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” list for June 26th, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.
1. How Improving the “Unsubscribe” Experience Grows Our Businesses
How we handle the end of our customer’s journey is as important as how we handle the beginning. This multimedia infokit from Silverpop titled, Unsubscribe: Best Practices Guide How to Decrease Database Churn and Strengthen Your Marketing Program is worth reading with your second cup of coffee this morning. No time? Here’s a taste:
Some do’s/don’ts for the unsubscribe link:
- DO place the unsubscribe link close to your regular body copy, but add an extra line or two of white space to distinguish it from surrounding copy.
- DON’T hide it at the very bottom of your email template.
- DO use the same font size for your unsubscribe link that you use in your regular body copy, or increase it.
- DON’T shrink the font size to 10 points or below.
- DO use a contrasting font color to attract attention.
- DON’T use a color that’s just a shade or two darker than your background color.
2. Another Way to Extend the Reach of Paid or Freemium Content
Online subscribers are used to getting their content when they want it. But our marketing doesn’t always help that process along. Twice this week I received emails about webinars I wanted to see, but couldn’t attend due to schedule conflicts.
Sadly, neither of them had anticipated that in their marketing emails (here’s an example, although I hate to pick on one company when this is a common service gap). Make sure all marketing has an option to click-through to the On-Demand recording of your live events, even if the click-through will bring the subscriber to a “Coming Soon” countdown. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your content in front of those who want it!
3. The #1 Feature Digital Magazine Readers Want Is…
According to a Mequoda survey, digital replicas aren’t cutting it. 51% of digital magazine subscribers say that scrollable text is an extremely important feature with clickable links to references and access to back issues in the runner-up positions.
4. Benchmark Before Rebranding
Jo Clarke, writing for CMO., delivers a basic brand metrics primer that is good for anyone considering a brand change . . .but, she misses a good opportunity to illustrate that we should benchmark before changing the brand, or there’s no way to understand the impact of the change.
| _________________________________________________________________
“Consider the following scenario: It has been a year since you engaged a branding firm. They’ve executed the work, and it has been activated and implemented across your channels and customer touch points. How is your rebrand performing? How do you assess its success?” Jo Clarke “If you try to measure your rebranding success after rebranding, it’s too late.” Diane Pierson _________________________________________________________________ |
5. Variations on an Advertising Theme
A recent kissmetrics article, “How to Excel at the Subscription Economy,” offers some quick visual inspiration for advertising and home pages design, one of which is below. While the article highlighted how NatureBox differentiates themselves by emphasizing “discovery of new snacks,” I’d say the real message here is that your differentiator may be something totally unrelated to your product, and still draw a customer base. If you don’t believe that, I’ll eat my Tom’s.
Have a great weekend,
Diane
Diane Pierson, our INSIDER Guide to New Product Development, is a leader 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. (Read Diane’s full Bio)
