Specialized information publishing
8 March 2010There are now many thousands of information publishing websites where once there were just a few – because, for most, the cost of entry into website publishing has dropped to almost zero.
But most of these specialist information publishers lack the vital ingredient: marketing.
Without marketing, those information websites will simply wither and die. Even big publishers with established marketing departments are finding it tough to make money through their websites. But they keep their websites going through vanity.
The specialized information publishing market
Marketing means more people will visit your website. Marketing means more people will register. Marketing means enough people will buy your products to bring in a good profit.
There are plenty of publishers who run highly successful and profitable websites. But you may not know which ones they are. Here’s a clue: the most successful websites are run by specialized information publishers.
Specialized information publishers
There are two types of specialized information markets for publishers. The first is the consumer market. A consumer newsletter is usually priced less than £60.
The subject of a consumer information product is more general in nature, such as investments, health and travel, or is aimed at a consumer special-interest group and is paid for by an individual.
Examples of consumer newsletters that you might recognize is The Kiplinger Washington Letter, thought to be the longest continually running newsletter, and Which? magazine, published in the UK.
The second specialized information publishing market is the business-to-business market. Products in this market generally contain very specific, niche information for a small audience, and are usually paid for by a business.
Examples of business-to-business subject matter would be telecommunications, business management (like the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter), energy, defense and healthcare, to name a few. High profit margins are the rule.
The B2B publishing market is where, mostly, the big money is made. Three of the most successful information publishers are:
The main membership organisation for specialized information publishers is the Specialized Information Publishers Association.
Click here for more information on the specialized information publishing market.
Specialized information publishing
Subscriptions Marketing Best Practice
19 February 2010Marketing Best Practice
The essential reference website for today’s website publisher
Our new Marketing Best Practice website covers each aspect of Internet marketing, email and online marketing and publishing, website marketing, magazine, newsletter, subscriptions and membership marketing, with illustrations showing how to apply each technique. Every kind of promotion and all aspects of subscriptions marketing are included:
Internet, online, email and web marketing
Paid content
Website business models, subscription and other
Home page copy
Landing page tests
Sign-up form – best practice
Maximising the capture of your website visitors
Creating an autoresponder programme to convert website registrants into subscribers
Email marketing
Copywriting: creating responsive sales messages for your home page
Subscriber upgrade, renewals and billing series
Handling design issues
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Direct mail
Creating your first direct mail subscription promotion
The 14 vital ingredients
The letter – copy and format rules
The envelope – when to print
Publishers lift letter – response figures
Premium gifts – which ones are hot
Creating and testing your ‘control pack’
The order form – how it should work
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscriptions and off-the-page advertisements
The headline
Copywriting for ads
Using visual techniques
Design – the crucial factor
The coupon – avoiding mistakes
Ensuring your advertisement stands out
Using ‘hooks’ to gain attention
Off-the-page premium gifts
Format
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription marketing leaflets and card inserts
Creating copy in miniature
Design – where most cards fail
Response rates – what to expect
Media – the rarely used opportunities
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription sales letters
The most powerful headline ever created
The famously effective ‘long letter’
Involvement devices that work
Body copy – talking success
The PS and headline – when not to use them
Sub heads, margin notes and coloured inks
Personalisation – when to use it
Where to put the company logo
Paper – what stock to use
Format and typography
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscriptions sales brochure
The brochure- creative approaches
Innovative designs
The brochure message – what it’s for
Involvement devices to boost response
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Publishers subscription marketing tips and techniques
Creating a billing series – copy and templates
Tested response boosters from 10% to 50%
Timing – avoiding common errors
The five kinds of testimonial
The hierarchy of benefit – a new invention you can use
Soft Vs hard offers
The free-trial offer
Using discounts
Three free issues
The billing sequence
Premiums – creating them
The free prize draw
Payment methods
Money-back guarantees
Speed premiums and time limits
The two-stage subscription offer
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Rule of thumb subscriptions marketing budgets for publishers
Financial rules of thumb
Creating budgets from scratch
Setting and hitting financial targets
Calculating the value of a subscriber
Return On Investment targets
Lifting profitability
Increasing subscription and membership rates painlessly
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription marketing for publishers
Identifying a market
Planning the launch
Increasing market share
Overcoming competitors
The five year plan
Price testing to greater profitability
Easy ways to overcome the price barrier
Variables – profitability vs volume
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription renewals and upgrades
Creating an effective upgrade series, with copy and design templates
Cross selling and up selling for publishers
Techniques for increasing renewal rates
Subscription enewal at inception
Subscription renewal at birth
Separating the men from the boys
When to start your series
The best renewal series ever
Using incentives – and when not to
Testing renewal letters
Successful renewal carriers
The do-nothing renewal
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription copywriting
How to start – 14 steps to great copy
The concept – understanding and influencing your audience
The proposition – your prime benefit
Tips from the great copywriters
Determining your Unique Selling Point
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Media planning and buying
Selecting best lists before you mail
Choosing between loose inserts or advertisements
On-pack promotions – arranging and creating copy
Using an agency
Own media
Saving money on media
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Subscription promotion design for publishers
Effective design formats
Attention grabbing devices
Using illustrations
Why slick doesn’t sell
Using colour
Fonts and typefaces
Impact – the secret weapon
Response-boosting tips
20 years of unique subscriptions experience
The information and procedures contained on the Marketing Best Practice website have been accumulated over 30 years of launching and publishing subscriptions-based titles, both consumer and business.
As well as completely revised and up-dated material from the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter, we have added a great deal of new information and the latest subscriptions marketing innovations. This information is exclusive and not available from any other source. Every relevant question of principle has been asked, considered and answered undefined with a managing director’s, publisher’s and marketer’s view of profitability in mind.
Every piece of subscription and website marketing advice has been tested, regardless of cost. Much information is known only to the most experienced subscriptions publishers – and rarely, if ever, given away!
