Increasing Retention with The News & Observer

The News & Observer, based in Raleigh NC, is owned by The McClatchy Company and has a daily subscriber base of 160K Customers and 1100 employees.

N&O Testimonial (PDF Format) | Word Format

Register for a Free online Newspaper webinar

NewsandObserver.com

Challenge:

One of circulation’s top ten departmental goals for 2004 was to grow Easy-Pay auto renewal to 20% of total subscriber base. Because of budgetary considerations, the challenge was to find a sales channel that allowed communication to subscribers for a fixed cost.

In short, circulation had to:

• Reach subscribers with an Easy-Pay message
• Inspire subscribers to take advantage of the offer
• Provide an effective way for subscribers to respond

Solution:

To address this challenge, The News and Observer used an online interactive marketing campaign. Listed are the tools and tactics used.

• Message Delivery: e-mail broadcast
• Customer Incentive: area discount card was offered as a reward
• Response Channel: Secure online forms captured to a database

Process

1. Email addresses were gathered from existing circulation databases
2. An outgoing e-mail message was created
3. A secure online response form was created (FormRouter’s Simple Form Builder)
4. The e-mail message was sent with a hotlink to the online response form
5. Responses were downloaded directly to a database in circulation (FormRouter’s Client Tool)
6. Response activity was tracked with online graphical reports (FormRouter’s Reports)

Benefits:

By using FormRouter for their data routing technology, the N&O realized the following benefits:

• A new online sales channel was found for Easy-Pay
• Zero additional marketing cost was incurred in circulation to execute
• Multiple campaigns were easily run and automated
• Circulation controlled and implemented all technology without outside assistance from IT staff
• The program was a success

Summary:

In three months circulation grew it's Easy-Pay renewal base 28%.

These results were achieved using a new marketing channel that was made accessible to the circulation department by FormRouter Technology. No outside IT staff was needed to setup or manage the campaign.