5 essentials to launch a subscription model risk-free

Although there is of course a lot to master when launching your digital subscription model, these are our top 5 in terms of the paywall journey itself. 

Below, you'll find slides with a brief description of each point, plus links to additional articles to dive deeper on The Audiencers.

Soft conversion steps. Increasing engagement gradually over time, moving readers through “soft conversion steps”, such as newsletter sign up and registration, before asking for subscription can reduce the risk of a reader turning away when blocked by the paywall. We can consider this in increasingly more valuable conversion loops, whereby a reader is engaged through content, on-site features, etc. before being asked to partake in a value exchange.
Launch on only a small percentage of your audience. To avoid putting ad revenue or audience acquisition/engagement at risk, block only your most engaged readers to begin with. This gives you the space to test, analyze and optimize to master the conversion journey and build engagement amongst other users.
Check the impact of your paywall on SEO. Clue up on how the paywall blocking method will impact SEO, user experience and bypassing, putting our search recommendations into place to ensure you're not putting SEO at risk. TL;DR: paywalls in and of themselves are not harmful to SEO, and search engines like Google are actually putting measures into place to support digital subscription models. But it's still important to research the options and optimize your paywall and paywalled content for search.
Test, test and test again. The best strategy to ensure you're continuously optimizing!
Think of retention from day 1. Too many acquisition and retention teams launched with separate KPIs that don't work together. If you're acquiring as many subscribers as possible on a low offer, for instance, you'll likely suffer from high churn rates and this won't prove valuable to your business model in the long term. Instead, align acquisition and retention teams and aim to think about retention from before a reader even subscribes.

The slides

Soft conversion steps, such as newsletter sign up or free registration, allow you to gradually increase engagement whilst moving readers through the funnel towards subscription. In this way, the reader will be less frustrated when blocked by the paywall and more likely to subscribe.
For instance, a newsletter wall whereby you block content and ask a reader to sign up to your newsletter in exchange for access. EBRA Media group, on the left, provide a multiple-choice box to select a few newsletters within the wall itself.

Alternatively, a wall that simply informs a reader that they're getting access to a premium article for free. The only value exchange is that they have to close the wall, but they're then informed of the exclusive value they're getting access to in the content.
Whilst the previous examples are interesting, registration as a soft conversion step is by far the most valuable as you convert the reader from anonymous to known, being able to track their behavior on-site, across devices, as well as boost engagement, target ads and increase propensity to subscribe.
Registration also allows you to increase ad revenue through targeting, meaning it's a valuable revenue diversification strategy. By establishing a variety of revenue streams, and monetizing readers who aren't yet subscribed, you reduce the risks of investing in subscription.
How to ace registration for diversification. You can dive deeper into registration strategy best practices here.
One of the most important strategies is to integrate registration into the subscription journey, using it as a stepping stone rather than a seperate model. This could involve a double-wall (registration & paywall) to increase the visibility of your premium offer for instance. Even if the reader doesn't subscribe at this moment, they can directly compare the benefits of subscription vs registration.
You can also make use of registration to increase engagement and try to encourage readers to complete some of the actions that correlate with high lifetime value, such as newsletter sign up (habit-forming ones and special interest) and app download.
2. Launch on only a small percentage of your audience, perhaps those who are the most engaged and thus most likely to subscribe.

A successful conversion is all about balancing frustration and engagement.

Frustrate an unengaged reader with a paywall and they'll likely leave your site and find content elsewhere. But frustrate an engaged reader at the right moment and they'll likely be convinced to subscribe in order to gain access to the value they're after.

So, to find this balance without the risk of pushing unengaged readers away, you can start by launching on only your more engagement reader segment.
Here's an example of a soft launch in Poool.
1. Launch on only your most engaged audience segment
2. Offer X articles for free before blocking with the paywall to target only your more engaged readers
This is what Télégramme in France did for instance, but instead of leaving less engaged readers to continue reading freely, they blocked them with a registration wall to increase their engagement and propensity to subscribe in the future.
3. Check the impact of your paywall on SEO.
TL;DR. A paywall in and of itself, if implemented properly, doesn't hurt your immediate rankings in Google's news ecosystem. And, ultimately, everything our SEO expert recommended reflects the best practices that publishers should be putting in place for their subscription model anyway…
- Having quality content
- Making sure you're teasing with enough engaging articles
- But also blocking the good stuff that gives a reader a reason to subscribe.
…which suggests that SEO and subscription can work really well together.
But one thing you can do to reduce the risks of your paywall on SEO, as well as page load speed, bypassing and interferance with other scripts, is to understand the difference between user- and server-side paywall blocking methods. This table provides a brief summary, but you can find out more in our dedicated article, focusing on the topic of paywall bypassing, and in this interview with SEO expert, Barry Adams.
4. Test, test and test again!

The best, most user-friendly way to ask your audience which design, messaging and journey is optimal for converting them into a subscriber is to run A/B tests. Plus, with the right tools, like Poool, you can run these tests on each individual audience segment to find the optimal wall for each type of reader.
For instance, this publisher tested whether a short or long message (the long one details the benefits of their subscription offer) was better for conversion rates.
Version B, the shorter message, performed 5x better on average than version A, and this was the case across all audience segments and 3 websites.
Whilst Paris Match tested dynamic messaging for their paywall, adapting to the content type. This wall was on an article discussing the royal family, with copy that highlights the "Royal Mail" newsletter that subscribers get access to.
Jeune Afrique tested dynamic messaging based on a reader's location, finding 135% increase in clicks on the paywall adapted to "The Democratic Republic of Congo” vs the static wall.
Blick tested whether social proof, appreciation or congratulating readers was the optimal strategy for conversions. Find out more about Blick's registration and subscription strategy here.
Finally, don't forget to innovate! This French publisher opened all content for their birthday but asked readers to sign up to the newsletter.
5. Think of retention from day one.

How?
- Analyze what features do high-retaining subscribers have in common. E.g. do they all use the app, or read a certain newsletter?
- Integrate these into the journey pre- and post-subscription
- Build a bridge between acquisition and retention teams, with shared KPIs and projects
Integrating high-retaining engagement features into the funnel pre-subscription can be very powerful for retention rates and life-time value.
Oh and don't forget about ex-subscribers and those about to churn. Walls can be used in these instances to win them back or catch subscribers before they cancel without realising.
Got any questions or suggestions? Drop me an email!

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This piece has been written by Madeleine White

Madeleine is Co-founder of The Audiencers and VP Marketing at Poool. Having worked with a variety of publishers from across the globe, Madeleine's developed a deep understanding of reader revenue, engagement and conversion strategies.

All articles written by Madeleine White

5 essentials to launch a subscription model risk-free

The slides

This piece has been written by Madeleine White

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