Lorna Fenimore, our Senior Vice President of Audience, was featured in inPublishing’s subscription special. Every year, their talented team asks experts to weigh in on the challenges facing the industry today. In this edition, they tackled retention.
The comprehensive article covers everything from subscriber onboarding to improving performance. In addition to those insights, they also discussed a topic that impacts our clients every day – renewals. Below, you’ll find a short list of their top strategies.
- Simplicity is key. Make renewing easy by including a link to a URL that is pre-populated.
- Target your message. Start by understanding how the customer likes to make purchases and use the same method to communicate with them. For example, if they call in their orders, telemarketing might be the best fit, while an email or mobile update could be ineffective.
- Personalizing the offer is another great strategy. Consider which rate or array of offerings is enticing and profitable. Working with an analytics company can help businesses find the “sweet spot” for each customer.
- Make cancellations less complicated and more flexible. Subscribers are more likely to sign up if cancellation is easy.
- Leverage digital solutions. Most subscribers prefer to manage their renewals themselves. Calls and letters are less effective now.
- Communicating the value your publication brings is critical when encouraging people to renew. One way is to show subscribers they’re part of a community.
- While digital renewal options are important, the article suggests using a personal touch for large accounts. This strategy is particularly beneficial for B2B publishers. Pull in usage data to share savings when applicable.
inPublishing also asked each contributor to share changes publishers should make. When asked to offer her advice, Fenimore said, “Audience management and content management go hand-in-hand. The best outcomes arise from systems and technologies that are fully integrated and operating together toward a unified goal of reader acquisition, satisfaction, engagement and retention.” Learn how our suite of solutions works together to bring you the best of both worlds. Contact us for more information.
