Converting to paid-for subscription
There are lots of publishers currently thinking of converting B2B and other free specialist titles to paid-for subscription.

I have given two examples of results achieved for specialist free titles previously totally reliant on advertising revenue.

The first title is distributed mostly to individuals working in public service and Govt departments in the UK and overseas. The second is sent to both public and private sector readers, central and local government departments, NGOs, charities and other agencies.

Similar results have been obtained in various B2B markets. Our experience is that if the magazine content also appears on the website free of charge, it has no effect on the response to our promotions.

These figures are based on creative copy and strategy produced by a professional copywriter / subscriptions consultant (i.e. not in-house work):



Public service sector free title
In this first example the publisher commissioned a series of emails to build a paid-for subscriber list to run alongside his free list.

Response figures for email conversions
What kind of response can you can expect to a series of emails to your prospects. What will the creative work cost?

Here are the figures for this specialist magazine:

* 60,000 prospects

* Series of four emails created at a cost of £1,600

* Response: 0.6%

* New subscriptions: 340

* Subscriptions rate: £77

* Total income: £26,180

In the example above initial price tests found that new subscribers would pay £77 for a quarterly publication, where previously a few subs were sold anualy for £50 a year.



Converting free magazine readers to subscription
In this second example, we sent out a series of conversion letters to all free magazine readers and prospects announcing the new subscription rates. Here are the figures:

* 12,000 readers

* Cost of conversion series of letters and emails: £1,600
* Cost of new prospect mail pack: £3,200
* Total cost: £4,800

* Response: 10%

* New and converted subscriptions: 1,200

* Subscription rate: £60

* Total income £72,000

The emails were re-vamped and the series extended to continue to collect more paid-for subscriptions to amortised the cost over, say, five years.

To learn how we approach conversions from free to paid-for subscription, contact me at my email address below.

Peter Hobday
Subscriptions Strategy Ltd

Contact and queries:

hobday@subscriptionsstrategy.co.uk