Case Studies
The Economist: New Subscribers Acquisition
Published: July 03, 2009
Objective
To widen market reach and increase circulation of The Economist.
Approach
The Economist designed bold mail packs with genuine offers and clear messaging that is relevant to the countries they approached. Each mail drop was timed to be delivered at the best season, in the optimum quantities.
Results
Circulation increased substantially, wastage was minimised, and best ROI and CPA (cost per acquisition) were achieved.
Direct mail can be costly, but with a bit of fine-tuning and a clear strong message, it could be a very effective marketing tool, as The Economist finds.
Direct mail is one of the many marketing channels that The Economist has been using to acquire new subscribers. With a circulation of more than 1.4 million worldwide and over 140,000 copies sold each week in Asia Pacific, the marketing team in Asia (and other regions globally) has been growing the circulation profitably through a wide range of marketing channels. Response and insights learned from each direct mail campaign are used for enhancing each following campaign.
Last year, we conducted two major direct mail campaigns with one in January and another in April in selected markets. The control pack was a large DM pack with a letter, subscription form and an 8-page insert which describes the breadth of topics that The Economist covers every week and why it is relevant to them.
A test pack uses a different message to highlight a shorter subscription-term offer. The control pack outperforms in most countries, but we see a stronger response with the shortterm subscription offer being more popular in countries such as Australia, this is also in line with the competition and purchasing behaviour in the market.
We then conducted a follow-up DM in July, which has gained us an incremental 40% of new subscription orders that we would not be able to get otherwise; Since this is a follow-up communication, we used a much simpler and lighter pack to achieve better effi ciency and further lowered the CPA (cost per acquisition) by 5%.
While direct mail can be costly, there is a halo effect when our acquisition campaign is running in different channels (online campaign, eDM, paid-search, etc) simultaneously – that each marketing channel benefit from one another as long as the message and offer remains consistent in each channel.
In addition, with much testing and fine-tuning of our direct mail over the years, we know the optimum mail drop quantities in each market, best season and timing, messaging, and pack design, making it increasingly efficient. For instance, instead of sending very large quantities, we have scaled back the quantities in direct mail to ensure that minimal wastage and best ROI and CPA (cost per acquisition) is achieved.
In general, a bold mail pack with genuine offers and clear messaging always delivers the best response. There are also subtle differences amongst the countries that we approach with a different propositions, whilst ensuring that they are timely and relevant to the current environment.
Every piece of marketing material should live up to the standard of The Economist brand – intelligent, insightful, independent and global in nature.
- Christopher Luk
- Brand and Communications
- Manager, Asia Pacific
- The Economist Group