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.