Increasing retention rates has been a key focus for subscription businesses in recent years, particularly as it’s now widely recognized that retention is more valuable to your business, and less costly, than acquisition.
The solution? Well, aside from collaborating between these teams with shared KPIs around increasing subscriber value (ARPU) and lifetime value, it’s the collective understanding that retention starts from the moment a reader first visits your site. It’s therefore essential to integrate retention-optimizing strategies throughout the funnel, before, during and post conversion.
One moment in particular when retention work is essential is in the moments immediately after subscription, the on-site onboarding journey.
How should you choose your onboarding steps?
Onboarding steps should be chosen by combining…
- How popular a product is (proxied by the average proportion of users that use it at least once over a 30-day timeframe)
- How impactful a product is on engagement (proxied by how engaged a user of that product is 30 days after using it)
According to FT Strategies, you can then rank features by how ‘likely’ they are to drive adoption and generate engagement, using this to structure your onboarding process accordingly.
Newsletter subscription
Newsletters are widely recognized as valuable engagement, conversion and retention tools. So it’s no wonder that they’re considered an essential part of any good onboarding journey.
At El Confidencial, for instance, readers who are registered for a newsletter have a 15% greater chance of renewing their subscription. At La Vanguardia, churn is reduced by 50% when a subscriber is signed up to the newsletter, and this content has proven to build subscriber loyalty.
According to data from EL PAÍS, 63% of subscribers are signed up to a newsletter which has proven to directly impact churn, reducing it by up to 22%. Premium newsletter subscribers have 29% lower churn, whilst this figure is at 15% for app users.
At The Financial Times, research has proven that 18% of engaged subscribers would be disengaged if it wasn’t for the newsletters. What’s more, they’re also hugely impactful when it comes to lifetime value.
How are publishers encouraging new subscribers to sign up to a newsletter within the first minutes of converting?
Focus is on the journalists, and building close, personal relationships with individuals rather than the wider brand. The note from the editor in chief, plus addressing writers by their first names, really adds to this ‘human’ touch.
Bright colors and single-click-subscription
The “subscriber only” tag highlights the value that a reader now has access to
4 “subscriber only” newsletters, that likely support high engagement and habit-forming, are pre-selected
A step dedicated to a single newsletter, one that forms a daily habit around the NYT
Note the personalization: “in Europe”
More special interest newsletters to personalize the reader’s experience
Interestingly, the text here talks about the value of the app, whilst it’s newsletters than we can sign up to below
Newsletter title that makes it clear of the topic, short value proposition, supporting image, single-click sign up, frequency of send, ability to skip this step… this is a great benchmark example
The slider adds a slight friction to signing up to multiple emails, perhaps a page displaying the most popular newsletters would be better
We’re asked questions about our interests prior to this step, meaning The WP can recommend newsletters to the individual
Email alerts are included amongst newsletters
The essentials for newsletter sign up onboarding step:
- Communicate when you’ll send the newsletter and how frequently – it’s often clearer to the readers to say “Tuesdays” rather than “weekly”
- Consider highlighting the fact that these newsletters are only available to subscribers, thus forefronting the value this reader now has access to
- Images help quick comprehension of the newsletter topic
- Run research to discover why readers are so engaged in your newsletters and be sure to highlight this. For instance, for The Atlantic, it’s likely the journalist writing the content, as this is what the page focuses on
- Make sign up easy – a single click via a check box is often the preferred method
- Quality not quantity – you don’t need to feature all newsletters but maybe just those that are the most popular, most valuable for increasing engagement/forming habits or even personalized recommendations most suited to that individual
App download
Apps are now widely recognized as an essential engagement tool, but research has proven their value for retention of loyal readers in particular:
Websites excel at acquisition, attracting massive audiences that not only have their own intrinsic added value but who have the potential to be encouraged into a deeper and more lucrative relationship with the brand. The primary role of an app is to provide a hub for a publisher’s most loyal readers to come and engage with their brand on a regular basis, reinforcing a direct relationship and creating a level of stickiness that can’t be achieved elsewhere. As such, they tend to work extremely well on the upper right hand side of the diagram where the smaller, but most valuable audiences spend their time.
Pugpig State of Mobile Publishing Market Report 2024
Plus apps are super sticky in terms of time spent and frequency of visits, key engagement metrics that correlate with high retention.
What are publishers doing to encourage app download?
This onboarding step takes place on the content post conversion via a banner.
In their onboarding brochure, sent by post to new subscribers, The Economist provides a QR code and steps to set up the app
On their on-site onboarding, The Economist also provides a QR code, but focus is more on the value of the app rather than how to get started.
We’re offered two ways to download the app, and importantly they use data already collected to do this (email address) so as to not add an additional friction point
A clear value proposition, 3 benefits plus an image example make this an effective page, but the actual CTA is less clear
Although this step does allow for a user to access the link on their phone (where they’ll be able to download the app), this adds another friction point
Although confirmation is appreciated, again this adds another click which perhaps isn’t necessary and could be better used elsewhere
Simple and effective, with a QR code, image preview, short value proposition text and app store logos for reassurance
The essentials for the app download step in subscriber onboarding:
- The tricky thing here is to go from desktop to mobile, but the QR code idea is an effective one that makes for a smooth, frictionless experience
- Balance simplicity (“Download the app”) and ensuring a subscriber understands the value of your app. Why should they download it? How will it benefit them?
