Top 15 Lessons From Subscription Site Insider’s Summit in SF

For those of you who missed it, our Subscription Site Summit in San Francisco was a smashing success, with two days full of practical

For those of you who missed it, our Subscription Site Summit in San Francisco was a smashing success, with two days full of practical tips and inspired business advice. I’ll be writing a more in-depth summary next week, but for now, here are the top 15 takeaways from our guest speakers:

The paid content business is a $15 billion a year industry — Anne Holland, Subscription Site Insider
“Faked” overlays can convert more than traditional landing pages — Mike Manning, LoopNet
Come up with a demographic and psychographic profile of your “average” customer and, when in doubt, ask what he/she would want and respond to any new initiatives — James Taylor, ArtistWorks
An attitude of “Everything is new again” will help you survive a shrinking/changing market — Torry Burdick, Mortgage Success Source
When your site relies on member engagement, increase it by not only providing them with concrete tips on how to best use your service, but send those tips via postal mail — Mitch Davis, ExpertClick
If you’re using Google for your PPC campaign, ask them for access to their Beta programs, like Google Dynamic Search Ads or Google Communication Ad Extensions — David Herscott, NetX
Test! — Justin Rondeau, WhichTestWon.com
Marketing is not about getting people to buy, but rather, getting people to buy now — Bill Baird, Baird Digital
If you’re running both print and online subscriptions, renew your subscribers the same way they came in — Helen Hoart, Harvard Health Newsletters
It’s easier to sell “content and data” than “news” (even though they’re often the same thing) — Brain Hunt, The Recorder
Kindle has 80% of the eBook market, so start there — Fred Gleeck
Don’t use a flip camera when creating videos. Do use the less expensive cameras that are used to create B-roll — Brenda Power, ChoiceLiteracy
Subscription revenues can be 3 times the revenue lost by CPM drop when going to a metered access Model — Alisa Cromer, Local Media Insider
When onboarding, offer subscribers a welcome video, a congratulations and thank-you email, an email with suggested first steps, and notification about how they can get help/support (but not all on the same day) — Noah Fleming
Events are hard, but worth it — Andrew Krauss, Inventor’s Alliance