Mobile messaging to the publishing industry’s rescue?

The steady decline of the publishing industry has been well documented over the past few years.

The rise of the internet, mobile and social media have created an environment where people want

news and content at all times, but are more reluctant to pay for it. And, as more and more

eyeballs shift towards digital technologies, advertising revenues for traditional publishers has

dwindled. While some publishers such as Buzz feed, Gawker and Huffington Post have thrived

in the new business environment, many others have struggled to embrace technology and grow

their readerships.

The disconnect with customers

Overlooking the issue of declining revenue from advertising or sales for a moment, one of the

biggest challenges the publishing industry faces is the disconnect they have with their customers.

Most end users of the more traditional publishers buy their daily newspaper from the local store,

or buy hard copies of their books from their favorite retailers. Even though many customers are

fiercely loyal towards publishers, particularly in the case of newspapers and magazines, it’s the

retailers and shopkeepers who hold the relationships with the customers, not the publishers. So

how do publishers go about forging meaningful relationships with their customers? Mobile

messaging is the key.

Mobile, the key to engagement

The important first step for publishers is getting to know their customers directly. But the

challenge is customers don’t want to be part of the digital publishing revolution. For them the

physical product is part of the appeal and as such they don’t wish to communicate with

publishers via email or be pushed down the route of a digital subscription.

However, that’s not to say you can’t use digital devices or mobiles to get to know them. SMS is

the ideal way to engage with these customers on mobile, as it is quick, effective, and more

personal than email. Using SMS to get to know your customers has valuable implications for

publishers. It not only gives them a way to communicate directly with their customers, it

increases engagement and reduces acquisition costs.

How to do you get your customer’s mobile details

The key is obtaining their numbers is to provide a genuine value or incentive for your customers

to give you their personal data.

Think about providing a special offer or competition for your customers. For example, you could

run a special promotion for your customers, where if they text a short code they can receive a

free product or service. You could take this concept even further, and give your customers an

incentive to share the promotion with their friends. The classic example of this is Uber, when

you share you Uber promo code with a friend and they sign up, you get £10 off. Similarly, you

could run a competition to give away a major prize where the entry mechanism consists of

entering the draw by sending your details via SMS.

Payforit – the key to improving customer experience and

Embracing mobile doesn’t need to be a push towards digital publications. Publishers must

embrace mobile to improve their customer experience, particularly when it comes to acquiring

new subscribers.

Let’s face it, the user experience of subscribing to a newspaper or magazine is not great.

Customers either have to use a coupon that’s always too small to fill in all the details, or they

have to go online, which is something they were trying to avoid in the first place. The process of

paying, especially using offline methods, is quite daunting too. Not many people feel

comfortable mailing in a piece that has your credit card details on it.

Publishers can adopt services such as Payforit to make the payment and subscription process

much quicker and easier, to overcome these payment and subscription barriers. With Payforit, it

becomes possible for a publisher to set up a subscription service where a person could SMS their

address, and their desired subscription to a short code, and that would be it. The customer gets

their publication with just a few taps, and it is charged to their mobile phone bill at the end of the

month. Much quicker and simpler

than signing up using a computer!

For the publishers, it creates a

simple and painless process for

customers to engage with

publishers, streamlines the

process and decreases the

acquisition costs for new

subscriptions. And given most

people carry their phones with

them all the time, the window

publishers have to acquire new

customers would grow

exponentially. Our research has

shown that 46% of users would be

more likely to purchase products or services on their mobile if they didn’t have to provide card

or address details and could instead pay in two clicks.

Conclusion

With the publishing industry looking for new ways at recapturing its user base and establishing

direct relationships with its customers, mobile messaging must play a vital role. With a high

open rate and ability to resonate with audiences regardless of their their technical savvy, mobile

messaging perfect tool to improve customer experience and relationships. And, with the broader

adoption of Payforit, mobile messaging has the potential to dramatically improve the customer

acquisition and retention process. It could even be the industry’s saviour.