- Images support comprehension and provide a preview of the product
- If you can create a segment of subscribers who haven’t yet downloaded the app, why not integrate a banner like L’Équipe post-onboarding
> State of the Mobile Publishing Market Report 2024
Engagement and discovery of subscriber value
Of course, onboarding is also so much more than just newsletters and apps. It’s also about
- Building trust – following through on your brand promise and doing what you say you’ll do to help customers perceive your brand as trustworthy
- Demonstrating and immediately delivering unique value that users can’t get elsewhere or without subscribing
- Welcoming your user & thanking them for converting
- Showing them around, signposting them to content and features
- Personalizing their experience to ensure it’s the best it can be from the moment they start accessing the content
- Activation – if you have community features, such as comment sections or social groups, help them be a part of them and encourage participation
Onboarding continues as we explore the site, highlighting different features that a subscriber now has access to
A pop up following onboarding gives us the option of sharing our subscription with a friend or family member by simply sharing their email address
Continuing to show value to subscribers by adding a banner of “What’s coming”, similar to the Netflix model
Their print brochure is a unique model that goes into depth on some of the areas that a subscriber can access, even the home page
On-site, The Economist presents some of the latest trending topics, allowing the reader to select the topic that interests them.
The side bar, “Short on time?”, provides solutions to a comment reason why readers cancel their subscription
Follow a journalist features has multiple benefits, including alerts to bring readers back to the site and relationship building with individuals rather than the brand
FT have built bundles of content that a subscriber can sign up to, grouped together by topic
A variety of other features of The Telegraph’s subscription offer. I imagine the goal here isn’t necessarily activation but visibility for future use
It’s important to ensure subscribers remain logged in and no longer see your paywall. The Times ensures this by suggesting subscribers connect their account with Google
Personalization via email
All onboarding steps on one page. It’s likely better to have a single goal & conversion per page, plus the reader may not scroll down the whole page
The Washington Post is an interesting, impressive example here. They keep onboarding very simple (just 3 steps) focusing mainly on newsletter sign but also personalizing based on a user’s interests and routine. In this way, they bring the newsletter to the reader, based on their existing reading habits, rather than trying to build a new habit.
This also delivers immediate value in the form of a very personalized selection of newsletters for the subscriber.
> The Washington Post’s attention to detail: 12 things you can learn from their strategy
How long should subscriber onboarding go on for?
Of course on-site onboarding is only the start, and this journey should continue across multiple channels. But a common question is how many days should you continue to onboard for?
As usual, the answer depends on the company, with publishers telling us anything from 2 days to 100. And it takes anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a habit!… But the important this is to start strong on day 1.
The Globe and Mail divides onboarding into 5 goals:
The first 30 days of our relationship with a subscriber is crucial as this is when churn is at its highest. Subscribers are figuring out how they want to use our products and how the different platforms fit their lifestyle and add value to their day. Therefore, we must make quick and tactical work of the time we have to lay out the best welcome mat and create a Globe habit in the daily routines of new subscribers.
Katrina Bolak, Manager, Customer Onboarding and Engagement, The Globe and Mail
General onboarding best practices
- The worst thing you can do is nothing! Test, analyze, optimize
- Have a single goal for each step
- Consider the importance of each step carefully to ensure its value to the subscriber – every click, scroll and redirection counts!
- Work cross channel – online, via email, app, WhatsApp, phone… – considering the type of message and when you’re sending it
- …but don’t over communicate during this period. Bolak of The Globe and Mail for instance shared that they don’t allow for any other email communication during the subscriber’s introductory period (currently 180 days), only their loyalty and retention team strategically communicates to new subscribers by email
- Consider segmenting newly converted subscribers and personalizing the onboarding experience to deliver as much value as possible in the moments immediately after paying. For instance, subscribers with high churn propensity will need more engagement
- Always give readers the option of skipping an onboarding step and make help easily accessible, online, via a chatbot or by phone
- Talk to subscribers! Listen, act and highlight changes
- Be creative! The Economist launched a print brochure, some publishers send letters or postcards, Financial Times offer the chance to book a walk through (the banner at the bottom of this screen)…
- As always, track performance at each step and through the onboarding journey as a whole
Some of the key onboarding metrics to track, mentioned by publishing professionals:
- Activation rate of each onboarding step
- Number of active days/frequency of site/app visits (considering daily active users [DAU], weekly active users [WAU], and monthly active users [MAU]) post conversion
- Newsletter signup rate post-onboarding, engagement with the newsletter and the correlation between retention/churn and newsletter subscription
- App downloads and app usage
- Activation or use of subscriber-only features or benefits, such as ability to share a subscription or play games
- Active churn rate
- Churn rate at first pricing step up or number of trial subscribers who convert to a full offer
