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Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

3 tips for lean teams managing multiple subscription sites

Subscription marketing teams are managing more digital media properties than ever after what seems like near-daily announcements about media acquisitions. In light of the growing necessity of digital engagement and audience targeting to grow reader revenue, media companies are looking for opportunities to consolidate their resources and encourage staff to be more efficient.

For lean teams or individual champions managing multiple sites, taking a few simple steps can help streamline workflows and apply audience lessons more broadly.

1. Manage user identity globally

Google may have delayed its deprecation of third-party cookies yet again, but publishers are still wise to set themselves up for a future based on first-party data. For most publishers, the obvious way to develop a trove of user identity data is by encouraging users to register for accounts or pay for subscriptions. 

Regardless of whether your registration offer is free or paid, the big step to make this easier on both your internal team and your users is consolidating accounts across properties—in other words, creating one set of log-in credentials for users that control access across all of your managed sites and apps. This requires some up-front configuration, but it’s a win-win. Not only will your marketing twam have a holistic view of your audience, but your users will only have one set of credentials to remember and manage their access to multiple content sources.

2. Combine data analysis across properties

Analyzing user behavior across individual sites might leave you in the dark on key audience patterns. With your combined user identity system, you’ll be set up to analyze behavior metrics across sites rather than (or in addition to) in silos.

This view of user behavior on individual sites and across all properties will help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience’s motivations. Armed with this information, you will have fuel for targeted marketing and better user experiences, as well as more audience segmentation options for multi-property ad sales. This comprehensive view may also help you identify anomalies in your data, like a drop in conversions or traffic, to fix any issues that might come up for a single site or app.

3. Templatize experiences and conversion offers

Continuous testing and optimization is the name of the game when it comes to subscription growth. But it’s incredibly tedious to duplicate every update you make across 5, 10, or even 20+ sites for major publishing groups. We’ve found that creating these elements as modular, customizable units is the best way to manage this test-and-learn approach. 

This allows you to keep the framework you know is effective, while customizing specific delivery for individual brands or properties. Then, you can ideally deploy them across multiple applications from a centralized view. Building a template library over time will also allow you to reuse seasonal promotions, like discounts around the back-to-school season or for holiday gifting. This will also create efficiencies in delegating resources, as well. Rather than having individual resources managing the promotions, user flows, marketing, and more for each brand in your publishing group, a shared services resource can be working on multiple brands at one time. This allows you to make the most of your team’s bandwidth and do more with less.

Managing a handful — or even dozens — of sites and apps is no small feat. But implementing a smart system from the onset will set you up for long-term success.

Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Why data is media’s revenue diversification differentiator 

For the better part of the last decade, there has been a clear case for revenue diversification as the key to sustainable success in media. Dependency on one or two revenue models is risky, especially amid times of economic uncertainty.

Revenue diversification is particularly critical as ad-supported business models provide less and less return. Programmatic ad buying increased efficiency. However, in many cases it has led to lower CPMs for media companies. As a result many have increased the number of ads per page, which limits advertising’s impact. Now, even that option is under threat as the digital media industry faces the challenges that come with cookie deprecation.

As important as it is, revenue diversification is challenging. Media companies have seized the opportunity to launch more revenue generating products over the past few years, including newsletters, podcasts, leadership communities, and live events, to name a few. Each of these products generates additional revenue, which is great. However, they also provide a precious resource: better audience data and insights. That said, not every organization has the ability to fully leverage these insights to further capitalize through diversification. 

Media companies that have a unified view of their data can better engage with audiences and drive them to new revenue-generating activities. Unfortunately, they rarely have a single view of reader and customer activity. The key to revenue diversification is uniting these viewpoints to maximize engagement and better understand and promote the products that are going to continue driving revenue.

Seizing the diversification opportunity

Before we dive deeply into the challenge, let’s spend some time laying out the opportunity, because it runs wide and deep. Media companies have explored myriad ways to drive revenue, from old-school methods like selling branded merchandise, to the new school, such as branded streaming services. 

While the roadmap will look different for each media entity, there are three diversified revenue streams that every company should consider. 

Live events

The first is events, which are experiencing a comeback as attendees get more comfortable with in-person interactions. Events are a way for a media brand to translate its content and expertise into a real-world experience. By building events around popular content topics and leveraging editorial staff as on-stage talent, media companies can create an engaging, replicable experience that drives revenue. While the pandemic may have paused in-person events, it showed that digital and hybrid events are a viable business model going forward. This opens the door to even greater scale for an events business. 

Ecommerce

Second is Ecommerce. More than opening an online store, the opportunity lies in integrating seamless opportunities for readers and subscribers to make purchases as a part of their engagement with the content and media brand. Many media companies leverage affiliate programs to match their content to products and monetize that connection. 

More advanced media companies integrate products and ecommerce links directly into their content so that they get credit for these sales, as opposed to having their audience buy a product elsewhere. By leveraging the trust in their media brand, they can promote products and drive sales, which helps both the media company and the retail partner.

Community

Finally, there’s the media company’s community. This isn’t simply about building a dedicated members-only portion of a website, or a unique newsletter. Community is about more than creating an environment. It’s about exciting brand advocates and aligning with activists in an organic fashion. 

In fact, there is a very large opportunity to build multiple communities that are aligned with a media property. Larger organizations can no longer view their audience as a monolith. Readers visit sites for a variety of reasons, and the larger audience may be composed of several smaller segments that engage with different content topics. Each of these audiences represents an opportunity to unite and align with a formal community, complete with targeted content, newsletters, events, and other revenue opportunities.

The roadblock to diversification

The challenge for any large media company is getting a single view across all of their readers so that they understand how to strategically market and promote these new revenue streams. Big media companies likely have numerous disconnected back end technologies that offer a view into their readers and how those readers behave on a site, interact with newsletters, or what they consume at events.

This happens because companies often use point solutions to manage the individual revenue streams. These systems may have different information on the same individual reader, but the media company can’t unite those views and get a full picture.This siloed data is much harder to use across different internal disciplines.

For example, consider an event attendee with an interest in crypto. The business publication running the event wants to own the crypto reporting and thought leadership space through newsletters and interest-based communities. Right now, they don’t have a way to promote additional content, newsletters, podcasts, or subscriber communities to the attendees once they leave the event, because that data isn’t accessible to any of the other teams. 

The event revenue is great, but there’s a missed opportunity for deeper engagement.

Engagement is the key to new revenue streams

I’ve written before about how the relationship with the content consumer matters more than ever. This is especially true with revenue diversification, where the goal is to use existing content and expertise to drive more revenue. Whenever audiences interact with content, it creates data that helps better understand their interests, which helps media companies identify new revenue opportunities.

