In the saturated world of digital subscriptions, simply acquiring a user is only half the battle. The real challenge lies in the “sticky” phase: ensuring subscribers actually use the myriad of benefits they’ve paid for.
Recent research from The Times revealed a common pain point: subscribers often didn’t know the full extent of their benefits. “I didn’t know I had X, Y, and Z in my subscription,” was a recurring theme in surveys. To solve this, the marketing team launched the “Customer Rail”, a dedicated, highly visible module on the homepage designed to surface high-value actions (HVAs) that drive long-term retention.
I spoke with Em McLaughlin to hear about how The Times developed their Customer rail strategy, and how your newsroom can implement something similar.
1. Define your “High-Value Actions” (HVAs)
Before building a rail, you must identify which behaviors actually correlate with lower churn. For The Times, these aren’t just clicks; they’re “habit markers.”
Key HVAs identified at The Times include:
- Newsletter Sign-ups: Direct lines of communication straight into a subscribers’ inbox
- App Downloads: Shifting users to a more controlled, immersive environment.
- Bonus Accounts: Sharing a subscription (which The Times found improves retention by 6 percentage points).
- Puzzles: High-frequency, low-friction interactions that build a daily habit.
- Times+ Rewards: Redeeming exclusive discounts or entering competitions (like a high-performing Coldplay ticket giveaway last summer).
The Lesson: Work with your data team to identify which 3–5 actions separate your most loyal subscribers from those likely to churn.
2. Claim “marketing-owned” real estate
The homepage of a news site is traditionally editorial territory. However, a “Customer Rail” requires a permanent, non-negotiable space where the marketing team has autonomy.
At The Times, the rail sits directly under “Editor’s Picks.” It consists of two blocks that are updated every Tuesday and Friday. This frequency ensures that frequent visitors aren’t seeing stale promotions, which leads to “banner blindness.”
Of course, the messaging and actions are continuously tested to find the variants that connect most with subscribers. For instance:
“Discover Bonus Accounts: Give the people you love the gift of The Times” didn’t work as well as simple “Bonus Accounts: Share your Times subscription with your family”
By amending the feature to showcase who someone can share it with (their family) they saw a 100% uplift in CTR.
Having the control over these messages and being able to adjust based on performance, provides Em and the team with endless lessons to continuously improve.
3. Establish a cross-functional “gatekeeper” system
To keep the content fresh and relevant, The Times established a bi-monthly stakeholder meeting. This group includes representatives from:
- Retention/Marketing: To drive the primary KPIs.
- Editorial: To ensure the brand voice is maintained.
- Product Verticals: Puzzle editors, newsletter leads, and the Times+ rewards team.
The goal is to map out upcoming launches (e.g., a new puzzle like “Word Hunt”) and rotate them against evergreen benefits (e.g., app downloads) based on past performance data.
4. Move towards deep personalization
The “North Star” for any customer rail is completion of the action, but The Times is currently moving towards a Next Best Action (NBA) model, one that hides tiles for actions a user has already taken.
- Current Restriction: All logged-in UK subscribers see the same rail.
- The Goal: If a user has already downloaded the app, they shouldn’t see an “App Download” tile. Instead, they might see a prompt to enter a competition or play a puzzle they haven’t tried yet.
The Lesson: Even without a complex algorithm, start with simple segmentation. If your tech allows it, exclude users from promotions for products they already use.
(hint: Poool is a great tech solution for this kind of targeting throughout the funnel!)
5. Measure quality, not just clicks
The Times uses an automated report to track click-through rates (CTR) but goes a step further by working with the analytics team quarterly to measure conversions.
“A high CTR is good, but did they actually redeem the offer, play the puzzle… i.e. complete the desired action?” asks Em McLaughlin. This data helps guide the copy. For instance, testing revealed that high-intensity calls to action like “Redeem Now” often outperform softer phrases like “See what’s on offer.”
Case Study: The Times Benchmarks
Since launching in June 2025, The Times has tested over 120 different tiles. Some of their key findings include:
- For their loyalty program (Times+), 35% of people who took an action from the rail were first-time redeemers.
- They found that 29% of users who engaged with a puzzle from the rail returned to play on two or more subsequent days.
- Data showed that female subscribers and those aged 56+ have the strongest CTR on the rail, allowing them to skew content toward culture, fashion, and newsletters that appeal to these demographics.
Ready to try it?
The customer rail is a fairly simple starting place to prove the power of pushing high value actions across the subscriber experience, using the homepage as a tool for service discovery.
