Five on Friday: The Value of Freemium Content, Appetite for Long-Form Content and More

This week’s Five on Friday defines the value of Freemium Content, the demand for Long form Content, Startup Stash, Increasing Facebook Clicks, and Sales

Five on Friday: The Value of Freemium Content

As 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 February 12th, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.  

1. Viewers are Watching More Long-Form Content on Their Smartphones

While by all accounts attention spans are shortening by the day, the appetite for long-form video content streamed on smartphones is growing. If you didn’t download it a couple weeks ago, take a look at this study on the broadcasting industry from Ooyala.  Among other predictions and statistics is this:

 

 

“The appetite for longer-form content on mobile devices is growing. 30% of North American smartphone owners now watch full-length TV shows on their smartphones.” Ooyala

2. A Picture is Worth a Thousand . . . Facebook Clicks

Custom facebook imagesFrom a post on Mequoda.com: One way to improve clicks on a Facebook post is by creating a powerful image to go with it. In order to stand out, many publishers are now creating custom graphics through tools like Canva and Pablo (a Buffer add-on) or even via Powerpoint saved as a JPEG or PNG file, and seeing improved engagement metrics through their efforts.

It’s easier than it sounds, if you follow a couple simple design ideas from the article (with a couple examples from yours truly, at right):

  • Create a graphic of a quote.
  • Use the featured graphic to highlight the title of the article.
  • Build a brand-specific image.
  • Enhance a available-to-share graphic with comments specific to your audience. 

3. Building Relationships with Freemium Content

“The [mailing] list is where the money is” is something you’ll hear every subscription marketer say.  But how to get consumers of your ahead-of-the-firewall content to give you their email addresses so that you can begin a one-on-one relationship with them? In a solutions-rich podcast from Youpreneur with Chris Ducker interviewing lead-conversion educator Tim Paige, you’ll hear great ideas on how to achieve this critical step in the customer journey.  Tip: the entire podcast is entertaining, but if you want to skip to the meat of the show, begin at minute 13. 

Youpreneur

Best takeaway?  Offer a specific content upgrade for signing up.  The example given: during a podcast on Paleo diets, offer five of your favorite Paleo recipes to anyone who sends an email to you requesting it (or follows a link to a form, etc).  Be specific, and offer something of reasonable value to make it worth the prospect’s time to respond.

4. Startup Stash a Top 11, According to Product Hunt

I mentioned this valuable resource for all things startup in this column last year, and am very happy to see that it’s on Product Hunt’s “11 Best Tech Products of 2015.”  Startup or no, if you offer software, apps or online subscriptions, it’s a terrific place to look for resources to do anything from help you build wireframes to establish a customer support team.

Startup Stash

5. Selling Requires Persistence

According to Bitpipe (and my own experience), getting leads to your sales team is only half the battle. The biggest challenge is the balancing act between persistence and being a pest that is good selling.  Is it worth it?  Check out these figures:

  • 80% of leads are never contacted.
  • It typically takes eight or more calls to close a sale.
  • 73% of leads aren’t ready to buy when they first provide their contact info online. 

Happy 22nd anniversary to my wonderful husband Tom Pierson – 22 years, now that’s a long-term subscription! Have a great weekend, everyone.

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)

 

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