to understand your funnel? This will enable you to act at the right time to encourage your members to subscribe.
You need to distinguish between user behaviour:
- total users
- users who see the paywall
- users who click on the paywall
- users who convert to subscribers
>> Note: only 30% of users reach the paywall
The funnel needs to be broken down from the total number of users to those who eventually convert to subscribers.
According to one study, 68% of users visit premium content. Of these 68%, 55% would then access the paywall, i.e. 30% of the initial users.
What is their behaviour? How can we influence it?
>> How do you get users to the paywall?
- First of all, increase the visibility of premium content
Example : Add a promotional banner on the home page
Click here to watch the masterclass video:
Tips for optimising measurement :
Remind users of your value and what you can offer them if they choose to subscribe.
What you can offer them if they choose to subscribe
Promote premium content in other articles
Place this content in your newsletters, on social media, etc.
Place premium content at the top of the home page
Promote the subscription on the home page
Consider gentle conversion steps to get users to read more content and discover your
value
- When your users reach the paywall…
4 methods for optimising metrics :
- The most effective:
Display a full-page wall covering all the content. Obviously, if your business model is partly based on advertising, you’ll have to be careful not to hide your ads and damage your revenue. So this hack isn’t for everyone.
- The least risky solution:
Try moving the paywall further up the article.
- Most adaptable:
Let your editor choose where the wall will block! This allows them to integrate the paywall into their narrative, adding the wall just before the cliff hanger to better encourage conversions.
- The simple and essential thing to do:
Make sure that your paywall load time is fast, and that it is called up from the start, particularly in relation to your advertising scripts. Pre-load and optimise the weight of fonts and images.
Example: Banner + closing wall
A closeable banner indicating to readers that they will be confronted with a paywall.
- When your users click on the paywall
To optimise measurement:
A/B tests, including dynamic strategies
Continuously modify the design and wording to reduce paywall blindness.
Example: the concrete case of Elle magazine
ELLE magazine targets the paywall message on the source of traffic – the newsletter from which the reader comes – by adapting both the value proposition and the first two points.
Optimising the click-through rate on the paywall
Results
Click-through rate +143% compared with the original paywall
Conversion rate x4 for the personalised version
Other examples of original paywalls:
With the editor’s face : Personalise the wall with a portrait of the editor-in-chief and a personalised message to encourage support and subscription.
Results
+ 426% more clicks on the subscription CTA
+ 12% more subscriptions
Tips:
Updating your design very often is another key.
If we update the design of a payslip, the CTR increases.
- When your users finally subscribe…
>> Test different labels to create the urgency for readers to convert via a special offer.
>> In the connected member segment, test a value proposition highlighting the quality of the writing VS another more focused on the benefits of subscription.
>> Display a paywall with a double offer, including a discount on the annual offer.
>> Adapt the user path to their propensity to subscribe. Le Télégramme presents the least committed users with a soft conversion wall, while users with a higher propensity to subscribe will see a hard paywall.
Conclusion:
What I want is for my reader to be as equipped as possible.
More people are equipped. Your subscriber is more likely to remain loyal.
So, after the first visit, you could use newsletter modules to encourage the reader to sign up.
After registration, we’ve seen the New York Times onboarding scheme, for example, which asks or suggests the reader or new member to download the app to sign up for a newsletter. They encourage subscription and try to personalize the content.
| A digital publishing professional since 2006, Marion began by working for pure-player presses before moving on to major national titles in France, including ELLE Magazine, L’Obs and Challenges, where she was Chief Digital Officer until 2018. Following this, she co-founded The Membership & Subscription Suite Poool, providing digital publishers with the tools and expertise to succeed in their reader revenue strategy. In 2022, she launched The Audiencers, a B2B media and community to help digital publishing professionals make better decisions when it comes to engaging, converting and retaining their audience. Marion also lectures on reader revenue models for publishers at various journalism schools in France and Switzerland. LinkedIn: Marion Wyss |
