It's that time of year again! In the run-up to Christmas, Black Friday sales are the perfect opportunity to convince readers to convert into subscribers thanks to tempting discount offers.
What are others on the market doing?
What are the best practices to take away?
- Yearly offers (rather than monthly) keep subscribers retained for longer, giving you more time to form habits, show your value and convince them to stay
- Consider replacing external advertising spots with promotional material for your sale (see Le Figaro example)
- Catch the user's attention as soon as they arrive on your site, such as with a pop-up, banner or top-of-the-screen advert (like Jyllands-Posten)
- Use this opportunity to mix up your paywall design, reducing paywall blindness. ELLE France's wall has very similar text to their classic paywall but the simple change of colors ensures that the wall continues to be noticed by readers
- Make use of time limited offers to convince readers to convert here and now. We've even seen publishers in the past integrate a moving countdown into the wall
- Make sure to change all subscription-related marketing to promote this offer (including in emails, on social, apps, banners, paywall, etc). On some of the sites visited, we only noticed the Black Friday offer upon clicking on “subscribe” and seeing the offers. Readers shouldn't have to find this offer!
At The Audiencers' Festival, ELLE France shared their checklist to ensure consistency across all marketing supports and campaigns. If they update their wall for Black Friday, for instance, they update all these other supports too…
- Don't forget about retention! Onboarding and the steps post-subscription play an even greater role for subscribers who convert during a reduced-cost offer
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