Gift on trial
Newspapers: The Oltner Tagblatt is using unconventional methods to attract new subscribers—and it’s working.
Newspapers To find new subscribers, the Oltner Tagblatt turned readers into donors. Publishers who are looking for readers often send
for two weeks to addresses that they had not yet included in
in their own subscription file. "That's actually wrong," says Markus
Jörin, publishing director of the Oltner Tagblatt (OT), who, however, did not
a major scattering loss, but addresses an image problem. "With such
We devalue the newspaper for trial subscriptions." That's why the OT in the
May a slightly different double strategy.
On the one hand, an OT issue was placed in a red envelope labeled
"Our daily bread. Your news" and sent to 26000 potential customers.
sent to new customers. Including a response card with the slogan
"Subscribe to your New York Times. Our Olten Tagblatt." Who wants a
annual subscription, a goodie (i.e. a DVD player) was waiting for them.
"The response was tremendous, we got exactly what we needed from this campaign.
627 orders were generated, which corresponds to a return of 2.4 percent.
", reports the visibly enthusiastic OT publishing director.
"It is pleasing that a quarter of all orders are annual subscriptions."
The second part of the marketing idea ran under the motto "Reader gets
Reader" and was basically nothing more than a
Trial subscription campaign as mentioned - but with one subtle difference: the OT
this time offered its existing readers the opportunity to invite someone from
to "give" a trial subscription to your own circle of friends.
To publicize this gift opportunity, the sheet was sent to
a single day, a leaflet with an order card was enclosed. Jörin:
"The campaign generated 460 trial subscriptions, which corresponds to a response rate of
corresponds to an incredible 2.5 percent." False positives are hardly
appeared. "Even though the trial subscription costs the giver nothing, the
they seem to be using it purposefully and seriously. And on the
acceptance is correspondingly greater on the part of the recipient," says
Jörin. Subsequently, telemarketing was used in an attempt to
convert gift trial subscriptions into half-year, full-year or two-year subscriptions. The
Remarkably, the conversion rate was around 30 percent.
All in all, the OT has gained over 200 new annual subscriptions. "For our paper
with its current 16500 subscriptions, this is a big increase",
says Jörin. However, the two actions were not isolated
carried out. At the same time, the OT had already completed several
giant banners, advertisements and posters, a (self-)ironic
campaign with the claim "The whole world at home" (see WW
16/05).
for two weeks to addresses that they had not yet included in
in their own subscription file. "That's actually wrong," says Markus
Jörin, publishing director of the Oltner Tagblatt (OT), who, however, did not
a major scattering loss, but addresses an image problem. "With such
We devalue the newspaper for trial subscriptions." That's why the OT in the
May a slightly different double strategy.
On the one hand, an OT issue was placed in a red envelope labeled
"Our daily bread. Your news" and sent to 26000 potential customers.
sent to new customers. Including a response card with the slogan
"Subscribe to your New York Times. Our Olten Tagblatt." Who wants a
annual subscription, a goodie (i.e. a DVD player) was waiting for them.
"The response was tremendous, we got exactly what we needed from this campaign.
627 orders were generated, which corresponds to a return of 2.4 percent.
", reports the visibly enthusiastic OT publishing director.
"It is pleasing that a quarter of all orders are annual subscriptions."
The second part of the marketing idea ran under the motto "Reader gets
Reader" and was basically nothing more than a
Trial subscription campaign as mentioned - but with one subtle difference: the OT
this time offered its existing readers the opportunity to invite someone from
to "give" a trial subscription to your own circle of friends.
To publicize this gift opportunity, the sheet was sent to
a single day, a leaflet with an order card was enclosed. Jörin:
"The campaign generated 460 trial subscriptions, which corresponds to a response rate of
corresponds to an incredible 2.5 percent." False positives are hardly
appeared. "Even though the trial subscription costs the giver nothing, the
they seem to be using it purposefully and seriously. And on the
acceptance is correspondingly greater on the part of the recipient," says
Jörin. Subsequently, telemarketing was used in an attempt to
convert gift trial subscriptions into half-year, full-year or two-year subscriptions. The
Remarkably, the conversion rate was around 30 percent.
All in all, the OT has gained over 200 new annual subscriptions. "For our paper
with its current 16500 subscriptions, this is a big increase",
says Jörin. However, the two actions were not isolated
carried out. At the same time, the OT had already completed several
giant banners, advertisements and posters, a (self-)ironic
campaign with the claim "The whole world at home" (see WW
16/05).
Markus Knöpfli
