Situation
This UK news organisation had shifted to a full digital model in 2016. With an impressive reach, a significant share of traffic from the US and fierce competition at home, the publisher had only recently launched a paywall and is still managing unresolved tradeoffs between its strong advertising model and its nascent subscriptions business.
Engagement
FT Strategies engaged the client in a 8-month transformation program including:
- Executing an in-depth diagnostic of performance
- Inspiring change through the intervention of FT subject matter experts
- Building a North Star strategy with action plan and capability roadmap
- Implementing four experiments aligned with key priorities
Results
- North Star strategy with clear outcomes, ROI-prioritised initiatives and roadmap to double monthly new subscribers
- Alignment of the organisation through socialisation of the North Star goal and definition of a new outcome-driven Subscription governance
- Development of new reader-centric capabilities
- Implementation of a “harder” registration wall to increase share of known users
- Building of a proprietary engagement score, APV, identifying readers with propensity to subscribe to segment engagement/ acquisition strategy - validated via a segmented acquisition campaign (x4 conversion on high score readers)
“Learning from the experts at FT Strategies has helped us develop our subscription strategy, introduce a culture of continual experimentation, and encourage more cross-departmental alignment. This will stand us in good stead to accelerate our growth in the future.”