8-second index
As publishers ourselves, we know you have little time to read material not immediately relevant to your day-to-day work. The members index feature will enable you to locate all there is to say on the subject in about 8 seconds. Here is an example:
CREATING AN ADVERTISEMENT
Instructions on how to create an advertisement: refer to it when planning your next promotion. Each piece of advice will improve response by at least 10%. We explain each technique and how to use it, with important points cross-referenced to other chapters, such as:
- Illustrated procedures
Each chapter is illustrated with example promotions that have achieved high levels of response. Guidance is given on how to construct each aspect of the promotion: the headline, body copy, coupon, offer, premium, ‘attention hooks’, pictures, illustrations and design.
- The headline and first paragraph
This describes how the first paragraph should read and how it gives the headline. Instructions are given on how copy is created and why perfect grammar is never the first consideration. The 14 point checklist is used to improve the finished effort.
- Creating the concept
The concept is the primary motor that drives copy — and the main element that makes or breaks the promotion. Readers learn how to create the kind of concept that will drive the promotion to the highest possible response levels.
- Testimonials
The five different kinds of testimonial are given, and how each effects the reader. Instructions are given on how to obtain testimonials that communicate the benefits of the publication. We introduce an effective new method, invented by us, that doesn’t require the participation of a reader.
- Getting an immediate response
Speeding up response also has the effect of increasing response. We give four different ways to persuade prospects to subscribe immediately – a device that is omitted from around 99% of all subscription promotions.
If you do not discover at least 10 techniques worth at least £1,000 each in the Marketing Best Practice website, we will refund all money paid. This is an unlimited guarantee.
Test-drive the Marketing Best Practice website today with our 7-day risk-free trial
Paid content and silly surveys
17 December 2009What will consumers pay for content?
The number of surveys to date that we know of is eight.
Eight silly surveys and a total waste of money.
This kind of hypothetical ‘Would you pay?’ question isn’t suitable for a general survey and it isn’t really valid for any kind of discussion forum.
In marketing, the technical term for this kind of discussion is: ‘a total wast of time’. Sorry to lapse into jargon there!
Any direct marketer can tell you how to test the ‘paid content’ premise for any media that exists. You simply do what a scientist would do and test the premise.
This area of marketing is a science and there is no place for theory unless you have plenty of time and someone else’s money to spend.
8 paid content surveys
Here is a summary of the list of surveys to date. You can see the whole article at www.paidcontent.co.uk with links at:
—PCUK/Harris Poll: five percent of 1,888 UK adults said they would pay if their favourite online newspaper began charging
—Gfk: 18 percent of UK adults in international survey of 16,800 said they would pay for “content”, ie. “news, entertainment and information sites such as Wikipedia”.
—Continental: 37 percent of 500 UK adults said they would pay micropayment, larger fee or monthly/annual sub for online newspaper/mag.
—Olswang/YouGov: 19 percent of 1,013 UK adults and 536 teens said they would make micropayments frequently, a subscription or otherwise pay for news articles online, on mobile or ereaders if there was no free alternative.
—Oliver and Ohlbaum: 15 to 20 percent of respondents to a survey of 2,600 UK consumers said they would pay £2 a month for their favourite news website if it was the only one that charged.
—Forrester: 19 percent of 4,711 US consumers said they would make micropayment, pay a sub or buy a bundled print/web/mobile package for online newspaper.
—Boston Consulting Group: 48 percent of 5,083 regular internet users in nine countries, including 506 in UK, said they would pay for online news.
—KPMG: 11 percent of 1,037 people aged 16 and over “currently spend anything on online media” – findings vary for different media types).
Paid content survey summary
The mean proportion of consumers who would pay for online content is 21.8 percent.
Paid content advice from Subscriptions Strategy
Here is what we recommend: discover how many and how much people will pay by running a simple test. It would cost far less than any of these silly ‘surveys’!
To keep up to date with marketing news and comment, follow our group on twitter:
Twitter marketing group for publishers
Subscription site benchmark report 2010
13 December 2009New! Save GB £30 / US $50.00 on Practical Research to Grow Subscription Site Profits
New — the first 100% research-based guide for subscription, membership and paid content sites.
Discover what social media and marketing tactics are working as you learn about online subscription trends, best practices, pricing models and conversion rates across all kinds of markets.
185-charts of real-life business data with 389 real-life site execs revealing their own numbers including:
• B2B, consumer publishing, dating, dieting, news, hobby, games, video, & financial sites
• Pricing trends, conversion rates, renewal stats
• What’s working in marketing (and what’s not)
• Hybrid model info, including ad sales
• Typical profits, time-to-profit, and how to lift profits
Click here to learn more:
Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
Who Will Find This Report Very Useful:
* Subscription site publishers who want research-based advice on tactics to improve revenues this fiscal quarter. * Ad-based online publishers considering adding (or switching to) a subscription model to add to revenues. * eBook publishers considering transitioning to a subscription model to generate steadier, ongoing revenues from your subject matter expertise. * Membergate publishers who want to see how they stack up against their peers. * Traditional print media executives who want to get more aggressive in the online space – without taking unnecessary risks. * Private equity considering investments who want reality-based forecasting data.How Our Exclusive, Practical Research Was Gathered:
389 real-life subscription site executives took extensive surveys for this Report (thank you!) and revealed everything from what’s working in marketing, how profitable their sites are, and their sales conversion rates. Respondents included 175 Membergate publishers and 87 SIPA members, as well as executives from many of the biggest subscription sites in the world.
Plus, SubscriptionSiteInsider.com’s research team conducted an observational study of 550 subscription sites — including B2B and consumer sites of all sizes — examining everything from their search marketing results to their site design, traffic, and pricing structures.
Lastly, more than 100 industry vendors, consultants, financiers, and third party researchers agreed to share their data — often exclusively — with us to help make this Benchmark Report the most comprehensive resource possible.
All in all, you’ll find 185 charts, tables and illustrations. (See below for a detailed Table of Contents!)