It’s possible to find new revenue streams without a unified view of the audience. However, media companies are leaving money on the table if they don’t try to better unite their customer view in order to understand engagement.

Featured Post | Revenue

Is consulting the next revenue stream for publishers?

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve overcome in your publishing business? Increasing audience conversion and retention? Bumping up digital advertising yields? Effective content repurposing?

All of the above?

The chances are that there’s another publisher out there right now wrestling with exactly the same problems. And, if they knew that you had dealt with the issues they’re stuck on, they might just pony up to get you to help them out.

Media organizations large and small have spotted the opportunity to monetize their success in navigating the maelstrom of modern publishing. From global names like the Financial Times, Bloomberg and Axios to independent contract publishers like the UK’s Think Publishing, all are selling on the practical wisdom gained from doing what they do well.

Some benefited from making the move to digital early and are putting the secrets of their transition on sale. Others have developed new ways of doing old things and have priced up their processes. Still more have just been doing what they do for a very long time and are happy to let smaller players buy into their expertise.

Selling expertise

A perfect example of capitalizing on expertise is FT Strategies, the consultancy arm of the Financial Times. Their pitch explains that, as they transformed the 130 year old legacy print operation into a highly successful digital brand, they built “practical best-in-class expertise” that they will now share with other businesses trying to thrive in the digital economy.

When the division’s 2019 launch was covered by the consulting industry news site consultancy.co.uk, they recounted a consulting Gold Rush among ‘long-time incumbents’ across a range of industries. Established firms were selling advice to one-time competitors facing the problems that they had already tackled.

Interesting times

The disruption implied in the expression “May you live in interesting times,” is a curse to most, but a blessing to consultants. And in publishing, the ubiquity of problems with falling readership, rising digital competition and declining advertising revenues represents a very interesting opportunity for outfits with answers.

FT Strategies actually began with a curiosity about software sales: could The Financial Times commercialize some of their proprietary data technology. Vox Media and The Washington Post have both gone down that road; Vox has 350 clients on its Chorus platform and WAPO’s Arc XP platform supports more than 1,500 sites in 24 countries.

But the FT didn’t travel that path. Supporting a SaaS offering is a massive undertaking and the team worried elements of their offering could be commoditized. Better instead to offer advice on how to make the best use of available technologies.

Scalable skills

What might be FT Strategies’ smartest move was its choice to focus on one key area of publishing strategy: subscriptions. At the peak of the paywall pivot, having just announced a million paying readers, the firm hitched its consultancy wagon to the reader revenue cause.

Speaking to the Media Voices Podcast in 2021, FT Strategies MD Tara Lajumoke said her team was not trying to be everything to everyone. “We have a deep set of skills, and experience around recurring revenue models,” she explained. “Subscriptions represent a huge part of the work that we do.”

That highly specific set of skills is allowing FT Strategies to look beyond publishing and begin offering consultancy services to other sectors, including finance. In 2021, the firm more than doubled its headcount and worked with almost 200 clients in more than 30 countries.

Expertise in the niches

Of course the FT is not the only media business offering consultancy services. Top-tier media organizations from Bloomberg to Axios sell advisory services. But you don’t need to be a multimillion dollar conglomerate to sell consultancy. You just need to be smart in your niche.

In the UK, Rethink is the consultancy arm of Think, an independent contract publishing agency that focuses on serving membership organizations. Rethink was launched in 2021 to formalize work the business had been doing for years as an on-going part of its customer service.

Ian Mcauliffe, CEO and founder of the £15 million business, has said that the company’s clients, many having just one title, didn’t have the scale to do the things a bigger publishing company can do. “They can’t compete,” he explained, “So we were increasingly being asked for advice.”

The company now offers a range of consultancy services built on 20+ years of contract publishing experience, from benchmarking costs and developing sustainable commercial strategies to increasing the value of a publishing business and preparing it for sale.

The foundation of a consultancy strategy

Adding a consultancy arm to your publishing business can be seen as just another revenue diversification play, but I think it’s a bold one. To sell consultancy services, you need to have several critical components in place:

Strong reputation

No one is going to pay you to tell them how to fix their publishing business unless you are seen as an exemplar in your chosen field. The FT’s digital transformation narrative, and its standout success in subscriptions, is an important foundation for its consulting operation. That doesn’t mean you have to have the profile of a 100-year old international news organization. Being the best in your niche is enough.

Seth Godin describes this as being famous to the family: “You don’t need to be Nike or Apple or GE. You need to be famous to the small circle of people you are hoping will admire and trust you.”

Demonstrable expertise

Being famous will get you noticed, but when it actually comes time to pitch your capabilities, it is crucial that you can prove that you’ve been there, done that and made a lot of money selling the t-shirts. The success of the “Smart Brevity” editorial strategy from Axios is there for all to see.

In just a couple of years the company has grown its local newsletter portfolio to 14 with revenues of $5 million. That success has let it leverage its trademark newsletter formula into a software and consulting business that sees clients pay $10,000 a year for help replicating their winning formula.

Clever staff 

Building on your own company’s expertise is a strong foundation for a consulting business that’s tightly focused on your niche. The people that helped drive your success should be able to look at similar problems in other companies and develop practical solutions.

However, scaling into other areas is a different matter and a broader knowledge of business practices will be really helpful. The FT’s appointment of Tara Lajumoke illustrates perfectly the power of bringing in outside talent. Before joining the FT, she worked for McKinsey in London and Goldman Sachs in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the US.

Process

Cozy chats about what to do next aren’t going to cut it if you’re looking for billable hours; your clients will need to be able to put your advice in action and evaluate progress against key metrics. That means building your playbook to enable your staff to deliver detail on the strategies and methodologies that have worked for your business.

In the case of Axios, they actually wrote a book on it. Smart Brevity, the power of saying more with less teaches the how-tos of the approach and shows real-life examples of the technique in action.

Consulting as part of diversification

Can consulting become a real revenue stream for publishers? Yes, absolutely. But like everything else in this industry, it’s not a silver bullet. It can make commercial sense to leverage the learnings of success, and failure, to help other businesses face up to the challenges of digital transition.

But like everything else in publishing it will take talent, time and laser focus to turn what you know into cold, hard cash.

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

How publishers can ride the retail media wave

It ain’t hype anymore—retail media is real, and it is spectacular. eMarketer calls retail media the “third wave of digital advertising,” with U.S. ad spend expected to hit $41 billion in 2022. Boston Consulting Group predicts retail media will account for 25% of digital media spending by 2026. 

