As online shopping becomes an increasingly large part of our lives, so does the subscription economy. From food to razors to cleaning products, you can subscribe to receive just about anything delivered to your doorstep.
These subscriptions aren’t just convenient for customers; they’re convenient for brands as well. The digital economy affords brands new opportunities to build relationships and customer loyalty through subscription business models, which provide a steady stream of recurring revenue, rather than one-off purchases.
Of course, for publishers like you, subscription business models aren’t exactly new. It wasn’t long ago that most people got their news by subscribing to the local newspaper. While the internet caused many people to cancel their newspaper subscriptions, many digital publishers have turned back to paid subscriptions in recent years. As digital publishers work to stay profitable amidst declining ad revenue and commodified content, subscription business models are all the rage, making subscription marketing more important than ever.
Before we discuss subscription marketing, let’s cover several types of subscription business models that digital publishers use to drive recurring revenue.
Subscription Business Models
Digital publishers with subscription business models typically put their content behind a paywall, blocking full access to content until a reader pays up. These paywall business models typically take one of several forms:
- Hard paywall models block all content completely until a reader purchases a subscription. Publishers rely on the strength of their brand name and content quality to attract subscribers without having to provide a preview of their content.
- A metered paywall business model allows readers to preview a limited number of articles before requiring readers to pay. Some publishers may allow visitors to view additional articles in exchange for an email address, or they may even have a “flexible meter” that sets the article limit based on a reader’s predicted propensity to pay.
- Premium wall models let visitors read a selection of free content while blocking selected “premium” content behind a hard paywall. Typically, publishers will make short articles with freely-available information free for all readers while requiring premium access for longer, high-quality articles.
Similar to a subscription model is a membership model, which allows readers to purchase a membership that grants them additional benefits. These benefits may include ad-free experiences, access to exclusive podcasts, or invitations to members-only events.
Of course, a subscription model isn’t right for every publisher. For a paywall business model to succeed, a publisher must have high-quality or niche content that’s worth paying for. Once you have content your audience will pay to read, it’s time to connect them with that content through subscription marketing.
What is Subscription Marketing?
Subscription marketing describes the marketing strategies and tactics of businesses that offers products or services through a subscription or membership. Effective subscription marketing is particularly important in a growing subscription economy, as Target Marketing predicts even more brands will embrace subscription models in 2020.
Rather than driving revenue from one-off purchases, subscription models rely on recurring revenue from committed subscribers. This makes it important to connect with potential subscribers, build the relationship, and nurture audiences into paying customers.
How Email Marketing Can Promote Subscription Success
Building direct relationships requires direct marketing channels, and a key direct channel for subscription marketing is – you guessed it – email.
Email marketing is a critical channel for any digital publisher, but it becomes particularly important for publishers hoping to implement a subscription business model. Here are just a few of the ways email can maximize your subscription marketing success:
- Email helps you grow your potential subscriber audience. Earning an email marketing subscription gives you a foot in the door to eventually convert a paid subscriber, so growing your email list is paramount. Upland PostUp’s audience development solutions have helped publishers like Apartment Therapy Media grow their email lists with ease.
- Email allows you to engage new audiences at the height of their interest. When site visitors sign up for a newsletter, they’re indicating an active interest in your content. Most email subscribers will never be as engaged as they are in that moment, so sending an automated welcome email connects your with your audience at a critical part of the relationship.
- Email delivers content directly to your audience, without the interference of social media. While social media once delivered easy traffic for publishers, changing algorithms and growing competition mean that publishers must fight for attention. Newsletters put your content directly in your audience’s inbox, meaning that newsletter subscribers stay on your site longer and consume more content than your social media followers.
- Email nurtures newsletter subscribers into paying customers. The New York Times has found that newsletter subscribers are twice as likely to convert into paid subscribers as other members of their audience. With email, you can show the value of paying for your content through high-quality newsletter content and targeted marketing emails.
- Email captures actionable insights from your audience. When you have a subscriber’s email address, you can deliver survey invitations that help you capture customer feedback. These insights can help you improve your product to ensure that you continue delivering high-quality content to your audience.
- Email helps you retain paying subscribers. Subscription marketing is key to converting subscribers, but it’s also an important part of retaining your subscribers. If subscribers stop seeing the value of your content, they’ll cancel their subscription. That’s why newsletter subscribers are more likely to renew their subscription.
Creating Successful Subscription Models with Email
To scale your email program and maximize paid subscriptions, you need the marketing technology to match. Upland PostUp is uniquely suited to grow audiences, nurture them into subscribers, and retain your subscribers with relationship marketing tools that fit the needs of publishers. Take a look at our email solutions for publishing & media to see how we can help you deliver engaging email experiences to your subscribers.