Hi, I'm Lennart Schneider, Founder of Subscribe Now, helping decision-makers in the subscription economy attract subscribers and keep them happy.

When I talk to newsletter creators, it usually doesn't take long before one of two questions comes up:

1) What actually constitutes a good open rate?

2) My newsletter has an open rate of 40%. That's great, isn't it?

The honest answer is: There is no such thing as a "good" open rate, and the open rate really says nothing about the quality of your newsletter. 

In this article, I want to clear up this misconception and explain when you should still pay attention to it.

P.S. I've written a book! The playbook for successful subscription models: With growth strategies and best practices from 50 leading companies. You can pre-order here (or on Amazon).

I completely understand the need for benchmarking and comparability. With newsletters, you have relatively few metrics, so you try to draw as many conclusions as possible from what you do have. Often, however, you draw more conclusions than are actually useful.

Let’s start with the basics: open rate is a fraction. You calculate it by dividing the number of unique opens by the total number of recipients. So far, so simple.

However, this leads to a small detail that is often overlooked. You can increase the open rate in two ways: more openers, or fewer recipients.

The latter point is often overlooked, but it’s crucial. People who don’t open your newsletter are often the same ones. And especially with older mailing lists, you often have a large proportion of inactive subscribers who have lost all interest.

So, if you have a 50% open rate with 10,000 recipients, then there are probably several thousand among them who haven’t opened a single email in six months. Let’s say there are 3,000 of them. If you remove them from the mailing list, your open rate immediately jumps from 50% to 71.4% (5,000 opens/7,000 active recipients).

Has this improved the quality of your newsletter? Are your readers more satisfied? No!

Has the quality of your distribution system improved as a result? Absolutely!

Why would you delete valuable leads?

Admittedly, I’ve recommended this to many newsletter creators, but the enthusiasm is usually lukewarm. They’ve put a lot of money and effort into acquiring these subscribers, so why would they just delete the addresses? Perhaps the reach is even important for advertising sales (even if nobody sees the ads).

But here are a few reasons why it’s worth it:

1. If someone hasn’t opened your emails for a long time, the likelihood of them returning is relatively low
2. You increase the risk of being perceived as spam
3. Depending on the newsletter tool and contract, costs increase as you send more emails
4. Your brand suffers when customers perceive you as pushy
5. Your advertisers are surprised when clicks fail to materialize on a supposedly large distribution list, and become suspicious
6. …

Many of the world’s leading newsletters therefore place great importance on the quality of their mailing lists and remove users after a long period of inactivity. The New York Times even discloses this quite transparently:

How can I find out who is inactive?

Good question! And not so easy to answer. Since Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, it’s often difficult to track who actually opens an email – Apple automatically opens emails before they reach the recipient, and therefore your email program thinks these users are active. Other users block tracking and are registered as inactive, even though they enthusiastically read every issue. So if you’re unsure: just ask the users.

Clicks can be tracked more reliably than opens, and if readers don’t click after (repeated) requests, you can remove them from the mailing list with a clear conscience.

Do I really need to delete them?

No. You can also pause them for now, or reduce the frequency. A good example is the sports newsletter “The Gist”. They temporarily pause inactive subscribers, and then when a major event is coming up (for example, the Olympics), they try to reactivate them.

However, you shouldn’t overdo it. If you haven’t contacted them for 1.5 years, you should continue to refrain from doing so. After that time, their consent to contact them also expires.

Even more reasons why open rate is misunderstood

Your open rate depends on numerous factors, and the quality of your content is just one of them. Here’s a (likely incomplete) list of factors that affect open rates:

Mailbox display:

• Subject lines (Do they encourage clicks?)
• Pre-header (Do you tease the content well?)
• Sender’s name (Do they trust you and look forward to your emails?)
• Sender images (Will they stand out in the inbox? Only works with certain clients)

The quality of your distribution:

• Cleanup of inactive users (Are non-openers regularly removed?)
• Segmentation (Do you always send emails to the entire mailing list or do you select recipients based on interests?)
• Preference Center (Can users configure which emails they receive and how frequently?)
• Age of the addresses (How long ago did someone sign up?)
• Lead campaigns/address origin (On which channels and with which promises were the users acquired? Did they want the newsletter, or did they just share their email to participate in a competition, for example?)

