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 July 22nd, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.
1. Reduce Subscriber Churn with Personal Outreach
This post from Mequoda is worth a scan, as it offers some good tips on subscriber interaction that should help reduce cancellations.
My favorite? Reach out with alerts about new content that’s of known interest to the subscriber. The example given in the article was a reader who’s been searching your archives for a specific topic. Keep them engaged by letting them know when you publish new articles on related topics.
Not capturing this level of detail today and not sure how to begin? Send a survey to subscribers and ask.
2. Second-Screen Behavior Different Based on Geographic Region.
According to cmo.com, “second screen behavior,” or attention divided between two devices such as a smartphone and TV, continues to be the norm among technology users. The most interesting findings, however, are that the chart below reveals markedly different use patterns among geographic regions.
In North America, Latin America and Europe, respondents browse the internet while watching video programming. But, their social media activity does not necessarily revolve around the video content they’re watching.
Conversely, in Asia Pacific and the Middle East it can be inferred that their “second screen” social media activity does more strongly related to the video programming they’re watching – they are more inclined to watch live video and keep current with programs (versus the “binge-watching” we hear about in the States) in order to participate in the attendant social media.
Europe overall is significantly less likely than any other region to exhibit second-screen behavior at all.
So what can we do with this information? Some ideas:
- Prioritize second-screen apps and media to supplement video content in Asia, the Middle East or Africa first.
- Plan advertising revenues around the use patterns in the geographic regions.
- Leverage multi-device marketing data to advertise and gain mindshare across devices in the U.S., European and Latin American markets.
3. What Are Chatbots, and are they good for Subscription Businesses?
If you’ve talked to Alexa (via the Amazon Echo), you’ve experienced a chatbot in action. But what are they, really, and how can they be used to grow your business?
According to a post by econsultancy:
“A chatbot is essentially a mini interface within a messaging app, the idea is that the user is able to interact with a chatbot… Instead of a one-sided question and answer format, increased intelligence allows the chatbot to change the subject, suggest related topics, and even demonstrate humor and emotion.”
While chatbots are much more sophisticated than the old “press 1 if . . .” interactive voice response systems we love to hate, they are still machines. The benefit of an instant response, especially one that can offer information without having to shout “yes” and “no” multiple times, is attractive to customers. But bots learn from everyone they interact with, not just programmers, and the results can be inappropriate language and poor attempts at humor that you don’t risk with a pre-programmed IVR system.
Even with these caveats, exploring chatbots makes sense for a subscription business. While not a direct example, this SmartBrief article on 1-800-Flowers.com is a good example of how subscription businesses could leverage chatbots to drive sales in emerging channels.
4. Subscription Billing Expands to Marketing Agencies
Service subscriptions have been expanding for over a decade, in every area from legal representation to spa services. Now, even those who market our subscriptions are getting into the act. Worth a read is the last segment of this post by chargify. While you already know the benefits of subscription billing and how to set it up, there are some good ideas to be gleaned on types of subscription products that you may not ordinarily think of. One, a content-and-analytics combination, could work well in the information-services industry:
5. The Golden Rule of Content Marketing
“90% of your content should be focused on providing value, 10% should sell.”
– SEMrush
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Diane