Creative Email Approach Lifts Subscriptions and Revenue for Publisher
From auto repair shops to veterinarians, countless local businesses operate in every city in the U.S. - making the process of choosing the right service provider a pretty difficult task. Consumers’ CHECKBOOK magazine solves the problem by extensively researching businesses, and reporting on the best service at the best possible price. CHECKBOOK is published by the Center for the Study of Services, and covers seven major metropolitan areas: Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, Twin Cities and Washington DC.
What We Provided
Brokerage
Management
Alternative Media
Digital
Creative
The Brief
As a nonprofit that accepts no advertising, and is funded solely by subscription fees and donations, the growth of CHECKBOOK’s subscriber base is critical to the organization’s success. One of the vehicles CHECKBOOK uses to acquire new subscribers is their Holiday Gift Subscription Program.
In September 2012, CHECKBOOK realized the need to revamp their Gift Subscription program, and turned to RMI for help. Their goal was to increase the number of gift subscriptions given during the upcoming holiday season.
The Solution
RMI was tasked with developing an email blast to CHECKBOOK’s current subscribers with a corresponding landing page, an acknowledgement email to the gift recipient, and a printed version for those who preferred to hand-sign and deliver their gift.
As CHECKBOOK’s list manager and broker of record, RMI already had a strong working knowledge of the brand and its subscriber base. Once we understood the business objectives and past performance, we researched similar offers from CHECKBOOK’s competitors, and dozens of other publishers in all categories, to identify the tactics having the greatest success in the field. We also brainstormed on new approaches before putting pen to paper. We contributed fresh ideas, compelling copy, clean design, and low-cost print production solutions.
The Results
The end result was an integrated campaign that gave a polished look to the CHECKBOOK brand, communicated the value of the gift subscription, and greatly improved the user experience of both the gift giver and the recipient.
The campaign delivered 18% more gift subscriptions and 80% more revenue than the prior year. CHECKBOOK was so pleased with the quality and performance of the program; they rolled out a generic version of the campaign to use during off-season efforts.
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