Table of Contents: 185 Charts, Tables & Illustrations on Subscription Sites
Based largely on three new SubscriptionSiteInsider.com studies, the Benchmark Report features more exclusive, NEW data on subscription sites than any other source on the planet. If the data’s not here, it probably doesn’t exist (yet.) Here’s what your copy includes:
Click here to learn more:
Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
CHAPTER ONE: Subscription & Membership Site Industry — Profits & Challenges
Part I. Show Me the Money
-> Current Financial Data
TABLE 1.01: Subscription Revenues of Named Sites and Service Providers
TABLE 1.02: US Consumer Spending on Paid Internet Content: 2009 VSS Estimate
CHART 1.02: Typical Annual Profits Reported by Profitable Subscription Site Execs
CHART 1.03: Typical Annual Profits Reported by Profitable Subscription Site Execs: B2B vs B2C
CHART 1.04: Typical Annual Profits Reported by Profitable Membergate Sites
CHART 1.05: Launch-to-Profitability Timeframe for Profitable Subscription Sites
CHART 1.06: Launch-to-Profitability Timeframe: B2B vs B2C Profitable Subscription Sites
CHART 1.07: Non-Sub Site Publishers Estimate Sub Site Build Costs
CHART 1.08: Non-Sub Site Publishers Estimate New Sub Site Breakeven Timing
-> Historic Financial Data
CHART 1.09: US Consumer Spending on Online Content 2001-2005 By Quarter
CHART 1.10: US Online Content Spending by Category of Content, 2004-2005
CHART 1.11: US Ratio of Single Purchases to Subscription Sales by Content Category, 2005
CHART 1.12: US Paid Content Consumer Growth by Average Annual Spend, 2005
CHART 1.13: US Paid Content Consumer Growth by Market Penetration, 2005
TABLE 1.03: US Adults Online Content Purchasing Habits: September 2007
TABLE 1.04: Internet Publishing & Broadcasting —Estimated Revenue & Expenses 2004-2006
TABLE 1.05: US Electronic Shopping & Mail-Order Houses – Total & Ecommerce Sales by Merchandise: 2006-2007
Part II. Types of Sites & Content Offered
CHART 1.14: Internet Pureplay vs. Mixed Offline & Online Offerings
CHART 1.15: Content Features Offered on Typical Advisory/Guru/Coaching Subscription Sites
CHART 1.16: Content Features Offered on Typical Connecting People/Dating Subscription Sites
CHART 1.17: Content Features Offered on Typical Entertainment Subscription Sites
CHART 1.18: Content Features Offered on Typical Instructional/Training/Course Subscription Sites
CHART 1.19: Content Features Offered on Typical Directory/Database Subscription Sites
CHART 1.20: Content Features Offered on Typical News/Specialized Journalism Subscription Sites
CHART 1.21: Subscription Sites Offering Email and/or Mobile Editions
CHART 1.22: User-Generated Content on a Typical Advisory/Guru/Coaching Subscription Site
CHART 1.23: User-Generated Content on a Typical Dating/Networking Subscription Site
CHART 1.24: User-Generated Content on a Typical Entertainment Subscription Site
CHART 1.25: User-Generated Content on a Typical Instructional/Training Subscription Site
CHART 1.26: User-Generated Content on a Typical Directory/Database Subscription Site
CHART 1.27: User-Generated Content on a Typical News/Specialized Journalism Subscription Site
Part III. Biggest Challenges for Subscription Sites Currently
CHART 1.28: Subscription Executives Name Their Site’s Biggest Barriers to Success
CHART 1.29: Subscription Executives Name Their Site’s Biggest Barriers to Success: B2B vs. B2C
CHART 1.30: Weakness Most Subscription Sites Need To Fix: Vendors Speak Out
CHART 1.31: Top Business Challenges Reported by SIPA Members Publishing Subscription Sites
CHAPTER TWO: Subscription Site Audience & Traffic
-> Consumers and Online Content
CHART 2.01: If Facebook Charged $1.99 per Month, Would You Pay?
CHART 2.02: If Facebook Charged $4.99 per Month, Would You Pay?
CHART 2.03: Apple “i” Users Upgrade Pattern: Free Upgrade vs. $10 Upgrade
TABLE 2.01: US Content Subscription Adoption by Consumer Age Group, 2007
CHART 2.04: Is Online Content You Paid for Higher Quality Than Free Content?
Chart 2.05: Likeliness to Buy an Online Video Subscription: Business Professionals Ages 45-63
CHART 2.06: Subscription Services Business Professionals Ages 45-63 Are Most Likely To Cancel
CHART 2.07: US Consumers Time Spent With Online Content vs Other Online Activities, 2008-2009
CHART 2.08: US Consumer Page Views of Online Content vs Other Types of Sites, 2008-2009
CHART 2.09: Unique US Visitors Per Month to Content Sites vs Other Sites, 2008-2009
CHART 2.10: US Consumers’ Sources for Personal Financial Information
-> Consumers and the News Media
CHART 2.11: Time Spent Per Week Reading Internet Newspapers, 2007-2008
CHART 2.12: If Your Print Newspaper Went Online, Would You Visit More?
