Don’t Lock Out Dual Logins — Upsell Group Subscriptions Instead

Most publishers underestimate the importance of digital rights management (DRM), choosing to either protect too little (and lose money) or protect too much (and

Most publishers underestimate the importance of digital rights management (DRM), choosing to either protect too little (and lose money) or protect too much (and lose valuable marketing opportunities).In this week’s Members-Only How-To on Subscription Site Insider, we explain why DRM should be considered a strategy that helps you maximize revenues — not a necessary and burdensome technology.For example, many subscription websites automatically lock-out subscribers after a dual login. The assumption is that dual logins occur when subscribers share their username and password with friends or co-workers. (With the proliferation of multi-device viewing, this is not always a correct assumption, but correct enough that I won’t debate it.)But what if you saw those dual logins as prospects, not violaters? If a subscriber is sharing their username and password, it means they value your content enough to share it with friends. And since word-of-mouth marketing is the best type of marketing, publishers are silly to shut down this type of referral at the sign of the first infraction.A better strategy would be to send a message to the subscriber, using the opportunity to upsell your group subscriptions and site licenses:We see you’ve logged into ABC site through two different IP addresses. We assume that this is because you’d like to share our content with a friend or co-worker. While this is technically a violation of our terms of service, we’re so happy you liked our content enough to share it that we’re going to give you a free pass. If you and your friend/co-worker would like to continue having access, we’d be happy to help set you up with a second account or multi-seat license.Of course, you’ll need to set up a boundary at some point. I’d say one login and then initiate a lock-out, but look at your analytics when making this decision. And make sure every lock-out message mentions the possibility of a group subscription.Check out our latest How-To on Profit-Savvy Digital Rights Management to discover more best practices and tips.

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