3 techniques that media outlets can learn from e-commerce about CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Discover the techniques that will help you avoid the abandonment of the subscription process of those users who already started it.
At first glance, it may seem that e-commerce experts and audience experts do not have much in common. The reality is that in recent years, audience managers are learning a lot from the experiences of the e-commerce world and are finding that there are certain practices that work in both contexts.
Studies such as the one by the famous Flat 101 agency analyze the buying process and habits of hundreds of different websites and have been a great source of inspiration for many audience managers in Spain. In addition, there are already academic studies that analyze the relationship between e-commerce strategies and the publishing industry.
Converting readers into subscribers is fundamental for digital media to generate recurring revenue and consolidate a sustainable business model. How can news publishers capture readers who showed an intention to sign up but did not convert?
Here are the 3 best techniques to optimize the conversion of readers into subscribers:
Minimize the number of steps in shopping carts
Speed is of the essence. The fewer viable steps the checkout process has, the less reason the user will have to abandon the transaction. A good idea is to ask for the user's email address in the first step of the process. This way, if the reader abandons at some point, we can start a follow-up campaign.
Immediately afterwards, we will offer the payment options, always prioritizing those such as PayPal that already have the payment details filled in. This way, the user will not have to enter them manually.
Retargeting campaigns
It is inevitable that some readers will abandon the subscription process, but it is possible to reengage them through targeted automated campaigns.
Retargeting campaigns are effective in regaining the interest of readers who did not complete the subscription. To implement them, it is important to establish the impact and automatic reminder times, as well as the messages to be included. Above all, they should be personalized to the specific subscription the user showed interest.
Identify the pain points in the subscription process
In addition to cart abandonment campaigns, it is essential for the publisher to understand the reasons why users abandon the subscription process. Is there one point where the majority of abandonments happen? A/B testing is very useful to detect this. Testing different messages, offers and steps to complete helps the team to test the success of different buying processes and establish which offers the best experience for users.
Early adopters of the subscription model have already implemented these strategies to engage readers who indicated their intention to subscribe at the beginning of the checkout process, but did not complete the sign-up process. This is one of the most relevant learnings after setting up your paywall. If you want to start putting them into practice, we can help you.