CHART 2.13: Loyalists as a % of Typical Newspaper Site Unique Visitors
CHART 2.14: Loyalists as a % of Typical Newspaper Site Page Views Per Month
TABLE 2.02: Favored Local News Sources by US Age-Group, 2009
CHART 2.15: Consumer Preferences, Offline vs Online Media: Fall 2009
CHART 2.16: Online News Consumption by Household Income, 2008
TABLE 2.03: Increasing Consumer Criticism of Press Accuracy
-> Real-life 2009 Subscription Site Traffic
CHART 2.17: Total Traffic of 550 Observed Subscription Sites, 2009
CHART 2.18: Unique Visitors of 550 Observed Subscription Sites: Percent B2B vs B2C
CHART 2.19: Golden Oldies: Traffic Stats of Classic Sub Sites Still Going Strong
CHART 2.20: Dating Sites Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.21: Dieting Sites Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.22: Subscription Sites Connecting Friends/Colleagues: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.23: Music Subscription Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.24: Movie Subscription Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.25: Top Online Game Subscriptions: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.26: Fantasy Sports Fan Subscription Offers : Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.27: Greeting Card Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.28: Real Estate Info Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.29: Consumer Credit Rating Sites Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.30: Reference Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
CHART 2.31: General B2B Interest Sub Sites: Hoovers vs Payscale
CHART 2.32: Get Rich on the Internet Sites: Unique Monthly Traffic
TABLE 2.04: Traffic to a Typo (Rhapsody vs. Rhaposdy)
Click here to learn more:
Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
CHAPTER THREE: Marketing Subscriptions
ILLUSTRATION 3.01: The Online Content Subscription Conversion Funnel
ILLUSTRATION 3.02: Subscription Brand Awareness Impact: The Ease of Conversion Ladder
TABLE 3.01: Example of Multiyear Profitability: 5 Years from Initial Campaign
CHART 3.01: Common Marketing Tactics Used by 550 Observed Subscription Sites
CHART 3.02: SIPA-Member Subscription Sites Rate Marketing Tactics by Results
TABLE 3.02: Upcoming Marketing Budget Changes Projected by SIPA-Member Subscription Sites
CHART: 3.04 How Membergate Site Publishers Differ From Other Publishers: Marketing Tactics
-> Online Tactics to Market Online Subscriptions
CHART 3.05: Subscription Site Execs Rate Effectiveness of Online Marketing Tactics
CHART 3.06: Percent of Subscription Sites Using Common Online Marketing Tactics
CHART 3.07: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Dating Subscription Sites
CHART 3.08: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Personal Investment Subscription Sites
CHART 3.09: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Personal Investment Subscription Sites
CHART 3.10: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Personal-Business Subscription Sites
CHART 3.11: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Dieting Subscription Sites
CHART 3.12: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Fan Club Subscription Sites
CHART 3.13: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Entertainment Subscription Sites
CHART 3.14: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Hobby-Topic Subscription Sites
CHART 3.15: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Get Rich Online Subscription Sites
CHART 3.16: Online Marketing Tactics Used by Health-related Subscription Sites
CHART 3.17: Online Marketing Tactics Used by B2B Trade Subscription Sites
CHART 3.18: Percent of Subscription Sites with Aggressive Search Marketing
CHART 3.19: High SEO Sites Offering Free Content without Registration
CHART 3.20: Percent of Observed Subscription Sites With High SEO Rankings
CHART 3.21: Subscription Sites With SEO Success — by Topic
CHART 3.22: Subscription Sites Actively Using Google AdWords— by Content Topic
CHART 3.23: Surveyed SIPA Subscription Site Execs ‘Unsure’ of SEM-Driven Revenues
TABLE 3.03: Top Referring Sites & Unique Traffic for High-profile Subscription Sites, Sept 2009
CHART 3.24: Sub Site Execs Rate Social Media Marketing Effectiveness
CHART 3.25: Percent of Sub Sites Using Common Social Media Marketing Tactics
CHART 3.26: Social Media Marketing Tactics Used: B2B vs. Consumer Sub Sites
CHART 3.27: Sub Site Execs rate Effectiveness of Email Rentals & Co-Reg
CHART 3.28: Percent of Sub Sites Using Email List Rentals & Co-Reg
CHART 3.29: Email List/Co-Reg Outreach Used: B2B vs. Consumer Sub Sites
-> Offline Tactics to Market Online Subscriptions
CHART 3.30: Sub Site Execs Rate Effectiveness of Offline Marketing Tactics
CHART 3.31: Percent of Sub Sites Using Offline Marketing
CHART 3.32: Offline Marketing Tactics Used: B2B vs. Consumer Sub Sites
CHART 3.33: Broadcast TV & Cable Advertising Expenditures: US Dating Sites Jan-Sept. 2008
CHART 3.34: Upcoming Offline Tests Planned By SIPA-Member Subscription Sites
-> Site Design & Marketing
ILLUSTRATION 3.03: Content-Focused “Editorial” Subscription Site Homepage Style
ILLUSTRATION 3.04: Longform Letter-style Subscription Site Homepage Style (left)
ILLUSTRATION 3.05: Promotional Conversion-Focused Subscription Site Homepage Style
CHART 3.35: Homepage Style By Site Topic: Consumer Sites
CHART 3.36: Homepage Style By Site Topic: Business Sites
CHART 3.37: Homepage Style for Subscription Sites with Very Low Traffic
CHART 3.38: Homepage Style for Subscription Sites with Very High Traffic
CHART 3.39: Homepage Style by High vs. Low Inbound Links
TABLE 3.04: Percent of Total Site Traffic to Subscription Info: Forbes, Fool, Yahoo
ILLUSTRATION 3.06: Fool.com Homepage With Subscription-Driving Tab
CHART 3.40: Impact of Landing Page Tests on Conversion Rates: General Web Marketers
CHART 3.41: Online Test Effectiveness Rated by SIPA-Member Subscription Sites
CHART 3.42: Online Tests Used by SIPA-Member Subscription Sites
CHART 3.43: Tests Used by Subscription Sites to Maximize Profits
CHART 3.44: Tests Used by Membergate Subscription Site Publishers vs Others
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Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
CHAPTER FOUR: Offers, Pricing, Terms & Conversions
-> Conversions
CHART 4.01: Reported Subscription Site Conversion Rates: As a Percent of Monthly Unique Traffic
CHART 4.02: Subscription Site Conversion Rates as a Percent of Unique Traffic: Membergate Publishers vs Others
CHART 4.03: Conversion Trends Reported by SIPA-Member Sites 2008-09
TABLE 4.01: Named-Subscription Site Conversion Metrics as Reported in the Media
-> Lead Generation Marketing & Trials
CHART 4.04: Registration Required for Free Content Access by Site Topic
ILLUSTRATION 4.01: Suggested Method of Getting Email Opt-ins With Fewer Errors
CHART 4.05: Percent of Observed Subscription Sites Offering Online Trials
CHART 4.06: Types of Trials Offered Online by Observed Subscription Sites
CHART 4.07: Most Popular Copywriting for Various Trial Lengths (3 charts)
TABLE 4.02: Most Popular Trial Term Lengths
ILLUSTRATION 4.02: Price Increases & Demand Fall-Off: The Humps of Reality
TABLE 4.03: US Subscription Site Pricing By Topic & Subscription Term
TABLE 4.04: US Subscription Site Pricing By Service Type & Subscription Term
CHART 4.08: Price Testing Tactics Used (Or Not) by Subscription Sites
CHART 4.09: Price Tests Used by Subscription Sites: B2B vs B2C
CHART 4.10: Price Testing: Membergate Subscription Publishers vs Others
-> Subscription Terms & Renewals
CHART 4.11: Most Frequently Offered Online Subscription Terms
CHART 4.12: Percent of Sites Offering More Than One Term Length-Option, B2B v. B2C
CHART 4.13: If Monthly vs. Annual Terms Are Offered: What Percent of Subscribers Choose Each?