The channel has arguably revived Criteo’s fortunes as the third-party cookie dwindles into irrelevance. Walmart, Target, Kroger, Best Buy, Home Depot, Gap, CVS—it seems like every other week another major retailer carts out a brand-spanking-new retail media network. 

All that ad spend sure sounds great for retailers. But what about publishers? Are retailers siphoning spend away from the already beleaguered publisher set? 

Quite the opposite, in fact. The retail media revolution is helping line the pockets of premium publishers.

Cautious journey to digital advertising

In a nutshell, retail media is when retailers offer advertising access to their customers on-property (or off-property). It’s not a new concept by any means, but it’s been mainly relegated to advertiser campaigns in actual brick and mortar stores. (Think about specialty brand displays at department stores or supermarkets.)

While retailers’ online traffic grew with the rise of ecommerce, many were reluctant to plunge into digital advertising because of their hyper focus on user experience. A 2006 Amazon study famously found that every 100ms in extra load time cost 1% in sales; a 2017 Akamai followup suggested that every 100ms of latency cut conversions by 7%.

Unfortunately, digital advertising has a bad reputation for latency, as well as other factors that ruin user experience: gauche creative, code that breaks a page, open doors to device-infecting malware, etc. All those issues can arise before programmatic enters the picture. With bad user experience being detrimental to online sales, digital advertising simply wasn’t worth the risk for most retailers.

Yet they no doubt had their eye on Amazon’s flourishing ad business. There should be an asterisk by eMarketer’s $41 billion in 2022 US ad spend figure: about 78% of that goes to Amazon. However, the $9 billion left over is nothing to sneeze at, and you may have noticed Amazon does a fair deal of third-party media buying. 

U.S. retail mainstays like Walmart, Target, and Kroger have been ramping up their digital retail media operations for the last five years. And then came the Covid pandemic: Suddenly consumers weren’t in stores; they were flooding websites and apps and racking up online orders. The opportunity to monetize this traffic was just too good to pass up, especially as major retail brands had proven that integrating ads wouldn’t necessarily harm user experience.

Advertiser appeal

Retailers have the kind of high-quality audience data that make advertisers swoon. Through tools like loyalty programs, many retailers boast comprehensive customer profiles that can be used for precise targeting. Retailers are stocking up on data scientists to drive customer insights and behavioral trends, and for many advertisers measurement goes all the way to point of sale. 

In addition, retail sites and apps are a data oasis in the increasingly untargetable mobile ecosystem. The presence of emails and other deterministic identifiers make retailers ideal partners for identity solutions like LiveRamp and LiveIntent in finding audiences on third-party properties.

On-property advertising is really only the jump-off point. The huge gains are in audience extension, or when retailers start finding their customers on third-party sites and apps. 

Quality quest

That’s where premium publishers come in. When asked at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in January if she felt that retail media networks were a threat to revenue, BET EVP and CMO Kimberly Evans Paige replied, no—we’re partnering with them. 

Advertising revenue is incremental for retailers. Therefore, advertising must be accretive to the core revenue business. On-property, this means high-quality, brand-safe ads that don’t cause latency. Landing pages can’t send customers to competitor sites and only authorized vendors can be allowed through the pipes, lest data leakage become a concern.

Going off-property is not just extending the audience, but also the retailer brand. During an AdMonsters Ops session in June, Christine Foster, Vice President, Media Operations at Kroger mentioned that a great deal of their offsite ads are actually co-branded. So, retailers with big advertiser budgets in tow may be reticent about appearing adjacent low-quality ads, scam ads, or ads with questionable content, which could range from gambling to marijuana to even crypto. 

When retailers buy off property, they need high-quality inventory in well-lit spaces. To ensure brand safety—both their own and advertisers’—retailers are pursuing guaranteed direct deals with premium publishers as well as private marketplace arrangements. Certainly, major publisher brands with massive traffic are already benefiting. But there’s definitely room out there for niche publishers with ties to specialized retailers.

Lifting all boats

The excitement around retail media stems from the fact it’s beneficial for just about every party in the digital media ecosystem: Advertisers reach key audiences with confidence; ad tech companies like Criteo and CitrusAds develop new business; publishers gain revenue; and of course retailers are able to further monetize their customer data. 

Publishers of all sizes need to investigate retail media opportunities. However, they also need to understand that their ability to rake in revenue here greatly depends on the quality of their environments.

Featured Post | Revenue

Audience trust drives Wirecutter’s affiliate strategy

Leilani Han
Executive Director of Commerce, Wirecutter

Affiliate marketing is a dynamic endeavor, with myriad factors driving strategic decisions on how to sustain a healthy revenue stream while maintaining consumer trust.

In this Q & A, Leilani Han, Wirecutter’s executive director of commerce, shares her insights on strategies driving Wirecutter’s success.

DCN: There appears to be a renewed or intensified interest in affiliate marketing as a revenue diversification strategy. How do you see it?

Han: There’s always been a keen interest in affiliate marketing, but the space has certainly evolved with who was investing in the channel over the last 10 years. In our space, we’ve seen many media companies realize this was a smart strategy for engaging with your audience more deeply while providing a service to them that could evolve into a revenue stream.

This coincided with an evolution in the consumers’ relationship with their shopping journey. Affiliate has the unique capabilities of encompassing all channels so that it fits in perfectly with social media, the internet, and being able to provide greater value to people’s lives.

Wirecutter has been at the forefront of this trend, as we helped to prove to others this model could scale successfully. Today, millions of readers turn to Wirecutter’s advice for inspiration and making smarter shopping decisions.

DCN: What is your company’s approach to affiliate marketing, content/commerce mix, video, social?

Han: Our recommendations – and affiliate marketing – have always been at the core of our business since its 2011 launch. While we’re technically classified as commerce content, we don’t separate our work into content or commerce. We are simply focused on providing the best service journalism to our readers.

Compared to competitors, we are not in the business of worshiping products. We are in the business of helping users find out what is worth paying for and what is the best product for the price. We employ a journalistic, methodical process to uncover the right information.

We make a recommendation – not just a review. We communicate in a way that is relatable and direct – not academic. Wirecutter cuts the time and stress of shopping by providing direct and actionable buying advice.

We knew if we took care of the reader experience and prioritized their trust in us above all else, the monetization follows. That’s an indication we’re hitting the mark on being helpful to them. That’s a balance we have to strike to serve our readers and our ability to monetize. Our team does a great job of finding that balance.

