Situation
A renowned Indian legacy publisher participated in our Subscriptions Academy India 2022 to rapidly scale its digital subscriptions. An initial data diagnostic in the first phase of programme revealed that while an impressive number of people visited the publisher’s website on a daily basis, very few of them were ever asked to pay. An offer of 10+ free stories meant few readers would ever hit the paywall and be faced with a payment decision.
Intervention
During the ‘Test & Learn’ phase of the programme, FT Strategies guided The Hindu through an experiment around tightening its meter to boost subscriptions:
- The paywall would tighten only for readers known to be more likely to pay for a premium subscription
- Fewer stories were free to read for this segment, who would now be prompted to subscribe at an earlier point in their user journey
Results
Meter stop rate dramatically increased as the publisher was successful in exposing more users to the paywall, though comparative click-through rates and conversions were slightly down.
“We are working with a brilliant team from FT Strategies. The past few months have been very hectic, as the deep dives in data, practical hands-on approach of FT Strategies, combined with mentoring sessions, has pushed us out of our comfort zones and have helped us identify a large number of opportunities to grow our subscription business.”
VP & Business Head, Digital
