We hope you have had a great week! We are here to wrap it up with the week’s Five on Friday. In this edition, we’ll share details about Europe’s brand new copyright law, why customers prefer convenience over strong authentication, proven customer retention strategies, how to maximize your brand on Twitter and how Apple is encouraging developers to consider subscription options in a new video.

New European Copyright Law Could Have Far-Reaching Implications 

On Wednesday, European Parliament passed new copyright legislation that will have a significant impact on publishers and tech companies, reports Wired. The legislation passed in a 438 to 226 vote. So far, the final version of the regulation hasn’t been released yet, and each member state of the EU will have to pass its own laws to implement the regulation, so the degree of impact is not yet clear.

However, two sections have stirred up controversy. First, Article 13 of the legislation makes content sharing platforms like Facebook and YouTube liable if its users upload copyrighted materials. This is good news for publishers, writers, artists, musicians and others who will have a mechanism with which to protect their work, but it is a disaster for the platforms.

The platforms will have to implement filters that prevent users from uploading copyrighted content in the first place, but critics question the ability of the filters to screen appropriately and the cost to create the filters could be substantial. In an article on the subject, CNN cited YouTube’s $100 million expenditure to create its current system which identifies copyright material.

“Anything you want to publish will need to first be approved by these filters,’ said Julia Reda, a German lawmaker who opposes the law, in a CNN article. “Perfectly legal content like parodies and memes will be caught in the crosshairs.”

Article 11 is also controversial. It would require news sites and other content aggregators to pay publishers for displaying snippets of content or limit the text they use in links to a few words. It does not appear that search engine results would be subject to this rule. Coupled with the implementation of GDPR in May, publishing online has changed dramatically in 2018. It will be interesting to watch how the new copyright legislation and GDRP impacts online publishers and other businesses as the regulations evolve.

Customers Prefer Convenience Over Strong Authentication

Over the last several years, news headlines have published data breach after data breach – Home Depot, Target, Equifax. Despite the clear indication that data and identify theft remains prevalent in our digital society, banking customers still prefer convenience over having to jump through hoops to prove who they are online.

In a September 13 article, PYMTS highlighted some recent statistics supporting this theory:

• More than 70 percent of banking customer said they prefer authentication methods that are easy to use.
• 64 percent said they prefer convenient methods
• 62 percent said they want fast methods.
• About 45 percent said they would be OK with using an authentication method with better security.

These results are startling. We all want fast and easy ways to connect online, but I value my privacy and have enough concerns over data breaches that I’m willing to go the extra mile if that’s what my financial institution requires to ensure my safety. How about you?

Read more about this topic in “Why Strong Authentication Fights Fraud, But Customers Prefer Convenience” at PYMNTS.com.

Hubspot Shares Three Proven Customer Retention Strategies

We know that it costs less to retain a customer than to acquire a new one. In fact, according to a recent blog post, Hubspot says that the cost of retention is actually five to 25 times less! That should be incentive enough to devote some additional resources to customer retention.

Here are three proven customer retention strategies, suggested by HubSpot:

1. Make your customers’ lives easier: Take a lesson from the banking customer study where customers place a high value on convenience. Make your subscription product or service so easy your customers don’t have to think about it. Subscription box companies like the Dollar Shave Club have this nailed. Set your initial frequency based on your usage, and you’ll never run out of razors again.
2. Offer a referral program: Customer referrals are a great way to introduce your product or service to a new audience, and your customer gets a reward for telling their contacts how much they love what your brand offers. Whether it is extra cloud storage or a discount off a future purchase, a referral program is an easy way for everyone to get something they want.
3. Thank your customers: This is a no-brainer. If you aren’t already doing it, you should be. Go out of your way to thank your customer for their purchase. A quick email or a surprise gift in the mail are nice gestures that inspire loyalty.

Get more customer retention strategies in “13 Customer Retention Strategies from Real Brands that Work” by Sophia Bernazzani for HubSpot. 

Five Ways to Maximize Your Brand’s Presence on Twitter

Twitter’s 330 million-plus users publish hundreds of millions of tweets every day which means that your subscription brand is missing out if it isn’t maximizing its Twitter usage. In a 2018 Twitter best practices guide, Marketing Digibook offers a number of suggestions. Here are five to try today!

1. Write a killer bio that attracts attention, shows your brand’s personality and gives a relevant description with searchable hashtags. #beautybox #OTT #SVOD
2. Build a Twitter following of “real” followers. Don’t waste your money buying fake followers. Even if that tactic elevates your numbers, fake followers can’t buy your subscription product or service, so don’t waste your energy. Not sure where to start? See who your competitors’ followers are and follow them.
3. Share content that is topical, timely, interesting and relevant to your followers.
4. Host a poll or promote a contest and ask followers to tag you in their tweets, retweets and mentions.
5. Tweet regularly. Marketing Digibook recommends you tweet at least once each day, but other guides will tell you to tweet much more often and to tweet at certain times of the day. We suggest you develop a strategy that works for you and measure it by reviewing your analytics. What type of content engages your users? When are the most apt to engage with you? Adjust your strategy accordingly.

Get more suggestions for maximizing your brand’s Twitter presence on Marketing Digibook.

Apple Releases Video to Encourage Developers to Offer Subscriptions

Apple has released a video to encourage developers to offer subscriptions. The 3 minute 42 second video features executives from Elevate, Dropbox, Calm and Bumble to talk about how subscriptions add value to their customers.

“It’s really providing a way for your user to get to know what your product is and then sort of building their belief in the value of the services you’re giving them such that they actually want to subscribe to your product,” said Ly Nguyen, Director of Growth for Dropbox.

“The value for a user is that you’re not just buying one thing at this one point in time. You’re actually buying something that is evolving and something that’s growing,” said Jesse Germinario, Director of Growth for Elevate.

But don’t take their word for it. See the video for yourself on Apple’s developer site.