As digital innovation has evolved over the years, so have the channels through which we can reach our audiences. We view video and social media as another way to introduce new readers to our advice while reaching them in the moment in the spaces where they’re organically spending their time.

DCN: What are the driving factors underscoring where to put the efforts?

Han: Our core mission is to serve our readers with helpful advice and earn their trust. Our recommendations are at the center of our efforts. We try to be thoughtful about how we engage with our audiences and whether we’re successful in meeting their needs.

We aim to be as impartial as possible from any business interests. Our approach is being transparent through every point of the user experience. 

The affiliate model aligns well with our reader service mission because we do not earn commissions if we are not successful in earning trust and making the right recommendations. A successful affiliate business is a clear indicator we are doing right by the reader. The data helps inform us whether we’re meeting the mark on what readers need advice on and what to buy.

Learn more about the Wirecutter’s policy.

DCN: How do you mitigate the inherent challenges?

Han: One of the biggest challenges at the beginning is figuring out what resonates with your readers, how you can gain traction with them to return and click through to purchase, and then scaling that in a way that honors your service for your readers. While affiliate marketing can be a very meaningful revenue stream, it is not as turnkey as some other channels. It requires time, effort, and a lot of testing to eventually find the sweet spot of your editorial voice and how to monetize effectively.

Another challenge is in how to strike the right balance between sources that are key drivers of your business and ensuring you’re diversified enough to withstand changes that are outside of your control.

One example of this for Wirecutter is organic search and the ever-changing algorithms that can impact how much traffic is coming to your site.

Last fall, we launched a subscription product because we know that our journalism is worth paying for and we are focused on deepening our relationship with our readers. This allows us to reach these readers directly and lessen our reliance on other traffic sources to bring readers back to Wirecutter. So far, we are seeing positive results that confirm our belief that Wirecutter’s service journalism is a meaningful resource in people’s lives.

Despite our priority to grow our subscriber base, we are continuing to focus on our affiliate business as well. Our affiliate business model remains unchanged. If you click a link on our site and buy something we recommend, we may receive a commission.

As always, our writers and editors are never made aware of any business relationships we have with retailers. We’ll continue to make picks independent of all business and financial interests. Those things will never change: helping readers make the right buying decisions will always come first.

The change happening with browser updates and privacy regulations is also top of mind for many publishers and what the deprecation of cookies means for the industry. Many of the major affiliate networks have been addressing this by updating their tracking technology to help mitigate any losses from these changes, while Wirecutter has proprietary technology that has also helped us to mitigate any loss.

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Most paid subscriptions are for streaming services. Learn how they win customers

In a recent survey about the impacts of the pandemic and the overall sentiment of U.S. subscribers, Recurly found that 87% of respondents have a subscription to at least one streaming video service and 46% have a subscription to at least one streaming audio service. The increasing ubiquity of streaming subscription services leaves little to question about their popularity among consumers, particularly the Gen Z and Millennial generations. In order to rank among the highest-rated streaming subscription services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, it’s important for subscription businesses to understand consumer behaviors and motivations that promote retention and preserve subscriber loyalty. 

In this article, you’ll learn how streaming subscription services and changing consumer habits have existed harmoniously and how they continue to thrive in an economy captivated by recurring revenue businesses.

Streaming service industry trends

At the core of any successful subscription offering is the subscriber experience, and an ideal subscriber experience starts with studying subscriber wants and needs for informed decision-making. One of the most important survey results concludes that consumers subscribe to goods and services because of brand preference, access to discounts as subscribers, help to manage a budget, and more. However, the prevailing motivation is content, and not just any content – exclusive content, as well as value and convenience. 

Our survey results reveal that 40% of consumers rank exclusive access to content or services as the main reason for signing up for a subscription service. Unlike a box of the month, streaming subscription services may give subscribers special access to coveted content such as a highly anticipated series or film. When consumers evaluate a purchase, they consider the value they will receive in exchange for a recurring payment. In this case, the value of a streaming subscription service is presented in the form of content, and the more exclusive the content is, the higher the value is to the subscriber.

How consumer sentiment affects demand

As a consequence of the pandemic, 91% of U.S. consumers are concerned about inflation and its impact on the cost of goods and services. Coupled with the recent news of Netflix losing 200,000 subscribers, many streaming subscription services are struggling to get a grasp on subscriber churn. However, despite climbing costs and unpredictable consumer behaviors, 68% of consumers still signed up for another streaming video service and 31% signed up for another streaming audio service in the last year. Furthermore, the same subscribers expect to use streaming video (78%) and streaming audio (36%) subscriptions the most this year.

Pertinent value remains a strong factor in subscribers’ purchasing decisions. For streaming services, this is an opportunity on which to capitalize. From promotions and free trials to the freedom to pause as a subscriber, streaming subscription services can strategically adapt to developing consumer behavior trends via stronger value manifestations. Rising costs may be inevitable, but how these changes are packaged and delivered plays a vital role in influencing consumer perceptions of your business. 

The smartest streaming subscription services don’t let value decline as the pandemic shifts the economy. Instead, they create value in novel ways. Recommended content and complementary goods and services in new forms are just a couple of ways to retain subscribers and remind them of the value they receive from your streaming subscription service.

A change in consumer expectations

Nowadays, with just a few simple clicks to manage an account, streaming subscription services have proven that convenience is more impactful to the subscriber journey than many initially thought. While traditional subscription convenience is typically defined as routine home deliveries, in the streaming space, convenience can also refer to the ease of setting up, changing, or canceling a subscription. 

A majority of survey respondents (62%) value this accessibility when considering a new subscription. Streaming subscription services, which are largely self-managed by the subscriber, make account changes as easy as possible – an intelligent response to changing behaviors and motivations. As a result, the subscriber experience faces little disruption. These considerations should extend into thoughtful dunning strategies and even the renewal or cancellation experiences for a seamless ordeal throughout the journey. While the decision to continue with a subscription is ultimately in the hands of the customer, the touchpoints throughout any subscriber journey contribute to the overall perception of a service.

The success of streaming subscription services

Streaming subscription services are one of the few businesses that can repeatedly present exclusive content as its main value driver. From a consumer’s perspective, this is one of the most enticing reasons to subscribe to a service, alongside relevant value and flexibility. Undoubtedly, streaming media subscriptions have a competitive advantage over their counterparts, and that edge only remains intact when the subscriber is placed at the center of a thoughtfully planned customer journey.

About the author

Theresa Mcendree is the Chief Marketing Officer at Recurly, a subscription management and billing platform that maximizes subscriber lifetime value with expertise, technology, and insights for global brands.