Deliverability

• Advertising tab in Gmail (Are emails from Gmail classified as advertising and not delivered to the main mailbox?)
• Spam (Do the emails often end up in the spam folder?)
• Bounces (Can the emails not be delivered? What are the different types of bounces, hard and soft?)
• Image sizes (are the images too large?)
• Email size (Will the email be truncated, for example, by Gmail, which happens from 102 kb upwards?)
• Shipping time (Is the shipping time chosen?)

Contents

• Good quality & relevance
• Diversity (do you cover different needs so that every issue contains an “aha” moment?)
• Continuity & predictability (Do readers know what to expect and why each issue is worthwhile?)

Technology

• Email tool or measurement technology (each mailing tool measures opens slightly differently, which affects the KPIs)
• Tracking Opt Out (Have users disabled tracking of clicks and opens?)
• Auto Opens on iOS (Are open rates inflated because emails are automatically opened due to privacy settings?)

So I can ignore the open rate?

Not quite. Since we don’t have many metrics, it’s still a valuable signal, as long as you’re aware of what it tells you, and what it doesn’t.

What you shouldn’t do is compare your absolute open rate with competitors who use completely different tools and whose lead generation works differently. This apples-to-oranges comparison is completely pointless.

What you can do instead:

• Observe long-term trends: Is my own open rate constant? Have there been any sudden changes I should understand? (But keep in mind that these changes could be due to technical reasons, e.g., more users with tracking protection.)
• Optimize your open rate with A/B testing: e.g., send each email with 3 different subject lines to a sample group beforehand and send the best version to the rest of the distribution list.
• Examine outliers: Were there any particular issues that were opened more or less frequently than average? What can I learn from them?
• Re-contacting those who didn’t open the email: Some companies send a newsletter a second time if it wasn’t opened the first time. I find it a bit spammy, but it seems to work.
• Use net reach (recipients x open rate) as the basis for advertising deals: This is fair to your advertising clients and you can also justify why the CPM (cost per thousand contacts) is higher if you are contacting a cleaned distribution list.
• Comparing segments: When running different lead generation campaigns, you shouldn’t just focus on the short-term cost per lead (CPL), but also consider whether the campaigns generate active recipients in the long run. A sweepstakes often generates a large number of addresses cheaply, but the open rate drops significantly after just a few campaigns.
  For better comparability, you can calculate a cost per lead after, for example, 10 campaigns. If you generate 1,000 leads per campaign for €1,000 in each of two campaigns, the short-term CPL is €1. If, after 10 campaigns, 70% of the leads in campaign A are still active, while only 30% remain active in campaign B, you get a clear picture: In campaign A, an active lead cost €1.43, while in campaign B it cost €3.33.
• …

PS: My newsletter has an open rate of 51-58%. That’s great, isn’t it?…

PPS: To hear more from me about subscription and newsletters, sign up to my own newsletter, Subscribe Now, here

This article was originally published in German on the Subscribe Now website, translated and republished with permission.

This article was written by Lennart Schneider, founder of Subscribe Now podcast & newsletter, and expert on digital subscription models.

Hi, I'm Lennart Schneider, Founder of Subscribe Now, helping decision-makers in the subscription economy attract subscribers and keep them happy.

In this article, we look at Duolingo - a leading e-learning app that has mastered the art of habit-forming, something that's essential for subscription success. 

1. Start with why

Freeletics relies on strong emotions throughout the entire user journey. Ellie says:

To make this work in practice, she reveals a few tricks:

1. Always ask “why”

Users have very different reasons for wanting to get fit: some want to fit into a wedding dress, some want to be more successful at dating and others want to change their mindset.

If you understand these underlying motivations, you can address the strong emotions in acquisition, but also in churn prevention.

Laddering helps with this. So ask “why?” several times in a row.

Why did you sign up for Freeletics?
“I want a six-pack.”

Why do you want a six-pack?
“Because I’m ashamed of my body in the swimming pool.”

Why are you ashamed of your body?
“Because others might think I lack discipline”

2. User Generated Content

Freeletics’ advertising relies primarily on content from real users. They work with impressive transformations, i.e. before and after videos.

The idea behind it is: “If Peter can do it, then I can do it too.”

These videos are sometimes sent in by users without being asked, but sometimes they are also professionally produced, for example as part of a boot camp lasting several weeks, where the participants are accompanied by camera teams.

Ellie says: “Many people are actually very proud to be Freeletics users because it has a certain meaning in terms of consistency and effort.”

