Eleven PAGE Cooperative publishers participated in a recent coalition benchmarking study of new subscription starts and existing subscription renewal activities that are handled through Leap Media Solutions web form management system. The study compiled all transactions processed over the past twelve month cycle ending March 30 2014.
Among Leap clients The Frederick News-Post stood out for generating nearly $155 000 in point-of-sale revenues since deploying the web form service in March 2013. Prior to then the News-Post did not have a way for customers to make a payment online.
New subscription starts accounted for 794 transactions and $44 917 in revenues over the past twelve months in Frederick for an average of $56.57 captured at the point of sale.
Existing subscription renewals on the other hand accounted for 1 180 transactions and $109 878 in revenues for an average of $93.12 captured at the point of renewal. These renewal transactions originate from the Leap customer lifecycle emails delivered to "at-risk" pay by mail customers during their renewal and grace periods.
53% of new subscribers signed on for monthly EZ Pay and another 27% signed on for an annual auto-renew subscription. 48% of renewal subscribers signed on for monthly EZ Pay and another 52% signed on for annual auto-renew. In total over 89% of all new starts and renewals have selected either monthly or annual automatic renewal.
The web form solution is an optional service for Leap Media clients and involves a small annual seat license and monthly managed service fee which includes initial setup plus two hours of support per month. Leap Media Solutions installs a client tool at each market allowing the newspaper to automatically download transactions for processing. Leap Media then designs brands codes and deploys the web forms for use with direct mail email FSIs house ads and online links. When a customer completes and submits a form the transaction data is stored securely through a PCI-audited solution. Publishers retain 100% of revenues captured through the LMS web form service.
The web form service is also driving higher retention. In the one year prior to using the LMS web form service annual retention of web-based new starts averaged 59%. In the one year since deploying the web form service annual retention of web-based new starts of participating markets is averaging 82%.
The monthly managed service is providing Leap Media clients with an economical solution for capturing starts and renewals online. Taking into account the annual seat licenses and monthly managed service fees the coalition average cost per transaction is only $0.54.
"As we go forward this data will allow us to measure and chart the revenues that are captured as part of the various acquisition and lifecycle marketing campaigns we execute on behalf of our clients. There is a lot of detail in the numbers that we are just now beginning to understand. More importantly the data will assist all involved with pricing and renewal strategies that optimize campaign response to drive long-term customer retention " according to Daniel Williams Leap Chief Executive.