Featured Post | Revenue

What The Economist’s move into education can teach other publishers

Education may not be an obvious segue for a news publisher. But when you look more closely, it can actually be an incredibly powerful way to leverage the expertise of journalists to create something valuable for your audience (and bottom line). The Economist launched its Executive Education pillar in February 2021 as a growth initiative that would allow it to leverage its journalists’ deep knowledge and understanding of global issues. 

The education sector itself is vast, and there are many routes publishers could take, from accredited courses to partnerships with schools and universities. The Economist decided to focus on its existing audience, and tailor its courses at highly qualified senior executives. “We’re already catering to the needs of mid-career executives who are upskilling, and that’s our target audience for our courses,” explained Fionnuala Duggan, Executive Director of Education at The Economist Group Media.

“We chose a format for a course and topics that would resonate well with them and at the level they were looking for. The whole operation is pitched to their needs in terms of their ongoing executive development, corporate professional development and career development.”  

Now, they are expanding their offering with a new course on fintech and the future of finance. Billed as giving attendees a “future-focused view of the major issues”, the aim is to demystify personal fintech, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Notably, the program will draw in implications for both the business and personal lives rather than being solely work-related.

Quality not quantity

Each course runs for an average of six weeks, and requires between 6-8 hours a week from participants. They are delivered online, which was a pre-pandemic decision to widen participation to a global audience. Courses contain a mix of writing, infographics, video, audio and links. Each is led by a head tutor alongside a team of tutors who guide students through each week. 

The Economist decided to take a guided approach with scheduled start and end dates rather than run on-demand courses because it offered a higher quality experience. Having tutors that can answer questions, stimulate discussion and provide feedback helps participants get more out of the courses, which underpins the value of the four-figure price tag. 

Duggan also noted that having a schedule means they can bring participants together. “There are around 72 countries represented in most courses,” she said. “If you’re discussing something like international relations with people from the U.S., Australia and central Asia, you get all these different perspectives. There’s an enormous amount of learning from each other.”

Although the courses may run to schedule, they are far from being one-hit wonders. The first course Economist Education ran was on International Relations, which is now on its sixth presentation. “Each of these courses takes quite a long time to develop — four or five months,” Duggan said. “That’s why we have a smaller number of courses that are high quality.”

Blending journalism and pedagogy

One key part of the publisher’s approach has been separating the focus of this pillar from the rest of the business. Although there is a great deal of collaboration between the departments, their approach is different. “We’re not in the media business,” Duggan said. “We’re in the business of education. But we’ve benefited enormously from all the things that The Economist and The Economist Group has.”

This has also meant the team are able to acknowledge what strengths they don’t have within the business. Duggan was cognizant of the fact that The Economist had never run courses before, and that this needed additional expertise in order to meet audience expectations. They chose to partner with GetSmarter, an EdTech firm who deliver online education from world-leading universities like Harvard and Cambridge. 

“We really wanted these courses to be from The Economist, so that they would be able to carry over people’s expectations journalistically, and also bring the coverage into the courses,” Duggan explained. “At the same time, the journalists aren’t teachers. So we’ve found a really cool way of blending what they’re able to bring with the pedagogical expertise that our partner has.”

“This means we have this very constructive, collaborative relationship with the journalists and all of the knowledge and knowhow and context they bring. Our editorial processes are also involved clearly in the editing of the course. And then we bring in the pedagogical experts who can shape the course, and we have the best of both sides.”

Duggan’s advice for other publishers is to focus on getting the proposition right, and partner up if necessary. “For a media brand to go into education, it’s very important to execute very well,” said Duggan. “But it’s also important to understand what your brand brings.” The Economist brand’s vast reach helps with attracting an audience to the course. But that’s not all: The courses put the publisher’s journalistic expertise front and center of both the courses themselves, and the marketing strategy.

“Bringing the newsroom into our courses is absolutely central to our offering,” Duggan emphasized. “When you’re talking about topics that are extensively covered already in our publications, we need to make sure that the courses have the same take on subjects, the same access to the sources the journalists might use, and of course, the journalists themselves, because they are the best people to comment on these topics.”

Top marks and takeaways

The courses so far have been a success. Each one sees completion rates of around 94%. “When very busy executives are giving six to eight hours a week into a course, that’s quite a lot of time,” she said, noting that the lack of attrition highlights the strength of the content. 

The publisher declined to give any specific revenue figures, but did note that each course is attended by between 100-300 people on average. Given the price is £1,475 per person for their current selection, it is safe to assume each course is generating a healthy six-figure sum.

Now Economist Education has established itself and had time to iron out the kinks, they have a wide range of topics they can develop courses on next. Duggan confirmed that their next course will be on sustainability, coming in October. They are also exploring the B2B enterprise market. “From where we are now, there’s plenty of opportunity to continue growing quite quickly,” she noted. “There’s an awful lot of scope in the education sector.”

Although The Economist’s approach is specific to its own needs, there are still plenty of takeaways for other publishers looking to extend into educational courses. First and foremost, it is important to consider what your brand would bring to an education course. There may be lots of opportunities depending on the type of coverage. But educational courses like this are best suited to super-serving existing audiences rather than bringing in additional subscribers.

It is also crucial to acknowledge where skills may be missing at a publication. A well-crafted course will almost certainly need input from educators. Consider partnering with educational institutions or companies who specialize in pedagogy in order to bring the most value to a course. 

Ultimately, however, as publishers’ seek ways to build value for audiences and diversify revenue, there are lessons to be learned from The Economist’s successful addition of an Education pillar. Given a media brand’s strength and deep institutional expertise, there may well be value for audiences that want to engage more intently and enhance their own knowledge further.

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Where conversations fit into your paywall strategy

A mid-sized digital media outlet dropping its paywall is not usually the stuff of national news. But when Quartz, the digital business outlet, scrapped its paywall earlier this month, the move was promptly written up in the New York Times. What gives?

The degree of attention paid to Quartz’s decision has something to do with the media environment of the moment. As we’ve written about more than once, digital subscriptions are on the rise across the industry, boosting profits for everyone from the New York Times to local papers in Buffalo and St. Louis.

Still, while subscriptions are generally trending upwards, nothing in the media industry stays static. In fact, just a few weeks later, Quartz announced it had been acquired by G/O Media, whose suite of sites is unpaywalled. It’s possible Quartz was just getting in line with its soon-to-be owner. It’s also possible that it is suggestive of a trend. Either way, it might be worth it to take a step back, assess your current paywall policy, and explore other methods of expanding your revenue strategy.

