You're reading The Audiencers' newsletter #63 sent out on May 14th, 2025. To receive future newsletters straight to your inbox every two weeks, sign up here.
In today’s newsletter:
- Boosting membership conversion at Maverick Insider with FAQs: these mailers now account for up to 6.5% of monthly acquisitions
- Le Figaro halves the time it takes to convert to subscription: BTS of the French publisher’s “AMEX” project
- 25 ideas of content, features and benefits to offer your paying subscribers
- 🔗 Links links links – to add to your reading list
Boosting membership conversion at Maverick Insider with FAQs
The Daily Maverick team has tackled low conversion rates with a targeted Q&A email, significantly enhancing member acquisition and engagement, addressing the gap between interest and action
The challenge: despite strong click-through rates in email campaigns, conversions to membership from these clicks hovered around a maximum of 10%
The potential friction point: The team hypothesized that clarity on the “what,” “why,” and “how” of Maverick Insider, a membership rather than subscription model, was missing post-click.
The solution: a proactive Q&A to overcome hesitation
Specifically, those who clicked the signup button but didn’t immediately convert received a targeted Q&A mailer. Sent 24 hours later from the head of membership (adding a personal touch), this email proactively addressed common reservations:
> What exactly is Maverick Insider?
> Why no paywall? (A key differentiator!)
> What impact has membership actually had?
> What are the tangible benefits of joining?
> What’s the cost, and are there any sneaky terms?
The results: The Q&A mailer accounts for up to 6.5% of monthly acquisitions, with a response rate that has opened up over 1,000 one-on-one engagement opportunities.
Le Figaro halves the time it takes to purchase a subscription
Le Figaro has pulled off a tour de force: halving the time it takes to take out a subscription, from 50 to 25 seconds.
Behind this improvement lies a mammoth project dubbed “AMEX” (“Amélioration de l’Expérience Utilisateur”), launched four years ago to internalize and modernize the entire subscription conversion process.
1. Redesign of subscriber account space: total overhaul of the “My account” space, unifying six different spaces (print + digital from the group’s three titles: Le Figaro, Gala and Le Particulier) into a single one
2. New acquisition tunnels: tested on a part of the audience in November 2024 before generalization in December
3. Migration of digital subscribers: gradual switch to Chargebee, replacing GLI for B2C digital subscribers in early 2025
4. Integration of a new customer service tool: late but essential integration of Salesforce in five months, with an MVP “on the bone” to meet the December 2024 deadline
5. Overhaul of accounting and data flows: upgrade of accounting flows and synchronization of data with a future group CDP project (Treasure Data).
6. Simplified user experience
> Mobile first: 80% of visits are made on mobile, so priority has been given to ultra-optimized design
> Fewer offers, greater clarity: rather than inundating the user with choice, a single offer is highlighted, with a price variation based on different criteria
> Payment rethink: change of payment gateway from HiPay to Stripe, with solutions to reduce involuntary churn, such as the ability to update expired blue cards
Today, the benefits are clear:
> Subscription time halved: 25 seconds instead of 50 to take out a subscription
> Transformation rate increased from 0.7% to 0.9%
> Launch of an offer in a few hours, compared with several weeks previously
> A flexible subscription tunnel: allowing upsell, cross-sell and the addition of new payment methods on the fly
> More efficient customer service: it previously took three weeks of training and three months to build the skills of a new advisor. Now, thanks to the new unified interface, a call center agent is up and running in just two days
> Full interview with Le Figaro team on The Audiencers
25 ideas of content, features & benefits to offer subscribers
In need of a few ideas for exclusive content, features, or benefits that you could offer in your premium subscription offers to differentiate your offering and provide real value? Our latest article has 25.
- Bonus accounts: Offer subscribers additional accounts included in their subscription (think Netflix family account).
🇬🇧 The Times and Sunday Times: Given that a significant number of subscribers were already sharing their digital access with friends and family, The Times recently (Feb 2025) decided to formalise account sharing. This strategy creates a barrier to cancelling (you’re less likely to cancel if you know that your partner or family are also enjoying the subscription) and helps to expand the reach of The Times’ journalism to a wider potential audience.
- Bundling with Other Services: Partner with other publishers or services to offer a bundled subscription at a discounted rate.
🇩🇪 BILD and Lidl: As of May 2024, BILD and Lidl in Germany have an exclusive digital partnership where Lidl Plus app users who reach a certain monthly shopping volume are rewarded with one month of free access to BILDplus, BILD’s premium digital content.
- Enhanced interactivity: Offer premium commenting sections where subscribers can engage in more thoughtful discussions, or live Q&A sessions with journalists and editors.
🇲🇾 Malaysiakini: The comments section is reserved for subscribers and top comments are selected 3 times a week as top voices.
Find 23 other ideas on The Audiencers
Recommendations to add to your reading list
- The Ditch Weekly, a paper by middle and high schoolers (ages 13 to 17) in Long Island, is covering the Hamptons from a new angle.
- Are machines our most valuable audience? How media can monetize AI agents
- From FT Strategies: Why newsroom transformation is key to subscription growth
See you in two weeks for the next newsletter,
Madeleine
