On-line sales: low cost, great retention

Online sales have the lowest cost and the best retention of any sales channel at some major metropolitan daily papers. In 2004, about 2 percent of subscription sales at major metro papers came from online offers, according to a study headed by Susan Cantrell, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Kansas City Star.It’s significant to note that the 2 percent figure had not increased from the year before, suggesting a plateau. But averages can distort the truth; there is a wide variance in success rates among different newspapers; so the key is basing your program on “what works.”

So what works? Strategically, online success depends on two distinct things:

1. Guiding Web-site visitors to the subscription services links, with buttons, navigation bars, banner ads and other means.
2. Getting customers “through” the purchasing process swiftly and easily. This plays a key role in separating the successful papers from the rest.

Let’s adapt the traditional “4 Ps” of marketing to online subscription sales:

• Placement. In this context, placement refers to where the subscription offer is promoted on the web page. Is it on the home page? Above the fold?

• Promotion. How is the offer communicated?

• Price. What’s the incentive?

• Process. I’m interested. Now what do I do?

As noted earlier, at major metro papers studied in 2004, the number of online starts ranged from two per month to 1,200 per month. The same study showed that getting people to visit the site is not enough; it’s just as important that the subscription offer be visibly promoted on the Web-site pages. Based on the 2004 study of metros that are successful online subscription sellers, here are some proven tactics:

• Put subscription offers in multiple locations on the site. Home pages have become valuable real estate, very crowded and “busy.” Don’t be satisfied with one “subscriber services” link buried somewhere on the home page. Visitors come to the site for many reasons, and no one scours the entire site; so multiple images promoting home delivery is crucial.
• Put subscription offers on the home page above the fold.
• Include a graphic (a picture of your paper or masthead) in the ad, button or link.
• Try for a subscription ad on every page, ideally above the fold.
• Use a “loop” or rotation of different subscription offers to appeal to people in multiple ways, just as you test different copy points in your direct mail efforts.