Subscribers are the most valuable currency publishers have right now. Many people have been asking us for our advice on how to get more subscribers, so in this article, this is the topic we will address.
TL;DR watch this video:
Subscribers are owned, opt-in audiences with which to build direct relationships. And they offer a wealth of first-party data, which will be critical for understanding and targeting consumers as the third-party cookie dies off.
Just look at all the publishers prioritizing revenue. According to recent studies from Reuters and Digiday, publishers’ biggest priority in 2020 is growing subscription revenue. With email addresses at their fingertips, they can deliver customized messaging at the right time and reach people where they spend hours each day: their inboxes.
They can then monetize those emails with relevant ads from brands, driving further revenue from their audiences.
Publishers just need the right strategies to collect those email addresses and keep that subscriber base growing.
Here are the 3 main ways publishers can get more subscribers and maintain their existing subscriber base:
Run subscriber acquisition campaigns
There are many types of subscriber acquisition campaigns you can launch to find new subscribers and get people to sign up for your emails. Common types include:
- Exclusive Gated Content. Invite people to download educational resources like ebooks, whitepapers, and videos in exchange for a simple piece of information: their email address. You can then enroll them in email nurturing campaigns and provide more helpful material as you move these subscribers down the funnel. Just take mobile analytics company, App Annie, which offers a downloadable whitepaper for advertisers deciding whether to build or buy software.
- Online events. With so much entertainment and information being shared remotely this year, hosting online events can be a great way to reach new audiences and gather email addresses. Just ask people to sign up in order to attend and, boom, you have a high-quality batch of leads. Remote learning resource platform Pear Deck, for example, is hosting this free webinar series for teachers, requiring email to register.
Personalize email content and ads
Part of growing your subscriber base involves retaining current subscribers and reducing unsubscribe rates. One of the best ways to do that is to create audience segments and launch personalized email content for each group. For example, you might segment audiences by location, preferred open times, interests, or device type.
After all, people will stay if you give them more of what they want to see — organic content and ads that meet their needs and engage their interests. Run personalized and targeted ads in your emails to give consumers the content they want.
As SmarterHQ found, 72% of consumers only engage with customized marketing and most millennials are frustrated by receiving irrelevant marketing emails from brands. Meanwhile Epsilon reported that 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that deliver personalized experiences.
You get it. Customization wins, and it can be a key technique to get more subscribers.
Keep your subscriber list clean
You can’t set and forget your subscriber list. It’s a living entity that needs to be constantly maintained and scrubbed so you know you’re reaching the most interested and highest quality audience. When doing so, here’s what you’ll want to look out for:
- Duplicate email addresses
- Spam accounts
- Unengaged or inactive subscribers
By flagging and removing these accounts, you can help improve your open rates and click-through rates, and increase the ROI of your campaigns. Still, if you don’t want to automatically delete inactive subscribers, you can give them another chance to engage by requesting feedback about what they’d like to see in their email experience.
What to do once you get more subscribers
Once you have a healthy and sustainable audience of subscribers, you’ll want to make sure you’re driving the most value from this resource. That means monetizing emails with hyper-targeted content, so you can continue to drive revenue. It also means further engaging subscribers through other emerging channels like push notifications, so you can stay top-of-mind with personalized messaging.
Ready to make the most of your growing subscriber base? Jeeng can help. Reach out to get started.
