About Anchorage Daily News
Anchorage Daily News is Alaska’s largest news site and paper, reporting on matters that affect Alaskans. Founded in 2008, Anchorage Daily News offers a wide array of solutions and products to connect businesses with their customers, employers with job candidates, and Alaskans statewide.
Leveraging the power of BlueConic Customer Data Platform (CDP), Anchorage Daily News implemented a successful win-back campaign that revitalized their subscriber base and strengthened their overall digital presence.
Challenge
The shift from print to digital is a common journey experienced by all media and publishing organizations in recent years. When Anchorage Daily News signed on with BlueConic, the leadership team was on a mission to get everyone on board with this shift toward digital. While ensuring the staff that print wasn’t going to be abandoned entirely, it was clear the new focus had to be on digital to ensure the news organization can survive the next 100 years.
With a substantial portion of their audience still engaged with print, it was crucial for Anchorage Daily News to get readers on board with this shift as well. In 2018, digital only accounted for 25% of their total subscriber base with print ruling the roost at 75%. Now, in 2024, that stat has flipped with 75% of the subscriber base being digital only with print trailing at 25%.
Like many subscription-based businesses, Anchorage Daily News grappled with the issue of churn, requiring effective audience-first strategies to win back lapsed subscribers. These subscription lapses are often due to subscribers not renewing on time or their credit card expiring.
Solution
The news organization needed to find a way to enhance their digital capabilities and better define audience segmentation. Collaborating with BlueConic, they focused on several key strategies including enhanced data collection, segmentation, and dynamic paywalls.
Anchorage Daily News collects upwards of 400 different data points that span behavioral data, content consumption patterns, geographic locations, and purchase history through BlueConic Listeners and Connections to the rest of their technology stack. This comprehensive data collection is stored in a unified profile and allows for precise audience segmentation and targeted marketing efforts, like dynamic paywalls.
To increase their registered user base and enrich their existing data, Anchorage Daily News implemented dynamic paywalls based on user engagement and segments, ensuring a smoother transition for users from anonymous to known profiles. They could now use reader data like interest to provide a targeted approach to dynamic paywalling; for example, “read more articles like this.” Using identity resolution in BlueConic, they tied data from the time a reader was anonymous to their known profile and built a rich history of the reader.
Using BlueConic, Anchorage Daily News also developed personalized win-back campaigns targeting former subscribers. These campaigns included a series of dialogue boxes, banners, and emails triggered at specific intervals post-cancellation, tailored to specific subscriber segments. They also optimized email campaigns by integrating BlueConic with their email marketing tool, Active Campaign, launching targeted emails with personalized messages based on user behavior and preferences.
”The beauty of BlueConic is it takes 30 seconds to change how messaging is delivered and at what cadence. It’s easy to test new tactics and reach audience segments in new and interesting ways without having to rely on a team of engineers or data scientists.” - Jeremy Feldman, Director of Digital Audience, Anchorage Daily News
Taking a multi-channel approach, Feldman implemented a win-back campaign using BlueConic Dialogues. Dialogue boxes and banners were displayed to former subscribers starting three days after cancellation, and aligned with concurrent email campaigns to reinforce the win-back effort. They integrated a SurveyMonkey survey to understand reasons for cancellation, feeding this data back into BlueConic to help refine their retention strategies. Additionally, personalized win-back offers were pushed through social media, ensuring a broader reach and higher visibility.
Results
The impact of these strategies was significant. Anchorage Daily News improved their win-back rate by 24% utilizing BlueConic Dialogues. Implementing dynamic paywalls resulted in a 33% growth in known profiles. By leveraging comprehensive data points, they created highly targeted and effective marketing campaigns, leading to increased engagement and retention. The proactive credit card reminder system also resulted in a 15% reduction in non-pay stops, addressing one of the key pain points in subscription management.
Anchorage Daily News' partnership with BlueConic exemplifies how media organizations can successfully navigate the digital transition and effectively manage subscriber churn. By embracing advanced data segmentation, personalized marketing, and dynamic user engagement strategies, Anchorage Daily News not only revitalized their subscriber base but also set a strong foundation for sustained digital growth. This experience highlights the importance of a robust data integration strategy, personalized engagement, and continuous optimization to achieve long-term success.
To learn more about how Anchorage Daily News is using BlueConic to drive subscription growth and win-backs, watch our recent webinar with A Media Operator.
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