Reality Check: Why Your Subscription Program May Be Failing

Spotlight: 

  • Creating an effective, profitable subscription program is an ongoing journey.
  • Subscription programs can fail from not building relationships with visitors, hitting unengaged visitors with a paywall message, forgetting to onboard new subscribers and not re-engaging “sleeper” subscribers. 
  • Viafoura can help captivate potential and existing subscribers and work with paywall providers to identify engaged visitors who may be ready to subscribe. 
  • 60% of inactive customers become unengaged within two months of subscribing, stressing the need for an engaging onboarding program.
  • 86% of publishers believe that it’s worthwhile to assess subscriber interests and behaviors. 
  • If your organization’s subscription program isn’t working, you can use Viafoura engagement tools to help captivate potential and existing subscribers.

Setting up a paywall does not guarantee that subscriptions will automatically start increasing. And even if they do, customers can churn at any moment if you don’t have the proper support strategies in place.

Your subscription program is an ongoing journey with various moving parts and people that must all be aligned to become successful.

“[To] rebuild our subscription business, all the elements in the company, from business, tech, the newsroom, will have to work and take this journey together,” explains Adisti Sawitri, managing editor at The Jakarta Post.

If your organization is completely invested in its subscription program and still can’t seem to boost conversion and retention rates, all hope is not lost. 

Taking a few moments to understand why subscriptions tend to fail can help you bolster your audience-building strategy. Read on to find out how you can overcome subscription-related challenges and create a dependable reader revenue stream.

You’re Not Building Strong Relationships With Visitors

Would you pay to support a website or service if you didn’t feel like you got value or had some connection to it?

Odds are, you probably wouldn’t. And the same is true for your digital visitors. 

Taking the time to connect with online audiences can help your organization capture their attention and keep them on your properties instead of on a competitor’s.

“Relationships, whether with people or brands, are up for grabs,” says Gretchen Ramsey, chief strategy officer at Harte Hanks, a global marketing agency. “If you don’t nurture them, they could… rebound into a new, more loving one pretty quickly.”

To win over your audience’s interest and money, your organization will need to connect with people by providing relevant experiences and content based on their behavioral data. You can also encourage visitors to form relationships around your brand with other like-minded people through on-site social spaces.

You’re Hitting Visitors With a Paywall When They Aren’t Engaged

Have your organization’s paywall messages been generating little to no conversions from digital visitors? 

If so, there’s a good chance that your visitors aren’t engaged enough to even think about your brand’s subscription program. 

A strategic way to grow subscriptions without annoying unengaged visitors is to target only the most engaged, active users with a paywall message. That way, only audience members who are active enough to be interested in a subscription will hit the paywall. 

You can also work with an engagement tool provider, like Viafoura, to feed subscription-ready visitors to your paywall. 

Amalie Nash, SVP of local news at USA Today, outlines how “[if] you recognize someone’s behavior, then it’s easier to figure out at what point you put that [paywall] in front of them.” 

Ultimately, an engaged visitor will likely be more receptive to a paywall message than an unengaged one.

You’re Forgetting To Onboard New Subscribers

For organizations that are struggling to retain paying audience members, adding in an onboarding program for new subscribers can significantly reduce churn. 

Without an onboarding program that immediately captivates subscribers, businesses risk turning their active community members into passive “sleepers.” These inactive subscribers do not return to a publisher’s properties and are in danger of churning. 

According to a report by Piano, a subscription management platform, “60% of sleepers first become inactive within the first two months of their subscription – making it incredibly important to use an onboarding program and implement other tactics to drive engagement and habit early in the relationship.”

Help new subscribers build daily habits around your organization by directing them to participate in conversations about content and experiences on your website or app.

You Aren’t Re-Engaging Subscribers Who Are About To Churn

Businesses that fail to monitor subscriber behavior cannot identify when paying customers become unengaged and are at risk of churning. 

So it isn’t surprising that the American Press Institute reports that 86% of publishers see value in assessing subscriber interests and behaviors. 

By monitoring customer behaviors, you can pick out people who are likely to unsubscribe and then send them re-engagement alerts and emails.