The power of community

In recent years, the rise in paywalls has grown in tandem with another trend: a renewed interest in community on the part of publishers.

The focus makes sense. Even the biggest publishers—outlets that receive tens of millions of visits per day—see only a fraction of the traffic of the big social platforms. On the internet, it seems, there’s no bigger draw than conversation. Give people a place to be heard, to connect with like-minded individuals, and they will repay you with regular visits: this is one of the main lessons of Web 2.0. It’s no surprise that publishers would want to siphon some of that energy for themselves.

For publishers looking to beef up their owned communities, a fully-paywalled site can be a complex proposition. 

On the one hand, people who actually pay for a subscription are some of the likeliest to comment anyway. A thriving community can absolutely be built exclusively with paid subscribers. Substack’s a great example of this. Many Substackers only let you comment if you subscribe, and nonetheless host sprawling, engaged comments sections. There is also the fact that only letting paid-up members comment almost guarantees a more civil discourse, as it’s unlikely that a troll would actually pay money to annoy people.

On the other hand, comments are an incredible tool for growth—and paywalling all your articles can negate that function.

There is no question that it’s your content that matters most when cultivating readers. But as mentioned: online, community that creates stickiness. Community keeps readers reliably coming back, day after day. Un-paywalled articles allow first-time or occasional visitors to shake up the conversation, keeping things fresh and luring in still more readers (and participants). This can still be possible with a paywall—some percentage of readers, after all, will opt for a free trial and find the conversation that way—but the process might be slower, the growth less explosive.

To paywall or not to paywall?

Obviously, few sites deploy a paywall for every article (though some do—such as The Washington Post). Most, instead, paywall some content and open other content to anyone who wants to read it. Countless strategic concerns go into the decision of what to paywall. What we’d argue—given the importance of community for growth—is that one of those concerns should be: How likely is this article to generate conversation?

This consideration doesn’t have to be incompatible with a normal paywall strategy. In a normal paywall strategy, the articles that are paywalled are those most likely to drive clicks—juicy scoops or exposes, say, or epic longform features. But the articles most likely to generate clicks are not necessarily the ones that will generate the most conversation. They can be, absolutely. However, the truth is that evergreen, lower-stakes content is just as if not more likely to generate vibrant discussion. 

Think, say, a list of the best albums of 1999. Or a quick primer on the best way to cook a steak. Or a write-up of last night’s big prestige-TV finale. Content like that can generate discussion at a surprisingly high volume. It draws in new readers and, in the slightly longer run, subscribers.

All of that said—and despite the Quartz move—there is no real indication that paywalls are on the way out. The beauty of this moment in media is that publishers don’t have to choose. They can grow their audience with paywalls while they can grow their audience with community (and with social media, live events, ecommerce, etc. The options right now are endless, as discussed in our recent guide). 

What an engaged community can offer, more immediately than many other revenue concepts, is engagement. Higher engagement means more pageviews and––when leveraged to sell subscriptions or place ads––stronger, more diversified revenue for publishers.

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

Diversify strategies to survive “peak subscription”

Once seemingly unstoppable, subscription-based digital media services like Netflix now look vulnerable. Netflix reported seeing a drop in subscribers for the first time in 10 years, prompting a recent selloff that shaved more than $50 billion off the company’s market cap. Other streaming services, from Disney to Roku, also reported similar drops. Many worry that we’re witnessing a phenomenon known as “peak subscription,” where consumers facing an increasingly uncertain global economy are growing weary of committing to a laundry list of ongoing subscriptions.

Some publishers have felt the repercussions of peak subscriptions and competition from free alternatives. Quartz reported that some readers subscribe just to read one specific article and then quickly unsubscribe afterward; behavior that hindered real growth. Although metered paywalls have proven effective at driving subscriptions for many publishers, some believe it is a “blunt-force instrument” that won’t work for everyone.

Even as the total number of subscriptions is still high across publishers and creators, there are concerns that the supply of content sources outstrips demand, particularly when we consider more commoditized content. Despite the fact that the global subscription economy is projected to grow by $51 billion dollars in 2022, competition is fierce – even for the likes of Netflix. 

As subscription fatigue becomes a growing concern, and competition among subscription-based content of all kinds continues to intensify, media companies seek ways to go beyond pure subscriptions and increase their revenue. The good news is that various solutions already exist.

Redefining the journey to becoming a subscriber 

One of the key solutions to combat subscription fatigue is to let audiences become paying readers and members at their own pace. Instead of asking people to lock themselves into a subscription model off the bat, some companies monetize the subscriber journey in smaller steps.

To move away from relying solely on the one-size-fits-all subscription model, streaming services like Disney+ have opted to offer a lower-cost version of their service that includes ads. The potential rewards of this move are clear: Disney’s own Hulu streaming service has turned commercials into a $1 billion revenue stream. Comcast’s Peacock and AT&T’s HBO Max now both come with ad-supported and ad-free versions. Even Netflix, which stood clearly opposed to integrating ads in the past, will now launch an ad-supported version sometime in the future.

Publishers such as Vox and The Guardian have also moved to a membership model, believing that readers will want to voluntarily support their publication even without the added pressure of a paywall. 

Quartz also offers a subscriber-only newsletter that gives paying members exclusive access to additional content and various other benefits. However, it has made content on its main site free to access. Vice News has opted for an even more reader-friendly approach by adding a “tip jar” to its website, in case readers want to voluntarily make a contribution to the publisher.

The demand for incremental revenue streams to reach readers averse to committing to a subscription is why à-la-carte payment solutions emerged for publishers and content creators. These solutions allow users to buy paywalled text, audio, or video content with one-off payments or make voluntary contributions for open content.

Publications understand that having multiple monetization solutions builds engagement from different audience segments. This also feeds the subscription funnel with loyal users. Instead of asking casual visitors to commit to a subscription with discount offers, they are given the chance to engage in incremental steps. 

The new era of reader revenue

The shift from relying solely on subscriptions signifies a clear acknowledgment of the need to give consumers flexibility and freedom. For audiences, this is a sure boost to their overall experience.

Digital publishers and content creators will benefit as well. Overall, a growing number of people are willing to pay for content. According to the 2021 Digital News Report from Reuters, 17% of people surveyed stated they were ready to pay for media content — a definite increase from the previous year.

Offering multiple reader-revenue solutions like exclusive memberships, micro-bundles, ad-supported bundles, à-la-carte payments, and even a tip jar makes it easier for publishers and content creators to monetize different audiences segments and capture rich first-party data. Alienating large swaths of audiences with an all-you-can-eat subscription offer will no longer suffice in a world where users are spoiled with choices.

