Publishing is undergoing seismic changes due to booming digital consumption, which has had the knock-on effect of causing print titles’ major circulation problems.
Nowhere has this been felt more keenly than the trade magazine sector which has seen huge swathes of well-established titles being axed, while others have either gone monthly or online only.
The national press has not escaped unscathed either, and, with online strategies becoming more commonplace, the likes of The Guardian and Financial Times have publicly declared a digital-first approach.
Against this backdrop, William Reed Business Media made a conscious decision to increase online and print subscriptions and revenues with a sustained campaign for its leading retail title, The Grocer.
Taking a joined-up approach
An ecommerce strategy was nothing new to William Reed, but the publishing house needed a more innovative and joined-up approach to improve the user journey. The plan was to use a multimedia campaign that maximised response, boosted sales and ROI, and gave readers a better all-round experience.
The company turned to St Ives Management Services (SIMS) for a solution. William Reed set some tough targets, including: the transition of 80% of existing subscribers to a bundled print/digital offer; securing bundle sales from 90% of new subs; increasing payment before existing subscription expiry by 5% and helping to uplift renewal rates by 0.5%. The last figure may look small fry but any renewal uplift is no mean feat in a mature media landscape going through digital transformation.
SIMS sales director Andrew Clay explained: “As with many online sales, the key to driving subscriptions is to make life as easy as possible for readers. Reducing the number of clicks and amount of required information was a cornerstone of the campaign. Just as crucial was recognising each customer to ensure promotions matched the types of content that they wanted to read.
“Simplifying the offers and communications around them was vital. From December 2012, two separate offers of either print or digital content were replaced with a bundle of both, with a view to hitting that 80% take-up target, while still offering both options to people.”
Personalised URLs
The entire campaign was built on PURLs (personalised URLs), delivering incentives for new and returning customers but also carrying almost instant access for subscribers. The PURLs were flexible and reflected offer changes, as well as allowing checks and changes to the user journey where required.
The targeting for the campaigns used data collated by William Reed from its current and lapsed subscribers as well as a variety of alternative sales channels. Meanwhile, subscription management service ESco, along with its ecommerce provider, and St Ives – which provided additional digital campaign services – set about the task. Finally, Google Analytics was used to track various segments’ interactions with the PURLs.
Clay continued: “William Reed focused on customers’ main point of similarity: the type of relationship they had with the title, as well as job title and seniority. But a new element was looking at previous ecommerce customers and using that to derive ‘lookalikes’ within the database who we could target.”
Following this segmentation, the next step was creating an offer matrix that targeted content at specific segments, intended to be deal clinchers once recipients reached their PURL. Content was distributed using a mix of email and direct mail, directing people to a PURL, complete with targeted content. Clay said: “This was the first time our marketing was specifically focused on people who are proven to use ecommerce. It sounds simple but took a while to develop so we – and William Reed – were pleased with the results. Above all, when selling a product with a digital element, it’s critical to use digital techniques. Instant access to the product being offered along with campaign incentives is expected by recipients.”
Real-time results
The new streamlined ecommerce strategy allowed William Reed to send out the campaign and review the results in real-time. It also resulted in a simplified process for customers, from marketing to access to purchase, and reduced the barriers to buy, upgrade or renew.
With the additional help of ‘time-based’ special offers, The Grocer has seen conversions since the last campaign rise by 34%, and return on investment from 169% to more than 600%. Overall, the PURLs initiative exceeded all targets:
· 89% of single subscriptions were renewed to the bundled offer
· 92% of new subs were for the bundle
· Payment before expiry was increased from 77% to 84.4%
· Overall renewal rate for The Grocer increased by 1.2%
· 28% increase in The Grocer’s online transactions.
The campaign even picked up the award for Ecommerce Innovation of the Year, at the Professional Publishers’ Association’s awards.
Clay concluded: “This is a specific example of using ecommerce based on traditional direct marketing good practice. The PURLs enabled William Reed to transform the cold digital media of online ecommerce to a warmer, more welcoming, personalised environment for customers. Ultimately, the PURLs’ immediacy supported better marketing of a digital product and helped to migrate our ongoing customer relations online, for the benefit of all concerned.”
