In a recent webinar with A Media Operator, Lead Sr. Marketing Manager at The Christian Science Monitor, Kevin Henneberger, discussed how his publication’s content personalization strategy has boosted both reader engagement and revenue. In this blog, we’ll explore The Christian Science Monitor’s success and share advice for publishers looking to innovate their content personalization strategies.
1. Define your Vision and Scale Gradually
While The Christian Science Monitor had been engaging readers online for decades, they recognized the need to enhance their digital strategies by building a strong foundation for personalization. Their first step was transitioning from static assets to dynamic, personalized content powered by the BlueConic CDP. Henneberger noted, "we knew we had to evolve our approach. We couldn't rely on one-size-fits-all calls to action anymore."
The publication adopted a phased approach, starting by defining their goals for personalization. “We wanted to create a win-win situation,” explained Henneberger. “Visitors get more relevant content and calls to action, which improves their experience, and then we see higher response rates because we’re reaching the right audience with the right messaging.”
With their goals clearly defined, they began their personalization journey by implementing small changes, such as A/B testing algorithmic content recommendations. “We had a block at the bottom of our articles with related stories, and we did a pre- and post-analysis of staff-curated recommended stories against our first iteration using the BlueConic content recommendations,” Henneberger said. “We continued by testing variables such as the same author, same category, recency, or articles that were getting a high click rate.” By embracing this scalable strategy, The Christian Science Monitor was able to gain valuable insights while continuing to work toward their broader vision for reader engagement.
Key Takeaway: Start with small, incremental changes. Begin by testing singular, high-impact elements and expand as you collect more data. Personalization doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach - remember to define your goals, understand your results, and optimize your strategy accordingly.
2. Deliver Relevant Experiences with Audience Segmentation
A significant change The Christian Science Monitor made was updating their exit intent strategy. Before using BlueConic, their exit intent pop-ups were shown to all visitors. While these pop-ups were effective at capturing attention, they lacked personalization. By refining the exit intent trigger and focusing on newer, less-engaged visitors, the publication was able to present more relevant content to readers who were about to leave the site.
“This shift in strategy was a game-changer for us,” said Henneberger. “We went from random pop-ups to showing personalized, relevant content that resonated with our readers, which helped keep them engaged longer.” It also had an immediate impact. Not only did they see click-through rates two to two-and-a-half times higher than with their previous tool, but they were also able to reduce overall impressions of the exit intent while still improving site metrics. Moreover, by ensuring that only the right users saw the pop-up, The Christian Science Monitor boosted engagement without sacrificing the user experience for their loyal audience.
Key Takeaway: Be deliberate and agile when segmenting your audience. Personalization is most effective when tailored to specific and relevant visitor segments in real-time. Use data to differentiate between new visitors, loyal readers, and subscribers, and serve each group content that meets their unique needs.
3. Analyze Reader Behavior to Inform Strategy
To continually improve content personalization, Henneberger explained that The Christian Science Monitor documents and leverages previous tests, behaviors, and other insights. “It’s important to document tests because as you’re often moving on real fast - you want to make sure you’ve made the right changes,” Henneberger said. “Each small change adds up to better results.” By learning from its own data on reader behavior, The Christian Science Monitor has been able to avoid missteps and improve upon successful elements of their personalization strategy.
Analyzing reader behavior also enables The Christian Science Monitor to measure their personalization success against specific KPIs. Henneberger shared that by testing pop-ups and content recommendations, his team saw measurable improvements: “Your business metrics, continuation rate, and paywall stop rate are all improving at the same time because people are getting better content that they’re more satisfied with.” Going forward, The Christian Science Monitor plans to continually optimize their content personalization strategy by documenting insights, experimenting with new tactics, and making decisions informed by their own first-party reader data.
Key Takeaway: Keep detailed records of your tests and their outcomes to ensure you can identify what’s working and make informed decisions moving forward. Without proper tracking and analysis, you risk losing sight of what made a particular iteration successful, or repeating avoidable mistakes. Diligent and ongoing analysis of your results enables you to better understand readers, optimize individual elements of your strategy, and scale learnings across broader initiatives.
To learn more about The Christian Science’s Monitor’s content personalization strategy, watch the full webinar here.