It is also imperative to understand users’ willingness to pay for different types of content. For example, the exact same content bundle might be worth $10 per month to half of your audience and worth $5 per month to the other half. The one-size approach is to offer a $7.50 bundle to everyone. However, the maximum revenue approach entails creating two separate bundles for each of the audience segments. Unbundling content to understand user willingness to pay for each type of content can actually pave the way for publishers to resurrect the appropriately priced recurring payments. 

If you’re a subscription-based digital publisher, the message is clear: the time to look for incremental ways to monetize and engage with a wider audience — including the elusive “never subscribers” — is now. Learning from the examples set by the companies above will save you from wasting time forcing one, rigid monetization strategy on an audience that doesn’t want it.  

About the author

Dushyant is a Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer at Fewcents, a plug-and-play solution that helps digital publishers and creators monetize content with cross-border micropayments in the form of pay-per-content or tips. He spent 13 years at Google where he led strategic partnerships, working closely with some of the biggest digital publishers in Asia. Prior to Google, Dushyant has worked at SAP Ariba, American Express, and two tech startups. He holds an MBA from the ISB, Hyderabad and is an active angel investor & advisor for startups in Southeast Asia.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Industry-Research | Revenue

Data and revenue diversification dominate publisher strategies 

Publishers continue to remain highly focused on revenue diversification and the value of first party data according to new research from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), a UK industry body that represents digital publishing companies. The AOP undertook its Digital Publishing: Meeting the Future survey to provide “a snapshot of how digital publishing companies across the UK are continuing to respond to the challenge to change.” The research offers a look at publishers’ business priorities and the future-readiness of the media industry.   

The AOP carried out its survey between January 5 and February 9 of 2022. Of the 111 responses, 83% were from publishers and 17% from organizations providing solutions to the publishing sector. 

Diversifying revenue streams  

Across all types of publishers (B2B, B2C, or a combination), respondents said that their highest priority is developing new revenue streams through product innovation. Ensuring data privacy compliance and transparency ranked second. 

The AOP’s publisher respondents ranked opportunities for revenue growth over the next three years. More than half (55%) feel that subscriptions are the big revenue opportunity right now, with lead generation-based revenues ranking second (33%). The report concludes that these findings mean that publishers are highly focused on building direct relationships with audiences and leveraging their first party data. 

Audio and ecommerce tied for third (31%) in terms of revenue priorities, which points to continued revenue-model innovation. The research finds that both B2B and B2C publishers agreed that subscriptions have the most potential for growth. However, publishers that target both B2B and consumer audiences saw ecommerce as the most promising revenue generator. 

Data dominates  

While publisher concerns about ensuring privacy and providing transparency rank high, they clearly know the value of their first party data and seek to maximize its use. According to the report, publishers are focused on building the right ecosystem of commercial, data, and tech partnerships.  

In the shadow of cookie deprecation, some publishers are considering collaborating on data initiatives. AOP found that, while 12% of publisher respondents are unsure of their next moves and 12% do not expect to collaborate, many publishers are either already collaborating (20%), are discussing collaborating (16%),  or are open to the possibility of collaboration (40%).  

The majority (75%) of publishers said that they are working to ensure that audience data informs everything they do and that they are investing in tools to help achieve this. Despite the emphasis on data, however, only 17% of publishers said that all their teams are aligned internally around their audience data. Half of the solutions provider respondents suggest that, while publishers understand being joined up internally around audience data is important, many don’t yet have a strategy in place to achieve their goals. 

Workforce and workplace concerns 

Interestingly, recruiting and retaining talent, and ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace, are rated higher (tying for third place with “developing new first party data strategies”) than the tech-based challenges you might expect the digital publishing sector to be focused on.   

Most respondents (75%) report that “supporting and retaining current employees” is their top priority when it comes to recruitment and workforce development. This was followed by adapting the publisher’s offering to appeal to new talent entering the industry.  

Putting in place recruitment processes that eliminate bias and support the development of a more diverse workforce is ranked third here. However, when asked how they would describe their organization’s diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) strategy, respondents suggest confidence in their progress on this challenge. Just over half (51%) believe they have made good progress with areas for continued improvement, and 24% believe they have an effective DE&I strategy. Only 5% of respondents don’t believe they have a clear strategy on DE&I. 

As Covid-19 restrictions are being eased in the UK and elsewhere, publishers are evaluating their working environments and plans to return to offices. This survey found that 37% of respondents say their ideal working pattern would be to work from the office two days a week and 24% would be happy to come in for the occasional key meeting, but primarily work from home.  

Nearly a third (30%) of respondents expect their employers to be fully flexible and happy for them to choose to work as they wish. However, 66% believe they will be asked to work at least a few days in the office each week. 

Clearly, the past couple of years have seen trends like ecommerce intensify and placed increased pressure on publishers to innovate. That innovation has, unsurprisingly, focused on product and revenue. However, it has also required publishers to reexamine workplace culture, recruiting, and retention strategies. The AOP’s survey finds that digital publishing companies that understand the bigger picture challenges and have identified many opportunities. However, it appears that they may still be working through the best tactics and strategies to provide the requisite competitive advantage moving forward.  

Featured Post | Revenue

How a one dollar offer drives The Boston Globe’s subscription success story

It took The Boston Globe seven years to reach the first 100,000 subscribers. It only took a year to add the next 100,000. They’ve found that the key to accelerating growth is an introductory subscription offer so low, they’re practically giving the news away. 

Head to bostonglobe.com and non-subscribers are given the option to read all the content they want for a bargain $1 for the first six months. While the Globe’s generous offer comes with an expiration date, a surprising number of subscribers decide that it’s worth paying more to stick around. 

“We’re at the point where 90% of growth and revenue comes from subscriptions,” Tom Brown, vice president of consumer revenue for Boston Globe Media, said of the company’s digital operations. 

How The Globe got here 

With subscription growth slowing, The Boston Globe decided to try an experiment in 2018. The Globe, which has long believed its product was worth $1 a day, began charging that rate in 2015. It also decided it would try to accelerate subscriber growth with a bargain introductory offer. 

In the first few days after making the one dollar introductory offer, Brown said they got thousands of new subscriptions “which was far higher than the 150 or so subscriptions that came in on a normal day.”

Beyond that, though, a higher number of those one dollar introductory offers converted into full-rate subscriptions. The Globe’s 2018 experiment alone led to a tenfold increase in subscriber conversions. “You’re stepping more people to the full rate every week than you ever would have with another other strategy,” Brown said.

