This document discusses subscription marketing strategies for publications. It covers renewal and acquisition activities, additional products that can be sold to customers, and factors for an effective campaign. It emphasizes that effective data management is crucial, as publications now have more customer touchpoints and data sources to integrate like digital and social media. Looking ahead, it predicts media owners will need affordable systems to integrate diverse customer data and sell multiple products through expanding digital channels.

1. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM Thoughts on subs marketing Andy Guy Operations Director

2. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM outline subs marketing – past, present and future renewal activity acquisition activity what else can you sell to your customers? the top five factors in an effective campaign a key challenge for the next decade a sign of things to come

3. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM subscription marketing – past, present and future past nerdish and ignored Direct Mail centric lacking the glamour and “easy” money of display advertising present Marketing magazine – “Publishers are increasingly turning to subscription marketing as the recession forces ad rates downwards” cost and availability of newsstand Audience Development in the spotlight – three jobs placed on InPublishing last week challenge for small-to-medium publishers future expert in multiple delivery channels in charge of primary revenue streams as ad revenues decline further in media res

4. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM renewals - basics typically 3-4 letters, 2-3 emails and 1 phone call make hard copy forms easy to use and include ID for easy order processing freshen up the images regularly welcome letter for first time subs different letter for first time renewals (danger point) renewal at birth – try 2 or 3 year offer concerted renewals start at 6 issues to go (for monthly titles)

5. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM renewals – more advanced if not available, collate your renewals history as starting point for future analysis offer DD with every effort – 90%+ retention (speak with your bank ref Originator or your agency if don’t meet bank’s criteria if people subscribe online, concentrate on email for first renewal efforts allow people to renew online & recognise the same offer send covers & content page in lieu of grace issue - offer to provide issue FOC if subscriber renews ask subscribers why they are not renewing remember – the only way is down

6. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM acquisition – basics top the search rankings – no excuse use portals such as I-Subscribe, Unique Magazines and Magazines.co.uk if international appeal, use portals in US, Australia, NZ & South Africa all promotional activity from the Editor URLs for website and subs form on all material don’t hide the subscription form! no surprises – brief your team and agency on new offers work with organisations in your field – data swaps or overlays, link exchanges, joint offers

7. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM acquisition – more advanced in specialist media, encourage collection to help retention - offer binders create personalised reactivation programme using benefit statements derived from expiry survey – test timing of this but at least 6 months after expiry build a geo-demographic profile of your live subs as starting point for data research offer free newsletter & RSS feed to stay on radar, then build offers into the content build your own community – use social media to retain existing customers and attract new ones

8. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM what else could you sell to your customers? develop a range of additional products on which you could make a margin additional paid-for online content of your own package and sell annualised collections of content work with book publishers to see relevant titles through your channels sell relevant consumer products –try CDs, DVDs, and tickets to concerts, exhibitions or leisure attractions sell useful business products – try personal development books, training courses and tickets to relevant business events or cross sell other business services such as hotel rooms, car hire or travel

9. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM the top five factors in an effective campaign #5 – learn lessons from past campaigns #4 – think about what motivates your customers before starting to write copy #3 - vary the offer #2 – make offers clear, concise and easy to respond to #1 ??? – ask the audience!

10. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM the most important factor in any campaign ..... is also the skill which media owners most need to develop within their organisations and the skill which all Audience Development, Subscriptions, Circulation and Marketing teams need to master the most important factor is data what these people need is the opportunity and skill to manage, interrogate and segment their organisation’s entire data universe

11. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM name that year!

12. 1999 – easy sources Conference data Exhibition data attendees pre-reg non attendees crossovers across all years delegates inquirers speakers sponsors paid subscribers lapsed subscribers qualified circ reader inquiries promotional pool Magazine data WWW.CIRCDATA.COM

13. 1999 – other possible data sources data provided by exhibitors to generate attendance at events 3rd party lease data in-house data held in Access, Excel Goldmine, MS Outlook & paper files staff in other offices or working remotely with useful databases directory data & downloads WWW.CIRCDATA.COM

14. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM a decade on – and the challenge has grown active magazine paid subs active mag paid subs - digital lapsed magazine paid subs lapsed mag paid subs - digital qualified magazine circ qualified circ- digital promotional pool paid newsletter subs reader inquiries free newsletter regs directory data word-specific alerts regs conference delegates online content – paid subs conference inquirers online content – alerts speakers Facebook exhibition attendees Twitter exhibition pre-reg no shows Linked-In cross-over visitors e-reader customers downloads iphone app customers data in Goldmine et al ipad app customers

15. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM the next 2-3 years media owners seeking to take advantage of developing channels to broaden their brand reach media owners seeking to sell range of products through these channels media owners needing to integrate data from these channels to provide a single view of their customers media owners needing an affordable integrated IT solution

16. WWW.CIRCDATA.COM discussion Circle Publishing have one such solution already in place using Circdata’s FusionTM system discussion and audience questions