© Illustration by Aurélie Garnier
Maverick Insider tackles low conversion rates with a targeted Q&A mailer, significantly enhancing member acquisition and engagement. The initiative addresses the gap between interest and action, providing detailed answers to potential members’ questions, which has led to a notable increase in conversions.
We spoke to Julia Harris, Head of Reader Revenue at South Africa’s Daily Maverick, to hear about this strategy, informing this article.
Key takeaways to copy & share
> Daily Maverick's membership mailers had strong click-through but converted at 10%. The gap was that membership needs explaining in a way a straightforward subscription doesn't > The fix is a single email. Twenty-four hours after someone clicks signup without completing, the head of membership writes personally, by name, answering the questions they probably still have > The questions are blunt ones: what is this, why is there no paywall, what has membership actually changed, what do I get, what does it cost and are there sneaky terms > That one email now accounts for around 3% of monthly acquisitions and up to 6.5% in good months, from an audience that had already been written off as non-converting > It also drew over a thousand replies, turning a conversion tactic into a standing feedback channel on exactly why people hesitate
The challenge: a click doesn’t always equal a conversion, right?