3. Show relevant success stories

These success stories work particularly well when they are highly personalized. As a woman, you are more likely to be attracted to a female success story than to a man who has trained himself to have a six-pack.

But it gets even more granular. Since Freeletics wants to appeal to as diverse a target group as possible, they also have videos with trans people and other minorities so that they too feel represented.

This personalization begins with targeting on the advertising channels, but also continues through to engagement and retention. The CRM campaigns, for example, always contain motivational stories that are tailored as well as possible to the user.

2. Personalization in onboarding

Most successful apps now start onboarding with a questionnaire.

This questionnaire has two functions:

1. Based on your answers, the appropriate subscription benefits can be displayed to increase your conversion from free to paid
2. Your answers are the first step to personalization

With Freeletics, you start by choosing a training plan that suits your preferences. The better the app knows you, the better the plan fits your lifestyle and the more likely you are to stick with it.

Ellie says that the training plan meets 85% of the needs in the first week and then becomes more personalized from workout to workout.

> Publisher onboarding benchmarks and best practices

3. Streaks keep daily engagement high

One day without using Duolingo and the streak is gone. Ouch!

Freeletics has also started using the popular streak-strategy. In order to not lose the streak, you have to exercise for at least 17 minutes a day, otherwise the counter drops back to zero.

Ellie emphasizes that these streaks are not relevant for every user, but some even write to support if the streak didn’t work because of a different time zone while on vacation! It shows how much they want the workout to be recognized.

The email tool that I use for my newsletter proves that streaks work outside of sports and languages. I write this newsletter in beehiiv and if I don’t publish a newsletter within four days at the latest, my weekly streak expires.

By the way, Ellie is currently at 309 days in Duolingo. Respect!

4. Understand the conversion killers – and address them openly

It’s not enough to understand why someone wants to use the app. It’s just as important to understand why not?

At Freeletics, they realized early on that many people don’t have much space to train at home. So they developed special workouts that can work in small spaces. Other users have neighbors who complain about the noise, so they need quiet workouts.

If you understand these conversion killers, you can address them openly and offer solutions. That’s why such restrictions are asked about directly in the onboarding process. This is where Freeletics can show that they understand your concerns and take the limitations into account when personalizing.

5. Activate the community with challenges

70,000 people took part in the Freeletics Summer Challenge. This surprised even Ellie and her team. The goal is to make the challenge even bigger and better this January.

The challenge shows that the best way to motivate one another is for people to share a common goal and unite over this.

6. Newsletter as MVP

12 years ago, three students sent training plans as PDFs via email. That was the birth of Freeletics.

This example shows once again that a newsletter is often the best minimum viable product to find out, without much effort, whether people want your product.

If a significant number of people give you their email address, you have a first positive signal. But even more important is what happens when you take the newsletter away from them.

When the founders stopped the newsletter, users wrote to them: “Here are my PayPal credentials, take whatever you want, but please keep sending me my training plan.”

7. A letter to yourself

This feature does not exist yet, but Ellie dreams of introducing it! Anyone who registers for the app can write a letter to themselves and make a commitment in it.

When your motivation wanes after a few weeks, this letter appears again and you are reminded of the big dreams you started with.

You will find out if this feature is really coming when you install the app…

If you like this article, you can help me in four ways:

 Follow me on LinkedIn

 Recommend the newsletter

 Subscribe to the podcast

 Send me topic suggestions

1. Find the right analytics method for your question

AI is being applied to many problems today, often as the default. However, this approach often doesn’t make sense. In many cases, a simpler analysis method—such as a basic hypothesis test or descriptive statistics—is sufficient. These traditional techniques can be more appropriate and effective for many analytical tasks.

Ana therefore recommends considering these four types of analysis for each question, considering what level of complexity is appropriate for the question:

• Descriptive statistics: What’s happening in my business?
• Exploratory statistics: Why is it happening?
• Predictive statistics: What’s likely to happen?
• Prescriptive statistics: What should I do now?

Important: All of these analyses only work if they are based on a solid data foundation. Otherwise, the old rule applies: Sh*t in, sh*t out!

> Also by Lennart: Handelsblatt Circles: 6 lessons on community from Chief Growth Officer Jan Kleibrink

2. To reduce churn, you need models that explain why users cancel

Many companies are currently introducing prediction scores to analyze which users are particularly likely to take out a subscription, accept a subscription upgrade, or cancel their subscription in the next X months.