CHART 4.14: Monthly Online Subscription Account Average Lifetime
ILLUSTRATION 4.03: Monthly Subscription Account Lifetime as “Leaky Buckets”
CHART 4.15: Annual Online Subscription Account Average Renewal Rate
CHART 4.16: Renewal Rate Trends Reported by SIPA-Member Sites 2008-09
CHART 4.17: Typical Subscription Billing Credit Card Declines in 2009: Monthly vs Annual
CHART 4.18 B2B Sites Offering Groups/Site Licenses
CHART 4.19: Group Online Subscription Average Renewal Rate
ILLUSTRATION 4.04: How Renewal Rates May Rise Over Account Lifetime
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Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
CHAPTER FIVE: Hybrid Models & Ancillary Sales
CHART 5.01: Non-Subscription Revenues of Hybrid Sites: Typical Percent of Total Sales
CHART 5.02: Types of Non-Subscription Revenue Sources for Hybrid Model Sites
CHART 5.03: Hybrid Model Sites Observed: Visible Ancillary Offerings by Site Topic
CHART 5.04: Hybrid Publishers Rate Revenues From Specific Non-Subscription Sources
ILLUSTRATION 5.01: Example AdSense-Supported Niche Topic Site: MyFederalRetirement.com
CHART 5.05: Additional Revenue Sources Reported by SIPA-Member Subscription Sites
TABLE 5.01: Sales Changes for SIPA-Member Subscription Site Publishers’ Revenue Streams 2008-9
TABLE 5.02: A Sampling of Subscription Email Newsletter Lists Currently on the Rental Market
ILLUSTRATION 5.02: Co-Registration Offers Appearing During Registration Process: Away.com
CHART 5.06: B2B Trade Subscription Sites Selling Event Tickets: Real-World vs. Virtual
ILLUSTRATION 5.03: Webinar Sponsorship Media Kit Sample
ILLUSTRATION 5.04: Example Virtual Trade Show Homepage — Forbes iConferences
CHART 5.07: Non-Sub Site Publishers’ Attitudes Toward Selling Ads on Paid Sub Sites
ILLUSTRATION 5.05: Advertising Media Kit for a Subscription Site – Ancestry
ILLUSTRATION 5.06: US Advertising vs Marketing Spending: 2006-2009
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Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
CHAPTER SIX: M&As, Launches & Other Investments
TABLE 6.01: Selected Past M&As of Note
CHART 6.01: M&A and Expansion Investments Under Consideration by Subscription Sites
CHART 6.02: M&A and Expansion Investments Under Consideration by Subscription Sites: B2B vs. B2C
CHART 6.03: M&A and Expansion Investments Under Consideration by Membergate Sites
CHART 6.04: Non-Sub Site Media Executives Considering M&As/Investing in Sub Sites
CHART 6.05: Launches Per Year: Observed Subscription Sites 1990 Through Mid-2009
CHART 6.06: Non-Sub Site Publishers’ Interest in Launching a Paid Subscription Site
CHART 6.07: Minimum Profits Non-Sub Site Publishers Require to Consider Launching One
CHART 6.08: Publishers’ Reasons for Not Launching a Subscription Site
CHART 6.09: Non-Sub Site Executives’ View of Potential Sub Site Exit Strategies
CHART 6.10: Subscription Sites Considering Going on the Block
CHART 6.11: Subscription Sites Considering Going on the Block: B2B vs. B2C
CHART 6.12: Membergate Sites Considering Selling Out
CHART 6.13: Truth Beyond 2009’s Hype on Subscription Sites: Vendors Speak Out
OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH DETAILS
LIST 7.01 Brand Names of 550 Subscription Sites Examined by SubscriptionSiteInsider.com
TABLE 7.01 Topics of 550 Subscription Services Examined by SubscriptionSiteInsider.com
TABLE 7.02 Types of 550 Subscription Services Examined by SubscriptionSiteInsider.com
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Subscription & Membership Site Benchmark Report
Media Week closes - no classified advertising
17 November 2009
h2. Media magazines have terminal problems
Media Week was launched around 1984/5: ‘media’ had separated to become a huge budget area for companies – and advertising agencies were dividing to specialise.
Tim Brooks, Media Week’s editor, and the publishers were ahead of their time, but unlike their close rivals Marketing Week, had overlooked and misunderstood an important revenue source: classified advertising.
Which publishers and editors often do.
The original idea for Media Week was being touted around to prospective investors around 1981. The idea was to achieve a broad advertising base to take on The Guardian. The Guardian in the 80s was taking the Mickey by carrying ten or more pages of media vacancies supported by just one page of editorial. (These days, most newspapers write lots about the media but don’t carry much advertising).
Media Week has always struggled, like the Press Gazette. Media Week became just a body, passed from one company to another, motivation to motivation, make-over to make-over. It has never been able to exist alone, never earned its own pay packet, always relying on others for support. Why? It’s a great idea, looks good too. But if we hark back to its parents we find neither Media Week (nor Press Gazette) were ever able to take their rightful place in the world.
Media Week failed because the young turks who originated the concept and touted the idea to prospective investors back in 1980 had inserted a ‘poison pill’ in their launch plans in case the idea was ‘borrowed’ and launched without them by a prospective investor. Which it was. Publishing isn’t a pretty business.
Ripped from its natural parents, Media Week became a foster child. And like Press Gazette, isolated from proper medical (marketing) attention.
And so it struggled, never to reach maturity and died as a child …
Why subscription marketing?
