How cross-channel segmentation boosts online subscriptions

In a cross-channel customer segmentation test at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, the retail and media company was able to boost subscriptions to its three magazines online by targeting different customers with the right offer, says Raffaele Pisacane, vice president of Internet development. Using analytics from E.Piphany and Art Technology Group’s marketing database and scenario server tools, marketers created customer segments of online visitors who were also subscribers to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia magazines.

Among them, magazine subscribers who had a subscription that would expire in one or two months got a promotional incentive to renew for the next year. Former subscribers were given incentives to re-subscribe, while those with subscriptions about to expire got an incentive to renew right then online. “This is huge from a cost point of view because if we can reconvert our magazine subscribers using the online channel, we don’t have to send a postcard or use more traditional means of reaching them at more expense,” says Pisacane.

Though the online subscription initiative is still only in test mode, “Based on people clicking through the promotional content served up to them and based on the click through rate and execution of magazine subscription and subscription renewal, we’ve been successful,” he says. “We’ve proved it can convert at a higher level.”

When Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia launched it most recent magazine, Martha Stewart Living Everyday Food, for example, in the first month 33% of the magazine subscription came through the Internet, Pisacane says. That’s in part because of how CRM data informed online targeting of certain site visitors. “We know (via cookies and registration) who is coming to our site. We know what customers are more keen to subscribe to the new magazine because they are coming more frequently to the cooking and entertainment content area of our site or they bought a cooking item from the site,” he adds.