There are two ways to build these models:

1. Pre-trained models that have already been optimized with subscription data and are often already integrated into tools, such as Piano
2. Self-trained models that you develop in-house and feed with your own data

Although the latter is much more complex and requires a lot of know-how in the data science team, Ana recommends this approach.

She sees two advantages in this:

1. You are tool-agnostic, so you can use these analyses independently of the systems used for subscription management and the like and combine data from different sources.
2. These models provide a more precise understanding of how individual variables affect the probability of termination.

Pre-trained models are quicker to use and can often be implemented by laypeople, but they often remain a black box. That is, each user is assigned a value between 0 and 100, but it is not possible to understand exactly why.

If you work with such a black box, you can test a measure (e.g. an email campaign) and see whether it reduces the likelihood of cancellation.

However, it is better if you understand that, for example, payment by invoice has a major impact on the likelihood of cancellation. Then you can test measures to steer users to another payment method with a lower churn rate.

The success of this measure can then be measured in two steps:

1. Were fewer subscriptions ordered on account?
2. Did users in this test group cancel less often?

So you should try to improve the input variables rather than focusing on the output like a churn score.

A statistical model is particularly useful if it helps you understand the patterns behind the terminations, because then you can develop and prioritize targeted hypotheses and measures.

3. The difference between a CDP, a CRM, a data warehouse and a data lake

When it comes to data, you come across these terms all the time and it helps to understand the differences. to put it simply, they’re different ways of storing and structuring data.

1. A data lake collects data from different sources in different formats. This includes data where it is not yet known whether and how it will be used and often the data is not yet finally structured and cleaned.
2. In contrast, a data warehouse has a clearer structure. The data is (symbolically speaking) already stored in labeled boxes on pallets on a shelf in a warehouse. Imagine it like an Ikea warehouse, where you always know where to find the Billy shelf and how many of them are still in stock.
3. A customer data platform (CPD) organizes the data around the customer. While the data warehouse contains all possible data, the CDP bundles different sources and all touchpoints with your users in order to understand exactly what a customer is interested in, what they last bought and when they last visited the website.
   
   In addition, a CDP offers operational functions, such as personalization and campaign management, in order to implement marketing and communication measures based on data.
4. A customer relationship management (CRM) system manages the interactions between you and your customers. In contrast to the CDP, however, the CRM usually has a more limited view of interactions within certain systems and does not yet contain the data from all touchpoints.

Each of these systems has its advantages and disadvantages, so it always depends on the area of ​​application what you need. However, it is important that the data is properly compared so that you have a single source of truth and no contradictory information that then leads to chaos.

1. The motivation

Why should I read you? This will arouse your visitor’s interest. What do I get out of it? What goal will I achieve with it?

In the USA, a fairly simple formula has been adopted: “Get smart (about XY) in X Minutes”.

It combines three promises: fast, simple, effective!

• Morning Brew: Become smarter in just 5 minutes
• The Hustle: Get Smarter on Business and Tech
• Smart Nonsense: Get smart about nonsense 

Other newsletters promise you a good start to the day:

• The Newsette: Make good mornings even better.

• Nice News: Wake up with a more optimistic mindset and start your day inspired.

Others help you understand the world:

• Daily Skimm: Get caught up on the top stories and information you need to start your day. We filter the noise so you don’t have to — all in a well-rounded read.
• 1440: Feed your curiosity & expand your knowledge.
• intrigue: Know what’s going on in the world, and why

And others promise you success in your career:

• Creator Wizard: Find & Negotiate your Dream Sponsorships
• girlboss daily: Finally, an email you’ll actually look forward to. Join 250,000 ambitious women who are finding  success  on their own terms.
• Startup Insider Daily: Be one step ahead and actively shape your success story in the emerging startup ecosystem.
• Techpresso: Keep up with Tech in 5 minutes. Save time, become more productive and boost your career.
• SmartBrief: We make it easy for business leaders to stay up to date on their industry’s most important topics.

Personally, I like the newsletters that just make you a better person:

• Rocca News: Become the most interesting person at Happy Hour

• Arnold’s Pump Club: The positive Corner of the Internet. The daily email that makes it easier to live a healthier, happier life without all the confusion and stress.
• Crooked: Put an end to doomscrolling forever

 Tips:

• Here you should stimulate the imagination of your users: The motivation can either be a positive vision of their future, a problem that the newsletter solves for them, or a concrete task that it takes on for them.
• It’s best to repeat this mission statement at the top of every newsletter issue. This will remind your readers every time why your newsletter is worth it and it will be your obligation to always live up to this promise.