“We felt good right away that we had not mortgaged our future in any way to do this test.” In fact, more than 80% of subscribers kept their subscriptions in the first month after prices reset. That fell over time but remained above 60% by the time a subscriber hit their three-month anniversary. And more than 30% of people continue to subscribe to bostonglobe.com after two years. 

Attracting young audiences

There’s one almost surefire way to get a new customer to try a product — a discount so good it can’t be refused. That is especially true with younger audiences, which are accustomed to getting news from places like Instagram and TikTok. 

“New and younger audiences were willing to give us a shot because it’s almost like a free trial,” Brown said. However, while a free trial might seem an obvious choice, research has found that charging any amount increases the odds audiences will convert from trial to subscriber at the end of the introductory period. 

The paper also tried offering a four-week subscription for 99 cents but ultimately found the details of the offer didn’t make a meaningful difference in conversion rates. Audiences are required to enter a credit card to pay their $1 balance and are told their subscription will eventually renew at the weekly rate of $6.93.

Full funnel options

Brown notes that many younger subscribers didn’t grow up with a newspaper subscription so they were unaware of the breadth of the local paper’s offerings. “We’re a general interest news site that has so much and I’m not sure how much everyone knows all that we have,” he said.  

Most visitors to bostonglobe.com get at least one free article. This classic move is designed to keep the top of the customer acquisition funnel open and signaling to Google and other platforms that audiences are engaging with the site. 

Because an estimated 80% of Boston Globe readers don’t hit a paywall right away, readership – and ad views – don’t suffer because of a strategy aimed at driving long-term revenue growth, according to Brown.

Long-term customer value 

It is wise to invest in the lifetime value of a customer. While an offer like this may take cash out of your pocket today, it offers the promise of exponential returns if audiences are happy with their experience. 

“We’re making lots of decisions that we know may hurt or may not pay off this year, but will pay off over the long term,” Brown said. “The more subscribers you can acquire now, the better off you’ll be in the future.” 

Nowadays, Brown and his team focus on making revenue-maximizing decisions without getting hung up on the small sacrifices it might take to get there. “This strategy is the right one for us,” he said. “The pandemic crystallized that in the sense that we became even more relevant to our readers as advertising became extremely volatile.” Being reader-supported makes the brand less vulnerable to the whims of advertisers. 

And while the first few months after a price reset triggers some cancellations, those who stick around tend to be loyal customers. The volume of new subscribers can also make it easier to stomach the churn. “Our model is as tight as it’s ever been, and our audiences are larger,” Brown said. 

The pandemic is just the latest thing to show subscription revenue can be much more dependable than ad revenue, Brown said. “It’s certainly not recession proof, but news is very relevant to people in times of crisis.”

Perspectives | Revenue | Supporter Spotlight

What’s ahead for ecommerce? 3 trends for publishers to watch

If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that almost anything is possible. For better or worse, the future is highly unpredictable, which can make long-term planning difficult. One of the best ways to prepare for the future — whatever it may bring — is by keeping up with industry trends.

That said, one looks to be a sure bet: ecommerce. Undoubtedly, this is a revenue trend that will only grow in importance for publishers. According to GroupM, “By 2024 retail-focused ecommerce will amount to $7T in annual sales activity or 25% of all retail sales.” And the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have only continued to accelerate the adoption of online shopping and the move away from traditional brick-and-mortar retail.

For publishers, creating an ecommerce strategy that is optimized for impact is more important than ever.

If you’re looking for expert perspective on the trends that are shaping ecommerce and their implications for publishers, take the time to read Ecommerce in Publishing: Trends and Strategies. Published by What’s New in Publishing, the report offers deep insights into the ecommerce space to help publishers deliver an exceptional shopping experience and maximize revenue.

3 trends to watch

Ecommerce is evolving rapidly, as new technologies emerge, and consumer expectations continue to rise. We’re already seeing the impact of these three trends, but they are likely to become increasingly more prominent.

1. Friction-free experiences

Publishers and retailers alike are focused on creating smooth, seamless ecommerce experiences. That means empowering consumers to complete a purchase quickly and easily, in as few steps as possible.

For example, an inefficient ecommerce experience might send readers from your content to a merchant page where they must search for the featured product, visit the product page, add the item to their shopping cart, and finally check out. Shoppable technology can streamline the process, allowing consumers to go directly to the desired product page — or even add merchandise to their cart from a link in your content.

Reducing friction is beneficial for both publishers and merchants, as it lessens consumer frustration and increases conversions. And consumers increasingly expect this type of functionality, so they can shop whenever, wherever, and however they prefer.

2. New payment methods

The practice of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) is growing in popularity among major retailers, who are eager to provide consumers with easy payment options. This trend is beginning to catch on among publishers as well — especially with those who already leverage ecommerce as a core part of their business.

BNPL is essentially a type of short-term financing that allows consumers to make a purchase now and pay for it in the future — often in multiple, interest-free installments. As consumers get accustomed to this type of payment option in the retail world, it’s likely that publishers will need to follow suit to avoid missing out on valuable ecommerce revenue.

On the outskirts of the payment method trend, a few publishers are experimenting with purchases using cryptocurrency or even text-to-buy — although these are far from common.

3. Social commerce

A frictionless experience is integral to social commerce, which allows consumers to make purchases through apps and social channels. This segment of the ecommerce market is growing rapidly, from $89.4 billion in late 2020 to a projected $604.5 billion within seven years.

With numbers like these, it’s no surprise that publishers are exploring new ways to monetize user engagement on social media. Ecommerce opportunities are the next logical step for influencer-focused channels like Pinterest and Instagram, so users can immediately purchase the products they see.

Channels like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Snapchat are rapidly expanding their shopping tools and functionality, which can help publishers tap into this trend. After all, research shows that finding inspiration and products to buy is cited as one of the main reasons today’s consumers use social media.

The continued growth of ecommerce has become a potential revenue stream that is too big for many

publishers to ignore. By partnering with platforms, retailers and other service providers publishers can create rich ecommerce experiences, offering the type of online shopping experiences that consumers now demand. Those that don’t risk being left behind, leaving much of ecommerce’s potential unrealized.

About the author

Rebecca Cole is the Director of Content and Communications for Sovrn, a publishing technology platform that provides advertising tools, technologies, and services for content creators to build their businesses, remain independent and thrive on the Open Web. Rebecca has more than two decades of experience driving increased attention through purpose-driven content. She has held communications positions in tech, energy, and consumer brands and was a journalist and editor. Rebecca has an undergraduate degree from The University of Iowa and a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Colorado Boulder.

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