17 November 2009All the current hot discussions on website business models, paid content, converting free-to-paid magazines, charging for news audience development etc., come back to one thing: subscriptions marketing.
Those discussions are similar in scope to the economists, accountants and bankers who, until recently, forecast continual growth. Now, of course, we are well into a long, scary recession and everyone knows they got it wrong.
But, despite all that, I see that financial and economic forecasts are creeping back into mainstream media on the assumption that readers have forgotten that they were massively misled just a few months ago by the very same people.
You just cannot tell what an audience will do or how they will react.
Publishers, meanwhile, are busy debating the popular subjects listed above – free-to-paid, paid content, new revised business models etc. – which is really all about three things:
1. Their business models are wrong
2. They have run out of money
3. They should have monetised editorial content years ago
What every publisher knows
Every publisher knows advertisement revenue falls during a recession by up to 40% or thereabouts. The difference this time is that no-one thinks that revenue will come back: it’s going – gone – to the Internet.
As so many companies in other markets have discovered – publishing, oil, motor, property, banking – no business can lose a large percentage of income without serious damage. Not unless they have an effective survival strategy that prepares them for future changes.
So why subscription marketing?
Subscription marketing has the answers, because it’s all about maximising long-term income from your target audience. The debate about paid content and free-to-paid is mostly unnecessary because a series of tests within a market is all that’s needed to answer the two vital questions.
Go here to see our new website and read the full article:
Come on Cosmo!
12 November 2009
Cosmo free e-letter sign-ups have just jumped from 30,000 to 84,399. But it took them 11 months to send a subscription promotion out!
Cosmopolitan’s new email promotions
Illustrated in issue 76 of the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter is the first Cosmopolitan subscription promotion we have seen since we registered on the site in October 2008 — it took 11 months for NatMags to send one out.
A pretty weak promotion – and very late!
Cosmo is a great brand. We think it could have a much wider circulation and has been held back.
Glamour, Conde Nast’s rival to Cosmo, has a total circulation of 526,145. Cosmo has a circulation of 441,663 – 84,482 fewer.
How Cosmo loses money
What’s 84,482 extra sales worth to Cosmo?
In newstrade revenue, 84,482 means a loss of £1.4 million
In subscription revenue 84,482 means a loss of £3.34 million
And you have to account for all that extra advertisement revenue the extra 19 per cent in circulation brings in.
Things are changing though, with some deft marketing touches. Cosmopolitan’s sign-up page now has our best-practice standard of five fields (see our marketing best practice website). It has also added four ‘benefits’ under ‘main reasons to register’.
The copy isn’t strong but overall it’s not bad going: last year we reported the sign-up page had 24 fields to complete just to receive its free newsletter! That’s a small clue to why sign-ups have since increased. Someone there is reading our newsletter.
Things could improve a lot with more of that ‘best practice’ marketing. Now let’s check on the money and how much is being lost while we wait.
How discounting affects Cosmopolitan’s profit
Cosmopolitan’s overall subscription sale has grown from 38,491 in 2007 to 55,813 in 2009, a 45 per cent increase, which is impressive.
If all those copies were sold at the basic annual rate of £39.60, revenue would be £2,210,195. But Cosmopolitan sells 32,527 (58 per cent) at an average discount of 54 per cent below the annual subscription rate.
Cosmo is losing more than £696,000 a year by discounting.
Cosmo’s ‘average discount’ includes promotions like the one illustrated in issue 76 of our newsletter, selling at 62 per cent off the basic price. Some of Cosmopolitan’s promotions sell at £12 – a 70 per cent discount.
Ten years ago, Cosmo was selling just 121 copies below 50 per cent.
The Web Wars
2 November 2009
Our ongoing qualitative survey of marketing budgets and policy among our 400 registered marketers is not statistically perfect. Responses are personal and mostly from the bigger publishers. But they reveal an underlying marketing problem – you can hear a whiff of desperation in the words.
We ask our readers: “Let us know what you think about budgets and policy etc. and how you think it should be run”.
Answers tend to be repetitive and follow a pattern. Here are summaries of answers to date:
• Our budgets do not look far enough ahead to cover ‘lifetime value’.
• Budgets are run on a single year basis rather than payback in year 2, 3 or 4
• Lifetime value of a sub is not accounted for, e.g. ancillary sales, upgrades etc
• We include the cost of producing and fulfilling copies in our costs
• No, we do not reinvest – it’s booked as revenue and taken away
• Cost of production and fulfilment feature as service/ marketing costs of a campaign.
• Profits are not invested
The quotes above reveal the problems publishers and marketers face in their work to build subscribers and market share. The marketers’ job is to find where the money is and bring it in. Budgeting policy, however, seems to work against this.
‘Go where the money is.’
That ‘money’ rule is used in cost-based management accounting, following the principle:
‘The highest potential for overall cost reduction is found where the highest costs are incurred.’
During a recession, cost reduction becomes more important than creativity and investment. And nowhere is pressure stronger than on a publisher’s websites. So many are losing money that radical changes are afoot – mostly changes in strategy that will involve getting users to pay their way.
The days of the free website are numbered.
But cost cutting and creative development can work together: you can reduce costs while increasing efficiency and market penetration. In a street market a man running a stall losing 40 per cent of sales year-on-year opens a website selling the most popular items and nullifies the loss.
The first rule is to go where the money is. And the money has moved from traditional media – advertising pages are dropping by up to 40 per cent year on year.
This isn’t just because of the recession – it’s a future trend. That is clear when you find out the money is going to the Internet.
In the first six months of 2009, Internet advertising spend was £1.7 billion in the UK and rising. On TV it was £1.6 billion and dropping. Most of the Internet spend was on search engine ads, and classified ads account for 22 per cent of the total.
What do we learn from the above figures? First, it’s that companies are advertising on the Internet because people are spending their money there. And the media pundits simply haven’t worked out these four things:
1. Money is moving from display to classified advertising
2. Money is moving into direct marketing
3. No major publishing MD has worked in classified
4. No major publishing MD has worked in direct marketing
That explains why the publishing industry is in trouble.