> To read next: How to make newsletters valuable in a reader revenue model – The Telegraph & The Edinburgh Guardian

2. The solution

Here you have to prove that you have the right content, categories and formats to fulfill this motivation. It is best to be very specific here and describe content that makes you unique and arouses desire.

 Examples: 

• The Newsette: With shopping recs, lifestyle tips, inspiring interviews, and the news you need to know.
• 1440: We scour 100+ sources so you don’t have to. Culture, science, sports, politics, business, and more—all in a five-minute read.
• TLDR: Get the free daily email with summaries of the most interesting stories in startups  , tech  , and programming !
• Startup Insider Daily: Get curated summaries of the latest startup and tech news delivered daily at 7am.
• Blazer: We source through hundreds of publications and social media accounts every day to find the best articles, photos, and inspiration from around the web. Then we package it all into a simple and brief email once a week and deliver it right to your inbox.
• The Daily Upside: Delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets.
• Semafor Flagship: The biggest stories across the globe in 100 words or less.
• chartr: Data-driven insights into business, tech, entertainment and society.
• Axios Media Trends: The trends reshaping the digital media ecosystem, by Sara Fischer.
• intrigue: Craving apolitical, jargon-free news and analysis from around the world? You’re in luck!
• Nice News: News, but only the good stuff. Nice News sends a daily digest to your inbox every morning with only positive news stories.

• Crooked: Get more pithy analysis of the world we live in including what’s happening, why it matters, and what you can do about it.
• Bits & Pieces (scalable Capital): Your weekly dose of financial news in 5 minutes. The most important things about markets, stocks, ETFs & Co
• Arnold’s Pump Club: Arnold’s Pump Club is a daily newsletter by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Simplify nutrition, fitness, and wellness with Arnold’s email every day.
• Smart Nonsense: Get our daily comic explaining nerdy stuff like you’re 5.

 Tips:

• It is best to list the three most important points as bullet points.
• You should keep it as short as possible on the first screen, but below the fold you can explain in more detail what this content is about.

> Also by Lennart: Lock-in effects: How to make your subscription irreplaceable

3. The target group

Who is your newsletter aimed at? The more specific the target group, the faster the visitor will recognize whether the newsletter is intended for them.

 Examples: 

• The Hustle: innovators
• 1440: intellectually curious individuals
• Blazers: men who care about how they look
• The Peak: Canadians

• Bits & Pieces (scalable Capital): Investors
• The Diff: industry professionals and curious generalists
• girlboss daily: ambitious women
• TLDR: busy techies
• chartr: visual thinkers and data-driven professionals

 Tips:

• Always ask yourself: Is this a target group that people would like to identify with?
• You can define the target group, for example, through a common goal, socio-demographics, professional groups, etc.
• The target group is often mentioned in the value proposition or social proof and should be described in a maximum of three words.
• The best target groups also make it clear who the newsletter is not for . You don’t want to be everything for everyone, but the right solution for certain people.

4. The social proof

You can claim a lot, but is your newsletter really that great? User numbers or opinions from readers or experts build trust and make you seem relevant.

There are many possible forms, for example:

• User quotes
• Expert opinions
• Star ratings
• User numbers
• Logos of media in which you were mentioned
• Celebrities who recommend the newsletter
• Companies where your readers work

 Examples: 

• Techpresso: Join 100,000+ free daily readers / Read by professionals from Apple, OpenAI, Nvidia, and more
• Bits & Pieces (scalable Capital): Over 700,000 investors
• Smart Nonsense: Read by nerds from …
• The Diff: Join 50,000+ industry professionals and curious generalists
• girlboss daily: Join 250,000 ambitious women
• The Hustle: Trusted by 2.5m+ Readers
• Daily Skimm: The morning newsletter that millions wake up to
• 1440: 3,666,461 Readers today (updated every second)
• TLDR: Join 1,250,000 readers

• The Gist: Join 900,000+ readers. As seen in Forbes, goop, TechCrunch
• chartr: Join 500,000+ visual thinkers and data-driven professionals…
• intrigue: designed by former diplomats. Trusted by Professionals at Microsoft, Meta, McKinsey, …

 Tips:

• The testimonials should express different aspects of your value proposition in readers’ words
• The more reputable your testimonials are in your target group, the better

5. Address concerns

Most users are initially hesitant about whether they should really enter their email address. Make them feel comfortable by openly addressing their concerns and signaling that they can trust you.

