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 29th, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.  

1.  Building Subscriber Trust via your Website

Hubspot’s recent post, “How to Build Trust Online: 7 Little Ways to Create a Trustworthy Website” doesn’t offer many new tips, but it does reinforce the important basics.  No time to review the entire post?  Here are the seven tips, which focus on “social proof” and a using more personal pronouns and artifacts on your site to build trust:

• Use authentic images. There is an expanding hue and cry for use of original images. While well-done originals can be costly, it pays to have some nice shots of your team and office, even if that’s just you and your laptop in the park.

• Provide social proof (3 tips). Hubspot broke this down into three separate tips, but I’ve combined them for you.  “Social proof” of your subscription’s value is much more important than marketing because it has the credibility of coming from a source that has nothing to gain by singing your praises. The three main avenues for social proof are customers, via testimonials; other media, via backlinks, recommendations or quotes from your material and high-value partners or sponsors, who lend credibility by underwriting or otherwise aligning with your product.

• Create helpful content resources. Certainly, the content behind your firewall should be the most valuable. But, to whet a prospect’s appetite and establish your reputation, ensure that marketing and newsletter content is substantive.

• Include micro-copy that sets expectations intuitively. In other words – be upfront about whether you’re going to share or sell mailing list information.

• Put the audience at the center of the stories you tell. While this may seem central to our subscription goals – after all, you’re writing for your audience – the mechanics are important.  Specifically?  Use the word “you” in articles, addressing the reader more directly than you perhaps have in the past.

2.  For Subscription Insiders Only: The Legal Issues Around Social Media Marketing

As most of you know, being a Subscription Insider has big benefits.  One of them is free access to this on-demand webinar on the legal issues surrounding social media marketing, with Lisa B. Dubrow, Esq.  While copyright is something your editorial team thinks about daily, your marketing team may not. This webinar is a strong primer for those who could use an introduction to:

• The difference between editorial vs. advertising speech and why you need to care.

• The difference between copyrighted works and public domain and what is “fair use.” 

• Understanding the FTC guidelines for testimonials and endorsements. 

• How you can leverage social media to create advertising. 

Not a subscriber?  You can sign up here.

3.  Build Apps Inexpensively by Leveraging Tech Startups.

A recent post on entrepreneur.com touted the benefits of creating an app, even if you’re a very small business. The real value of the article, however, was the links to two new companies that can help you do this easily and inexpensively.

One is Buziness Apps, which has a nice drag-and-drop workflow so you can build your own app in about an hour (although there are paid options for the truly tech-averse or those in need of a custom solution). Just remember that, once the app is built, you will have to pay someone to host it, just like you do your website.

To test the quality of your app, go to My Crowd QA. My Crowd relies on a global network of testers, so they can deliver results in hours or even minutes, at a much lower cost than traditional service providers.

4.  Adweek, MediaRadar Assert 70% of Publishers are Not Labeling Native Ads Properly

According to an article in Adweek, only one-third of publishers currently label their native advertising properly based on the FTC guidelines published in December. The data cited is from Media Radar, and it’s worth a read in its entirety. For example, only 5 percent of websites reviewed by MediaRadar included the word “ad” in native ads. Examples of publishers that are complying are The New York Times, which uses, “This is a paid post” with sponsored content, and The Guardian, which labels native ads as “Paid content.”

According to the article, most publishers are trying to adhere but are violating the FTC guidelines because the labels are too subtle or aren’t positioned in the correct place. According to the FTC, in general disclosures should be:

• In clear and unambiguous language.

• As close as possible to the native ads to which they relate.

• In a font and color that’s easy to read.

• In a shade that stands out against the background.

• For video ads, on the screen long enough to be noticed, read, and understood.

• For audio disclosures, read at a cadence that’s easy for consumers to follow and in words consumers will understand.

5.  Want More Inbound Links to your Website? Write a Blog.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Diane