A recent Digiday / Braze survey asked publishers whether their subscription strategy is prioritizing retention or acquisition, and no matter whether your priorities side with the 60% who are focusing on new subscribers or the 40% directing attention to keeping subscribers, it’s clear what data points are important for those strategies.
“Publishers are most interested in referral traffic data, regardless of whether referrals are AI-driven or not,” the report says. “Eighty-four percent of publisher respondents said that referral traffic data from non-AI sources is important for their company’s overall subscription strategy, while 82% of respondents said the same of referral traffic data from AI sources.”
(Photo Source: Digiday/Braze)
For those looking to attract new subscribers, promotional discounts was the most popular method, with 89% of publishers going that route, followed by 80% with member-exclusive newsletters and 77% with member-exclusive access to research and data. For those focused on retention, exclusive newsletters (86%) and research/data (80%) were the most popular tactics.
“The prominence of discounts in publishers’ acquisition strategies reflects how strongly they are prioritizing subscriber growth and how challenging subscriber acquisition has become,” the report says, “especially as they begin to reach a ceiling in their ability to grow subscriber bases from existing audiences.”
Publishers — what actions are you taking to expand your base? And, once acquired, what are you doing to ultimately keep those subscribers?