First and foremost, they have three concerns:

1. Can I simply unsubscribe?
2. Am I getting spam?
3. Do I have to pay anything?

 Examples: 

• intrigue: 100% FREE. NO SPAM. UNSUBSCRIBE ANY TIME.
• TheFutureParty: It’s free!
• girlboss daily: No spam. No junk. Only the most curated content, we promise!
• chartr: completely free … PS No spam. Ever.
• The Gist: 100% free.
• 1440: 100% free, unsubscribe anytime.

 Tip:

• These points should be close to the call to action, e.g. in small print above or below.

6. The frequency

The best newsletters become a regular habit that readers integrate into their daily lives. Some are read in bed in the morning, others on the way to work or home, and some on the toilet.

So when they register, show them what ritual they will develop with you.

 Examples: 

• Rocca News: 11 AM ET on weekdays.
• Daily Skimm: SEVEN DAYS A WEEK
• TLDR: one daily email
• Quartz Daily Brief: delivered every weekday morning

• Startup Insider Daily: daily at 7am
• The Gist: every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday morning
• Semafor Flagship: twice daily
• Axios Media Trends: Weekly – Tuesdays
• Nice News: daily digest / every morning
• Crooked: free nightly newsletter
• DTC: five times a week
• Techpresso: daily readers
• TheFutureParty: 5-min daily newsletter
• Arnold’s Pump Club: Arnold’s email every day
• girlboss daily: Monday to Friday.

 Tip:

• Precise time specifications seem binding. If you promise that your email will be in their inbox every morning at 7 a.m., prospective customers will immediately see that they can rely on you.

7. The length

I admit: This newsletter is way too long again. Most readers don’t want any waffling, they’ll give you a maximum of 5 minutes of their time. So it’s no wonder that so many newsletters are optimized for exactly this reading time (or at least promise it).

 Examples: 

• The Hustle: 5-minute newsletter
• Rocca News: in 5 minutes or less
• The Gist: in less than 5 minutes
• chartr: takes 5 minutes to read
• The Peak: in one 5-minute email
• intrigue: 5-minute newsletter
• TheFutureParty: 5-min daily newsletter
• Morning Brew: just 5 minutes

• TLDR: in 5 minutes
• Semafor Flagship: in 100 words or less
• finish: three minutes

 Tips:

• Remember that most newsletters are skimmed rather than read, so you can set aside time for a cursory reading.
• The best newsletters are respectful of their readers’ time. To underline this, Axios lists the exact word count and reading time at the beginning of each email: “Today’s AI+ is 1,214 words, a 4.5-minute read.”
• If you can’t estimate the reading time, copy your newsletter here and let us calculate it. This issue will take you 8:11 minutes.

8. The Call to Action

It’s just a small thing, but you can also tell a story on the registration button:

• “Join” suggests a community
• “Try it out” lowers the hurdle
• “Sign up for free” alleviates a worry
• and “Wake up happy” promises me a better life.

 Examples: 

• Axios: Sign Up
• finimize: Join Free
• Blazers: Join
• Semafor Flagship: Sign up for free
• The Peak: Try It
• intrigue: Try it out
• Nice News: Wake up happy
• Bits & Pieces (scalable capital): Get started now
• Creator Wizard: SEND ME SPONSORSHIPS ➤

 Tips:

• Maximum three words.

9. The product

The same applies to newsletters: show, don’t tell! A meaningful screenshot of your newsletter says more than 1,000 words.

 Tips:

• Some newsletters show the inbox as well as the email. This allows you to see the subject lines and the topics that await you.
• The screenshot can be animated or scrollable and thus serves directly as a reading sample.
• It doesn’t have to be a real screenshot. Feel free to shorten text or summarize sections to show more on one screen. Above all, it should give a feel for your product.

Speak German? You HAVE to sign up to Lennart’s newsletter, an essential read for anyone in the publishing industry!

