Photo Credit: Bing Images labeled for reuse
As the curator of the INSIDER Guide to New Product Development (NPD), I’m constantly keeping an eye out for bite-size information that will help you develop and scale better subscription products. Here’s my “Five on Friday” compilation for January 22nd, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.
1. Make the In-App Subscription Experience Easy and Personal to Succeed
With readers migrating to mobile – and therefore the app for your publication – the advice from design firm Mindsea to increase in-app reader engagement is worth a read. No time? Here are the highlights:
1. Add “Read” and “Unread” indicators to articles in an app.
2. Build in History and Bookmark capabilities.
3. Enable personal content preferences, bringing user-preferred content to the top of the page or offering customized push notifications when preferred content is posted.
4. Engage with readers by encouraging them to comment (have a prominent Comments/Email Us function), and replying yourself, either publicly or 1:1.
5. Create Opt-In, priority content. Personally, I would offer personal preferences functionality before this option, but every subscription audience is different, so leverage what makes sense for you.
By the way, these tips are equally useful for subscriptions accessed online.
2. Media Not Faring Well in the Court of Public Opinion
According to a recent Pew Research Center study, the national news media is believed to be one of the least-positive influences on our country today. And the future doesn’t look bright.
According to the research, Millennials’ views of the national news media have grown more negative in the past several years. In 2010, for example, 40% of Millennials said the national news media was having a positive impact on the way things were going in the country (a far more positive view than among older generations, including just 27% of Silents and Baby Boomers and 29% of Generation Xers).
But now, Millennials’ evaluation of the news media are on par with older generations: only 27% now say it has a positive impact, compared with 26% of Xers and Silents and 23% of Boomers.
Clearly, those of you belonging to this segment of the subscription industry should take these statistics to heart. But – how to change this disturbing trend? While we at Subscription Insider have some ideas, we’d rather hear (and publish) yours. Send me a note with your ideas to improve the reputation of our national news media, and I’ll send you a $10 Amazon gift card. I’ll compile some of the answers in a February edition of Five on Friday.
3. Rodale’s CEO: Personalize and Offer Instant Gratification
In an older Huffington Post article, “The Future of Magazine Media – 10 Ideas That Could Rock Our World,” Maria Rodale, Rodale, Inc’s CEO, offers some ideas that are still worth paying attention to in 2016. It’s a light-but-pithy article that’s worth quick scan. One of the best – and, if you’re leveraging even a basic email-response system, one of the easiest – pieces of advice is to provide immediate gratification when a new subscriber signs up:
“Why does my 8-year-old STILL have to wait six to eight weeks for the first issue of her magazine to arrive? Seriously? Where’s the immediate gratification of a welcome packet with a thank-you and some stickers? Where’s the excitement of an introduction to the love of a lifetime? Can’t afford to give it to her? Raise the price. This works for grown-ups, too.”
Maria Rodale, CEO, Rodale, Inc.
4. Are We Busy Doing Nothing? Not if We’re Careful
While the following research statistic isn’t specifically from subscription-model businesses, my experience says it’s at least pertinent:
“90% of assets produced by marketing go unused by the sales organization.”
American Marketing Association, as reported on CMO.com
Not a great stat! So, how do we improve this rate? Here are some ideas:
- Do a collateral review with the sales team at least once per year. I once stepped into a situation where the sales team didn’t know that half of the materials existed, much less found them effective. Treat the sales team as customers; build what they want, cut what they don’t.
- Don’t misinterpret this statistic to mean that 90% of all marketing materials are not valuable in some way. The sales team isn’t your only sales channel, nor are today’s sales marketing’s only goal. Some content and assets may be used to build the brand, sell through affiliates or in other ways not beneficial to the sales team. Where that’s the case, employ open rates, time on page and other metrics to assess value.
- Know why you’re building an asset before you build it. Before creating any marketing collateral or campaign, know your goals. The same CMO.com article quotes Robin Saitz, CMO of Brainshark, as saying:
“[I] make sure the content my team creates accelerates the selling process, grows deal sizes and resonates with our buying audience [so] we can stop creating assets that aren’t working and double-down on the content that’s shown to help drive greater revenue.” Robin Saitz, CMO, Brainshark
5. Are the Best Managers the Most Boring Ones? HBR Says Yes.
According to a Harvard Business Review “Management Tip of the Day,” the perfect manager isn’t that highly-charismatic, ruthless visionary everyone thinks of, but rather a predictable, data-driven problem-solver. HBR advises looking for competent, calm leaders who teams can trust.
Have a great weekend!
Diane
Diane Pierson has deep experience in product management and marketing, having delivered results to companies including Dun & Bradstreet, LexisNexis, American Lawyer Media and Copyright Clearance Center. She has built products & services that have delivered over $100 million in revenue and knows what works, and what doesn’t, when executing product plans and strategies. She is also a contributor to Subscription Insider. (Read Diane’s full Bio)