The current issue of the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter (Issue 76) shows how some publishers small and large have pulled out of danger with successful paid-content website business models.
The casualties of the Web Wars
As for most big publishers – they are fighting for survival on the Internet battlefields and hiding their web losses within their overall company publishing figures.
The crazy thing is that one of the first cost-cutting exercises these publishers make is to cut back on marketing budgets and personnel, the front line troops.
The Web Wars are being fought by business leaders who are out of touch with today’s customers.
The Web Wars will see plenty of casualties, but not through the rough and tumble of competition: it’s because of leadership problems and ignorance.
A quote from The Times newspaper about the Afghan war gives the problem and solution (the one in 1854, that is. Different war, same problem – leadership):
“No excuse will be admitted against immediately superseding in their commands those who have proved themselves to be incapable of performing the duties to which favour, seniority or mistake has advanced them. Let every officer be sent home who is not thoroughly up to his work”.
Interestingly, out of the 50,000 British soldiers in that Afghan war, 16,000 died of sickness not related to fighting, mostly due to poor hygiene. That was the war Florence Nightingale introduced her methods. She nearly didn’t go because the doctors tried to stop her.
Even though the solution is clear, someone will always try to stop you.
It’s a marketing problem, stupid
Stephen Hawking defined intelligence as ‘the capacity to adapt to a changing environment’.
And he was adapting Darwin’s theory of evolution.
But it’s important for publishers to differentiate between the effects of:
1. A global economic downturn 2. Radical change in the marketplace because of the wider use of the InternetWhat money there is, is moving away from traditional media.
Marketing is, after all, a simple case of following people to see where they go and then selling them what they want.
Changes in where the money is going call for all-out creativity and risk-taking to reinvent ourselves, to take maximum advantage of developing technological and market-driven forces. A recession calls for a company-wide focus on effectiveness of expenditure.
Change means not letting up on new product development. In tough times, existing products seem to move from ‘launch’ to ‘mature’ to ‘dying’ faster. That old revenue has to be replaced, as Darwin would say if he was reading this.
Publishers, accountants, doctors and bank robbers
The saying ‘Go where the money is’ was invented by a famous American bank robber, Willie Sutton. It’s known as Sutton’s Law.
Sutton’s Law is also used in medicine: ‘First do the experiment that can confirm the most likely diagnosis.’
It’s all to do with being effective. But what Sutton actually said was:
‘Go where the money is – and go there often.’
Sutton recognised the need to go back for more. But, following the principle laid down by the accountants, if they ran a farm they would cut the cost of feeding the chickens – it’s by far the biggest cost. Then the chickens would grow thin and stop laying eggs. Then the accountants would have to set a ‘future charge’ against disposal and burial costs and ‘outsource’ egg production to another farm.
Unfortunately, in real life, like down on the farm, once the accountants and doctors make their cuts, the damage has been done and there is no going back.
Marketing, thankfully, is a much more able discipline. In marketing, the equivalent, more useful law is: ‘First send out your strongest promotion to your best prospects.’ That way it’s got the best chance of working. You then have a ‘control’ and can track and compare the effect of your later promotions. You can keep going back for more.
In that respect, publishing is similar to bank robbery: we must keep going back to the source of the money. We must build a good, profitable customer base, renewing and selling to them as often as possible.
But many don’t. And many publishers who treat their subscribers as one-off or annual purchasers are now losing money.
These days we focus on direct marketing through the Internet, because that is where people are spending. Publishers must go where the money is, and that’s coming in through websites. The examples in the current issue of Subscriptions Strategy show how it’s done – and if your web operation isn’t profitable, then it’s getting a bit late.
Google - just another publisher
31 October 2009When publishers discuss Google, they are mostly concerned with search engine optimisation and copyright issues. They see Google as a way of distributing and publicising their web offerings, or as a competitor. Those publishers are missing the point.
In this extract from an article first published in the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter in January 2009, we look at why mainstream newspapers such as the Independent and the Sunday Times fail to make money from their websites – and how to turn things around through subscriptions marketing and classified advertising.
Google is a publisher
Because Google’s operation is digital and originates outside mainstream publishing, many publishers don’t realise that Google is a publisher just like themselves, and has pulled off the greatest classified advertising success story in history.
Luckily, we publishers can exploit that success for our own ends.
How Google got rich
The founders of Google became absurdly rich not just by inventing a different kind of search engine (others have done that and remain struggling) but also by exploiting the effectiveness and earnings potential of classified advertising. Any of the other search engines could have done the same, but didn’t. Likewise, any publisher could have done the same, but didn’t.
So what does Google do that others don’t?
It is both fascinating and puzzling to discover how novel Google’s approach is. Fascinating (to me, anyway) because it’s clear there are mountains of money to be earned through classified advertising – and puzzling because the majority of publishers just don’t get it.
Classified advertising sales
For those who don’t know, classified advertising sales (generally lineage and smaller ads bundled into subject categories) are usually consigned by traditional publishers to junior and ‘hard-nosed’ sales staff and managers. Classified is treated either as a training ground or somewhere to put people who can sell but don’t quite belong in the world of major advertising agencies and clients. When a new launch of a consumer title is announced, you won’t hear much talk of classified revenue. It’s just not seen as an important or mainstream field to work in.
The exception to the rule among big consumer publishers is the Guardian newspaper, where the managing director is appointed from a classified advertising background. Perhaps that is because the newspaper began as a regional publication in Manchester where classified advertising was always a major source of revenue. Whatever the reason, it’s why the Guardian makes so much money while other big media owners don’t.
The equivalent in the world of traditional advertising would be if the Independent newspaper began to carry lineage and other classified ads in the borders of editorial pages and developed editorial to match demand. The newspaper would suddenly break into enormous profit and overtake the Guardian. Instead, the Independent loses an estimated £10m a year.
Google as a classified publisher
Like most secrets of business success, the key to Google’s market mastery is both simple and cleverly hidden.
Google is just a classified publication, a digital version of a directory like the Yellow Pages. Google simply lists other publishers’ websites. Like the Yellow Pages, companies do not pay for their basic listing, only if they advertise.