Here are four things you can learn from the NZZ:

1. Four Mission Teams along the Subscriber Journey

The NZZ works in four cross-functional mission teams that are organized along the subscriber journey: Discover, Subscribe, Engage and Delve deeper.

So the first step is to create a positive first contact with the NZZ for as many people as possible, then to bring them closer to the brand through registrations, podcasts and newsletters  convert them to a subscription and finally build loyalty and increase ARPU through additional offers and upgrades such as the premium subscription “PRO Global”.

The missions are intended to break down silos and bring product, UX design, technology, marketing, data and editorial teams closely together. Each mission consists of a core team from three disciplines (product, design, technology), which draws support from adjacent teams depending on the project.

Aligning the customer journey means that there are clear responsibilities and each team has KPIs that are easy to measure. But Alban also sees challenges in that users are not accompanied from start to finish and there are sometimes dependencies between teams that make the work more difficult.

That’s why he’s currently working on revising the team structure as part of his leadership program at Columbia University. Because, just like product development, organizational development should be driven forward iteratively and learnings implemented efficiently.

2. From registration to subscription

Alban’s team is responsible for discovery, which roughly means from the first contact with the brand to registration and subsequent onboarding.

They are currently experimenting with registration walls and when this makes more sense than a paywall to build up a pool of interested users.

After registration, he considers the first 100 days to be crucial, because if you don’t take out a subscription by then, in most cases you won’t do so again.

The most important product to get started with is the daily NZZ Briefing. Readers receive this automatically after registering and it is designed to build a habit of reading NZZ journalism.

But it is also important for them to ensure that their offerings are used as widely as possible. That’s why podcasts and videos are also recommended to registered readers, even if they are usually available for free. It’s about building a relationship with the brand in a variety of ways, developing loyalty and trust.

3. Using personalization to combat the filter bubble

Personalization plays a major role on NZZ, especially in the newsletter, “My NZZ”, and in reading recommendations below articles.

However, one should pay attention to the users’ needs and concerns. They fear missing out on important topics because they don’t match their profile or because they sink deeper and deeper into their own bubble.

That’s why the personalized NZZ products are designed so that you always see the most important news whilst also getting targeted inspiration for topics that broaden your horizons.

To do this, the internal data team develops models based, for example, on users with similar profiles.

The homepage and the NZZ Briefing are not yet personalized. Alban hasn’t ruled this out, but they would like to use more editorial expertise in this area and curate topics that are relevant to readers.

He generally sees personalization as a retention rather than acquisition tool. On the one hand, the data to give good recommendations is (still) missing at the acquisition moment, but on the other hand, the reading recommendations are only valuable if you have a subscription in order to access the articles.

4. Develop new markets with verticals

NZZ, for example, has set up verticals with “Planet A” for climate journalism and “Well-Being” to attract users in new subject areas.

The verticals often start with a newsletter or podcast, but are then expanded to other areas.

They are managed by editors who serve as the face of the brand and work closely with the product team. This is also one of the big differences to departments, because verticals can work like small startups within the company, pursuing their own goals and being developed by cross-functional teams.

Even if the verticals open up new topics, they must always have a connection to the core product, because only then can readers be transferred to the core subscription. Depending on how much they already offer for these target groups, Alban recommends different strategies.

What he advises against: cheap subscriptions for individual verticals. They should continue to contribute to the core business and not shift the focus away from the normal NZZ subscription.

Find more of Lennart’s work on Subscribe Now.

Figma, ZEIT, Babbel, Table.Briefings, Fortune and The Pioneer... The Subscribe Now tour, in partnership with Deutsche Fachpresse this March, meant visiting a variety of international subscription businesses around Berlin, learning from their success in monetizing their readers online. Didn't make it? Don't fret, I've written a short summary for you here so that you can enjoy the tour even if you weren't there.

And maybe I'll see you next time?

1st stop, Figma: Digital products should also be fun

Figma is one of the leading tools for UX and UI designers, and with FigJam and the new Developer Mode, they map the entire product development process from brainstorming and prototyping to design for front-end development.

Mareike Busche, Senior Director DACH & CEE, talked about how they involve their community in product development, among other things. What I remember most (apart from the fact that there are Figma fans who even have tattoos of the company logo!) is her belief that software should also be fun.

Some features like stamps and emojis in FigJam were not at the top of her users’ wish list, but one developer championed the idea and today they are among the most popular features.

So when developing products, don’t always think about rational benefits for subscribers, but also develop lovely gimmicks that are simply fun.

