VP of Consumer Revenue at Georges Media Group explains how his organization is leveraging customer data to create and fuel subscription campaigns that convert.
Many publishers are struggling to adapt and advance their subscription strategies in an increasingly competitive market. To overcome this challenge, Georges Media Group, parent company of publications such as The Advocate, The Times-Picayune, and Nola.com, is leveraging first-party data to acquire, retain, and engage subscribers.
In a recent Local Media Association webinar, Georges Media Group’s VP of Consumer Revenue, Kyle Whitfield, joined Sam Ngo from BlueConic to explore how the organization is using the BlueConic CDP to enhance subscription models, improve customer engagement, and achieve measurable results.
Unlocking Customer Understanding with a CDP
The key to Georges Media Group’s success lies in their ability to collect, analyze, and activate highly relevant first-party data. “A CDP allows us to collect and unify consented data, such as user activity on our website, make segments with that data, act on that data in-platform, and export that data to an email service provider, for example,” explained Whitfield.
He continued by emphasizing the depth of insights his team gains via unified customer profiles: “On an individual user level, I can see every page view URL a person has clicked on, how many articles they’ve read in the last 30 days by section, the time and date of their most recent site visit, their most recent visit location, the referral source and medium, if they visited our checkout page, if they abandoned their cart, if they opted into website push alerts, and what newsletters they've signed up for.”
These insights create a complete view of each customer’s interests, preferences, and content consumption patterns, empowering the company to deliver highly personalized experiences that resonate with prospective and current subscribers alike.
Putting Insights into Action
With access to these rich profiles, Georges Media Group can segment and activate the data to engage their audience in powerful new ways. Whitfield noted that BlueConic enables him to “meter and gate content, deploy premium articles, make targeted newsletters, and tailor subscription marketing to unpaid subscribers.” These strategies not only improve engagement but also drive conversions by making interactions more meaningful and relevant to users.
Whitfield also highlighted how the team uses the platform for experimentation. “We can ask specific questions of our data, such as, ‘Do folks who read certain content retain better than other groups?’” By analyzing this data in BlueConic, they derive valuable insights that can be used for future campaigns.
CDP Use Cases: Strategies Driving Subscription Success
With their robust data foundation, Georges Media Group has implemented several use cases that have transformed their subscription strategy. Here are three ways they are converting readers into loyal subscribers:
Acquisition Campaigns: Transforming the path to subscription
Targeting the right users is essential for any successful acquisition campaign, and Georges Media Group is using BlueConic to do just that. Whitfield gave an example: “Say we want to send out a subscription offer in our coverage of New Orleans topics, such as the LSU Tigers or hurricanes. With BlueConic, we can easily identify the users that have engaged with a certain number of weather or LSU articles over the past 30 days for whom we have an email address. From there, we can create that segment and send it to the ESP.”
By focusing campaigns on users who are already engaged, Whitfield’s team has seen significant increases in both engagement and conversions. “Outside of our content meter, email marketing with the help of the CDP is the biggest way we influence people to become subscribers,” said Whitfield.
Seamless Onboarding: Personalizing the subscriber experience from day one
Georges Media Group recognized the subscriber onboarding process was an opportune moment to begin personalizing the subscriber experience. With this in mind, the team implemented a data collection strategy to gather insights from the moment a user subscribes. “We set up a Listener on the confirmation page that collects behavioral data when someone purchases a subscription,” Whitfield explained. “Then we show them a pop-up box after subscribing with a few opt-in onboarding options, such as signing up for email newsletters and text alerts, learning more about our 501(c)(3) Investigative Bond, or taking them back to where they were.”
By implementing and tracking the ‘Check out your subscriber perks’ pop-up, Whitfield found that 78% of customers who had just purchased a subscription engaged with that lightbox. Furthermore, this feature enabled new subscribers to self-select their preferences for future engagement, immediately tailoring their experience and increasing their satisfaction with the publication.
Subscriber Tiers: Reimagining the value of a subscriber
Georges Media Group is also working to reimagine subscriber value beyond just monetary contributions. In this new project, Whitfield has segmented subscribers into five tiers: VIP, Valued, Engaged, Casual, and Passive. These tiers are based on various factors measured by BlueConic, such as engagement scores, payment history, and subscription length.
This tiering system helps the team better understand how to interact with different subscriber groups. “Our Acquisition Director can take this information to see what a VIP or casual subscriber looks like, and then model advertising and messaging based on that.” They’re even using this data to create look-alike audiences for acquisition campaigns, enabling further opportunities to expand and strengthen their subscriber base.
For a deeper look into The Advocate’s subscription strategy journey, check out the full webinar here.