“Advance identification of subscribers that are at risk of cancellation is a highly effective way of reducing subscriber churn,” says Faisal Kalim, an author at What’s New In Publishing.

Keep in mind that a subscription program cannot become a powerful revenue stream without implementing audience engagement and relationship-building strategies. 

Luckily, there are plenty of available Viafoura engagement tools that can help your media organization captivate potential and existing subscribers and maximize reader revenue.

Four Things Companies Are Doing to Take Their Subscription Strategies to the Next Level

Earning reader revenue isn’t a simple task in the media industry. Even with a paywall in place, those precious subscriptions won’t start pouring in on their own. Not unless your company has a strong subscription strategy.

So what kinds of subscription-driving tactics can delight visitors and convince them to become dedicated community members?

We see subscribers weighing up personal benefits, such as distinctive content, convenience, and value, with perceived benefits for society,” state the authors of Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020.

This means that companies must cater to the needs and interests of consumers while serving their entire communities to create loyal subscribers.

For those of you who are hoping to strengthen your existing subscription strategy, there are several tactics worth trying out. Let’s look at some of the effective subscription strategies that publishers have recently implemented for some inspiration.

Personalizing the Visitor Experience With Audience Data

Audience data is a powerful tool that media companies can use to enrich their subscription strategies, satisfying the needs and desires of consumers.  

ARA, a Spanish publisher in Barcelona, credits its 3,200 new subscribers largely to its use of first-party audience data. The media company closely assessed its community members to tailor their experiences to their behaviors and content interests.

“We want to know where our audiences are, how they consume, how they read our news and we started to produce more according to these audiences,” says Georgina Ferri Todera, the chief revenue and innovation officer at ARA. “But the first step was knowing more about our audiences.”

The Wall Street Journal has also recognized the need to start collecting audience data to personalize its subscribers’ experience. As a result, subscribers are more likely to have a positive digital experience and remain loyal to the brand.

Communicating Directly With Audiences

If you’re not sure what could make your company’s content and on-site experience more appealing to consumers, you can always turn to your audience for answers. 

TIME, for instance, asked consumers directly about what resources it could provide to help people during the early stages of the pandemic. 

“People told us what they want and we fulfilled it for them,” explains Maya Draisin, SVP of progress marketing at TIME. “And they responded with 1.5 million views.”

In general, your audience is your compass. By following their directions and fulfilling their needs, you can reinforce the value of your company’s content and subscription program.

Opting Out of Big Tech Platforms

For professionals in the digital world, the instinct to promote content across multiple social media and news aggregation channels is only natural. Many people expect to attract greater audiences and more subscribers by promoting content on third-party websites. 

However, this approach can actually be counterproductive to your subscription program. Not only do consumers lack trust in the content on big tech platforms, but your company also loses revenue as well as precious audience data to the host platform. 

The New York Times is one of the latest media companies to recognize the value of creating direct relationships with readers on its own properties. 

After opting out of Apple’s news aggregation platform, the Time’s COO, Meredith Kopit Levien, stated that the company can form a direct path for sending those readers back into our environments, where we control the presentation of our report, the relationships with our readers, and the nature of our business rules.”

Build a direct relationship with readers to, therefore, earn their trust and forge daily habits that lead to long-term subscription growth.

Working Audience Engagement Into the Subscription Plan

While there’s no single right way to use a paywall, some publishers see merit in engaging audiences before revealing a subscription message. 

This process helps consumers feel connected to media companies, and then when they’re active enough online, guides them to become loyal subscribers. 

Slate is one of many publishers that have implemented this strategy. 

“If you want people to join or subscribe, asking them to do it voluntarily is not quite enough,” explains Dan Check, CEO of Slate. 

You can encourage on-site audience engagement through interactive tools and exceptional journalism before and after visitors subscribe to your services.

Go beyond your paywall by strengthening your company’s connection to its audience. 

Whether you choose to replicate these strategies on your digital properties or not, your ability to increase your loyal subscribers all comes down to engaging and understanding consumers. Tie these core actions into your subscription strategy to create and retain a strong community of brand advocates.

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