Like Yellow Pages, Google distributes the pages of listings free, which guarantees a wide readership.
Google Adwords
Advertisers buy classified ads, Adwords, around the basic listings. Advertisers can also pay to place Adwords next to the content of the websites and even select which websites to advertise within. Advertisers pay not per insertion but according to the demand for space on the page from other advertisers in their market and the number of clicks they receive. Google works out how much this costs and advertisers pay each month. That is a nice arrangement for Google because it is in command of its revenue stream.
Google Adsense
Adsense is Google’s system of paying website publishers a cut for accepting ads on their website pages. The publisher is paid according to the number of clicks those ads receive.
So roughly how much money does it cost to place Adwords? How much money does a website publisher receive for accepting those Adsense advertisements?
The marvel is that, unlike a traditional publisher, Google publishes no fixed rate card for placing an advertisement. Nor do the website publishers receive a fixed rate for accepting Adsense words from Google. Google decides what it charges and pays as the whole show rolls along, ‘adjusting’ its automated systems to pay itself a proportion of ad revenue depending on the market and the demand.
Advertisement budgeting – unpredictable and erratic
From a budgeting point of view, life for advertisers is unpredictable. With Adwords, who knows what demand there will be from other advertisers in your market? With Adsense, who knows how many clicks you, as a publisher, will get and how much revenue will be forthcoming for the ads you accept on your site?
Most companies involved with Google simply ‘suck it and see’. But you can’t plan future income on that, because once you are up and running revenue changes with every market fluctuation.
As there is no fixed rate card for advertisements, nor a transparent way of auditing the number and quality of those clicks, it is not possible to plan income and expenditure ahead of the advertisement appearing. Google advertising therefore suits businesses that can monitor results day-to-day and those that can lever high margins from a fluctuating volume of enquiries.
How much does Google make?
Fortune, as they say, favours the prepared. The Google finance people don’t have any budgeting problems because they invented and are in total control of the system. They can forecast their income with extreme accuracy for years ahead, because they are the ones deciding how much to take as their cut. So how much does Google make?
Google made £925 million in advertising revenue in the UK in the first nine months of 2008 and is set to come in at about £1.25 billion for the year. A year ago it generated £871 million, so its UK annual growth is about 43.5 per cent.
If, as a publisher, you have always regarded classified advertising as the poor relation to display advertising, then you will be surprised to learn that between July and September Google generated £327 million during the three-month period – all from classified advertising. ITV1 earned an estimated £317 million in display advertising across the UK: £10 million less.*
*The Times newspaper analysisRevenue publishers continue to miss
The Google classified ads act like traditional display ads, running alongside and within editorial. The difference is that they are lineage rather than quarter, half and full pages.
Traditional publishers don’t see this advertising potential because they normally arrange their own classified ads in huge blocks at the back of their magazine, paper or website, not within the contents and editorial as Google does with Adwords and Adsense.
A traditional publisher will arrange his website with huge listings of ads in a separate section, all under ‘Classified’ subject headings. Advertisements are therefore only seen by people who are actually looking for an item, service or job at that time. In other words, advertisers have lost most of their potential market: impulse purchasers and those who realise or remember they need or want something when they come across the advertisement.
Publishers are not exploiting their information profitably. Many remain blinkered as to the revenue potential of Adsense. They argue that they don’t really want to run classified advertisements next to editorial, because it breaks up the page and is visually unattractive. And who wants to start an argument with the guys running the website?
Peter Hobday
Subscriptions Strategy
Website business models
23 October 2009Whatever model works (or doesn’t) for you, you need to constantly review your methods for creating more sales through your website. Unlike many aspects of direct marketing, website marketing is developing at a fast clip.
Why you must constantly review website tactics
The publishers in this issue of the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter test and change their techniques constantly to maximise market share and profit.
What, for example, should you carry on the home page? Most sites get this hopelessly wrong!
Paid content
How much editorial should you give away free? One of our example sites gives just a short summary – the rest is paid content. Others give away whole articles and utilises paid content to bring in memberships.
We give examples of both models and all are hugely successful websites. The paid content ‘extract only’ website has just been sold for £13m – we estimate it brings in 12m in subscription revenue.
Looking at detail
We don’t just provide an ‘overview’ of paid and free content models. You’ll get some important detail too.
For example, how do you construct your landing page, where the sale is closed? This in one of the main areas where most sales are won or lost, but also where you see the most common mistakes. The majority of websites, however, seem to think what they have is OK.
Where’s the marketing copy?
Some people believe all they need to do to sell a product is to put a description on the Internet and purchasers will send in money. These are the people who are now busy debating what kind of website model will cover their costs and earn back the money they squandered over the years.
How could anyone start a business without first getting the answers to these two vital questions: “How many customers will I get and what will they pay?”
A market test is all it takes to provide the financial information and metrics you need to find out what kind of paid content your readers will go for – and how much they will pay. Then you can go ahead with a project. But few bother.
When was your last price test?
If you doubt this point, ask yourself how many website publishers you know actually carry out regular price testing? Because without a price test, you can never know how much people will pay for content, nor work out how big your potential market is. So you can’t maximise profitability.
Testing paid content models
If I make that testing process sound simple, I know that it’s not. Otherwise every publisher would own websites that bring in £ millions. People refer to that conundrum when they say that: ‘Simplicity is the sign of genius’.
The Harvard University ‘Rule of Four’
To show how fundamental this stuff is, and that the rules don’t change, I’ll quote the age-old Harvard University ‘Rule of Four’:
- Provide a product or service that no-one else has
- Provide a product or service that everyone will want
- Price for profit
- Price for sale
Sounds about right, doesn’t it? It’s simple. But what actually happens is that most publishers run a discount offer for new subscribers and that’s about as creative as they get.
Your paid content business model
As the volume of orders and the price you get are the basic instruments of income and profitability, you can see why things are going wrong in publishing today – and not just for local and national newspapers. Thousands of business and consumer magazine publishers are carrying loss-making websites too.
You’ll find the answer to this industry-wide dilemma in this special issue of the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter:
Successful website business models
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