Early bird renewals - handling careful spenders
11 November 2007
This article was first published in the Subscriptions Strategy newsletter in January 1996. It came in the aftermath of the worst recession most of us had experienced. It’s interesting to see how relevant it is today.
January 1996
Because of the recession following the extravagant 1980s, you can expect readers to be cautious about spending money. In the 1980s the feeling was:
In the 1990s the feeling is:
“What a disaster the 1980s turned out to be. Let’s not join in.”Unfortunately, this financial disappointment isn’t likely to disappear from current collective memory for a good number of years*. That is, until those too young to have fully experienced its damaging consequences come of consumer age. This is why the ‘feel good factor’ is history.
With this hard truth in mind, it’s plain to see that there will be valid objections to renewing a subscription early. This could well be due to suspicion about the value of the product and the profit the publisher is making. The average reader knows little about how a publication makes its profit, and may object to paying early for something in order to make extra money for the publisher.
The fact is, of course, that these subscriptions are being sold at less than cost price in order to raise the advertisement rate-base.
So why not tell the subscriber this? Why keep it a secret if it will attract extra revenue?
Remember — everyone likes a real bargain (rather then the usual 10% or 20% off). The more convincing the reason given for the discount, the better the response will be.
You can really activate a prospect by giving him or her the opportunity of acquiring something at an unrealistically low price.
Give a good reason
This is where brainstorming comes in. A publisher should gather a largish cross-section of staff and pose a relevant question:
1. “What reason do we give for renewing a subscription early?”
2. “What reason do we give for selling a subscription at a genuinely reduced price?”
We can provide very good ‘reasons’ that you can use for your own promotions, in the form of an early renewal letter for a magazine which answers the first question with a really frank admission, and an advertisement for a health publication, which answers the second. Contact us to see these examples, one of which carries a powerful headline that any publisher can use.
*It took until around 1999 for the ‘feel good’ factor to return to the British consumer, driven by large increases in the value of their homes. This momentum begun to slow in 2005.
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