2. DIE ZEIT: The 5 levers of subscription marketing

DIE ZEIT is Germany’s largest newspaper. With a paid circulation of 602,000 copies per week, they have grown significantly in recent years, especially with the Z+ paywall on ZEIT ONLINE.

Jannick Weißel, Marketing Director, not only presented how they recently organized their teams into missions, but also showed his 5C model for the most important levers in subscription marketing: Content, Creative, Conversion, Churn and Collaboration.

> More from Lennart: Don’t feel like subscribing? 12 examples of alternatives to increase ARPU

3rd, Babbel: A scoring model decides who gets offered an upgrade

With over 10 million subscriptions sold, Babbel is one of the most widely used language learning apps in the world. In addition to the app for independent learning, they’ve also been offering online lessons in small groups for a few years now.

Their new live offer is an upgrade that they want to make visible and attractive to as many of their existing subscribers as possible for upsell potential. But, at the same time, there’s a risk of annoying subscribers with too many advertising campaigns and, in the worst case, even losing an email opt-in if a user unsubscribes.

To reduce this risk, Wenke Jehmlich, Senior CRM Manager, showed us a scoring model that uses machine learning to calculate which users are most likely to be interested in an upgrade. This allowed them to automate processes, reduce unsubscribes and increase ARPU through more subscription upgrades.

Incidentally, these 5 factors also had the greatest effect on the likelihood of upgrading:

1. Long subscription term
2. Higher spending in the previous subscription
3. Subscription ending soon
4. High quantity of lessons and courses completed
5. Frequent use of the app

4th stop, Table.Briefings: Decision-makers read differently

Table.Briefings is a pioneer in the field of professional briefings and informs decision-makers in politics and business with newsletters and podcasts. It now reaches 200,000 people with its publications on political Berlin, China, Europe, Africa, education, sustainability and other topics.

Founded in 2020 by former Tagesspiegel editor Sebastian Turner, they want their “deep journalism” to stand for a new kind of quality journalism.

Managing Director Simon Kretschmer explained that their services are aimed very specifically at the top decision-makers in their 10 subject areas. They saw a gap in the market for differentiated reporting with in-depth domain expertise.

It was exciting to see that this focus not only affects the content, but also the usage situation: unlike most other briefings, the Berlin briefing is not published in the morning, but in the evening, because decision-makers are scheduled during the day to prepare for the next day between 9 and 10 p.m. and Table gives them an information advantage.

This is also reflected in the figures: 2/3 of bosses read the briefings before they come into the office.

5th stop, Fortune: Optimally monetize every page view

Fortune Media is an almost 100-year-old business magazine that still sees itself as a startup. In Germany, they are probably known to many through the Fortune 500 and other lists, but they also run a successful paid content model, host various conferences and organize communities for decision-makers.

Selma Stern, Chief Customer Officer, emphasized in her presentation how important it is to find the perfect individual business model for each user. Most website visitors will never take out a subscription, but they may be willing to register, buy a recommended product or at least be monetized through advertising.

At Fortune, they work on models to predict as accurately as possible which offer is optimal in which situation. To do this, they use factors such as source of traffic or device type. People who come to the website for the first time from social media on a smartphone, for example, have such a low probability of taking out a subscription that the paywall is automatically opened and the page view is monetized through advertising.

The lesson behind this: it’s not the type of content that determines whether a subscription is taken out, but the type of user.

6. The Pioneer: Simplifying the paywall

Media Pioneer is probably one of the most exciting German media start-ups of recent years. Launched in 2018 by former Handelsblatt editor-in-chief Gabor Steingart as Morning Briefing, it is now a company with around 70 employees, a collection of newsletters, podcasts, events, an app … and a boat. From Pioneer One, their newsletter reaches over 200,000 people every day, and the podcasts are streamed over 1 million times a week.

Moritz Klein, Head of Memberships, and Paul Horlacher, Director of Commercial Strategy, presented their Guided Paywall. After originally wanting to offer the perfect subscription at the perfect price for every user group, they reduced their four subscription packages to just one in a test.

The results were clear: the simpler paywall led to significantly more conversions and a higher ARPU.

This example shows once again that every additional decision at the paywall decreases conversion rates and that users should not be overloaded with information.

Are you a German publisher? Lennart is running another road trip on November 19th in Hamburg! Secure your ticket today.