Premium Tourism Newsletter Attracts Subscribers with Unique Ideas for High-end Travelers

For eight years, Dream of Italy has convinced subscribers to pay for their newsletter despite the sea of free alternatives for online travel tips.

Quick Overview

Since 2002, Dream of Italy has published a premium travel newsletter that’s a trusted source of unique destinations and activities for high-end travelers. Insider spoke with founder, editor and publisher Kathy McCabe to highlight how her team conducts on-location research to develop content that won’t be found on free travel sites or mass-market guidebooks — and how they’ve parlayed that expertise into ancillary revenue streams that include travel planning services and ecommerce.

Target Market

The majority of subscribers are well-educated Baby Boomers with time and money to spend on travel. They are fascinated by the arts, culture, cuisine and traditions of Italy (40% have been to the country six or more times), and are seeking new, unusual, “un-touristy” experiences to for their visits.

Content Model

The team publishes a print and electronic version of its newsletter 10 times a year.

Each 8-12 page issue focuses on a particular region of Italy, and provides advice on what to do, where to stay, and where eat while visiting. Articles feature high-end, off-the-beaten-path destinations and activities, such boutique inns, villa rentals, wine-tasting classes, and private tours.

“People who pay for my newsletter want a trusted source who’s picking the best for them,” McCabe says. “We are really going to all the places we write about.”

McCabe visits Italy several times a year, spending 4-8 weeks in the country to find ideas for the newsletter. She writes some of the articles herself, but also uses a team of freelance travel writers with first-hand knowledge of Italy or expertise in a certain area, such as art or food.

In addition to the premium newsletter, McCabe writes a free Italy news and travel blog. She also works with subject matter experts to produce free online articles and special reports, such as:

  • A guide to renting Italian villas
  • A guide to Christmas in Italy
  • Italian Olive Oil 101

Visitors that download one of these special reports are also invited to subscribe to a free, twice-monthly email newsletter about Italy travel news.

Revenue Streams

Annual subscriptions cost $79 for an electronic version of the newsletter and $99 for a print version.

Subscribers are split about evenly between the print and electronic versions. McCabe says she almost discontinued the print version last year, but found a new printing vendor that allowed her to print only as many copies as she needed each month — instead of requiring a minimum print run.

Positioning the content for repeat travelers and Italophiles has helped keep renewal rates high. For several years the renewal rate was about 90%, but McCabe says that’s fallen in recent years due to the recession.

Promoting Gift Subscriptions has also been a winning tactic for the team. Each year they promote a gift subscription offer that includes a hard premium, such as free DVD or book.

“December is my best month every year,” says McCabe.

In addition to subscription sales, the team generates revenue from:

1. Trip planning and tour packages

McCabe began offering personal trip consultations after receiving requests from subscribers to help plan their upcoming trips. She offers either 1-hour phone calls for $295, or complete itinerary planning for $895-$1,495, depending on the length of the trip.

This year she created her first package tour for subscribers. The six-night tour includes all meals, transportation, unique activities and lodging in a 17th century villa for $2,450 per person.

2. Ecommerce

The site includes an online store that carries Italian-inspired gifts and crafts, such as Christmas cards, Christmas ornaments, jewelry, books and gift baskets.

3. Email newsletter advertising

McCabe does not accept advertising for the site or the premium newsletter. She wants to avoid the impression that advertising influences the team’s travel recommendations. However, she accepts advertising in the free, twice-monthly email newsletter.

“That’s been very successful,” she says. “People click as much on the ads as on the free content.”

Marketing Tactics

SEO

Natural search generates 60%-70% of site visits. McCabe uses her blog and free articles to improve rankings for specialized search terms related to Italy travel. She pays particular attention to current news topics and writes articles that connect the dots for travelers. For example, she’s written blogs and articles about:

  • Locations used in the film Eat, Pray, Love
  • How ceremonies around the death of Pope John Paul II would impact travel plans
  • How to save money when the Euro was particularly high against the dollar

Media and blogger relations

McCabe also uses classic PR techniques to land interviews with print, online, TV, and radio journalists. As with her blog posts, she writes press releases that contain a clear news hook or specific angle to help reporters develop stories, such as tips on renting a car in Italy.

She offers two tips for generating media mentions:

1. Create an online press kit for your site that contains a complete bio and highlights your expertise. Also provide links to all your previous media coverage, and links to specific assets (such as offer landing pages and hi-res images) that bloggers or media websites can use in their articles.

2. Create a Twitter account and follow bloggers, reporters and other sites in your niche. McCabe’s work on Twitter has landed her two mentions as a “Top 50” travel Twitterer.

“Twitter has been fantastic. It’s the best networking tool ever.”

Highlighting subscription bonuses and benefits

The site’s subscription offer page includes a list of premiums, benefits and bonuses that put the value of a $79 or $99 membership in context. The page explains that in addition to the 10 newsletters, subscribers receive more than $900 in travel information, tools and benefits — such as access to all back issues and special reports — and a free DVD, “Visions of Italy: The Great Cities” ($20 value).

Technology and Vendors Used

Authorize.net: Payment gateway
http://www.authorize.net

Blogger: Blogging platform
http://www.blogger.com/

Constant Contact: Email service provider
http://www.constantcontact.com

HARO — Help a Reporter Out: PR resource to search online journalist queries
http://www.helpareporter.com/

About Kathy McCabe

McCabe began her career as a journalist and fell in love with Italy and travel writing while working for USA Today’s travel section. She was inspired to start Dream of Italy after reading statistics about the number of Americans that visit Italy each year (then about 3 million) and the fact that many return year after year, like she did.

She says that focusing on a specific content niche and highly targeted audience was a perfect match for a subscription newsletter. “I’ve really developed relationships with people, even if they’re only on my free email newsletter, so they feel like they know me and trust me, and that’s what they’re willing to pay for.”

Subscription Site Insider’s Analysis

The team’s tight focus on the profile of their typical subscriber allows them to be the trusted advisor that subscribers are willing to pay for — despite all the options for free travel information online. That focus also helps them develop ancillary products that complement the niche newsletter content. McCabe’s background as a journalist obviously helps her land media coverage, but other sites would do well to follow her lead in creating an online press kit and developing the kind of Twitter connections that help grease the wheels of the PR process.

The site could stand for a redesign that helps emphasize the premium content. Currently, homepage visitors see so many free articles listed that they may not even get to the “Current Issue” links that feature the member paywall and subscription offer. They also might want to test adding a more obvious newsletter subscription upsell offer on free article pages — assuming that some visitors may come to that content from a Web search and not see the premium newsletter offer that’s featured on the homepage.

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