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Do you provide $1/week offers to draw new
subscribers?
Do you spend a lot of money on the social media
platform?
No!
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$40/month
Despite its high price,
monthly churn rate is low: 1.5% …
(excluding IAP subscribers)
Typical monthly churn rate of North American
publishers: 3% ~ 4%
(FTI Consulting)
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Acquisition Cost > Retention Cost
Retention is highly cost-effective
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Nikkei.com offers a wide range of apps and features…but
many subscribers don’t use them or even know about them
● iOS/Android app (86%)
● ePaper app (44%)
● Keyword follow
● Newsletter
● Search
● Interactive content
● Company directories
困った!
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We want to recommend the best matching
features for our new users.
But we don’t know much about them
-> Typical cold start problem
We want better engagement with our users but we
don’t know enough about their interests:
So ask them!
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New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(1)
Why do you access Nikkei news?
[Multiple choice OK]
● Daily news review
● For work or business
● Managing investments or assets
● Self-improvement
● Other reason
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New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(2)
In the past, how often have you read
the Nikkei daily newspaper?
● Almost every day
● 3-4 times per week
● 1-2 times per week
● Never read the Nikkei newspaper
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New Subscriber Consultation: 3 Key Questions(3)
Which viewer format do you prefer?
● Article list smartphone view
● ePaper app Replica viewer
● Both
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Nikkei ePaper newspaper replica viewer app
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New subscriber consultation ->
Provide app and feature recommendations
● 6 app/feature recommendation profiles
based on new subscriber survey responses
○ Smartphone app Installation Guide
○ Habit-making guidance for
Morning/Evening editions
○ Content recommendations
○ Personalization features
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Question 1
Question2
Question3
02
01
Question3
04
03
Question3
06
05
YES No
YES No
The user reads Nikkei for
“Business” or “Investment”
The user previously read Nikkei
paper more than 3 days/week
Prefers List style app
or both List & ePaper
YES No
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New subscriber response rate to survey: 85%!
(Test period: 2019 Jun ~ Jul)
Results(1)
85%
Answered
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The way you ask questions is important
Results(2)
Best result
“Please answer
the following 3
questions.”
“Thank you for
registering.”
“Please answer the following
3 questions.”
(with Nikkei masthead image)
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Results(3)
● 4 point improvement in
retention rate
(93 day retention period)
● 8 point improvement in
ePaper app usage rate
(44% -> 52%)
● $546K gross profit increase
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Next step
Rolling out the consultation surveys to
current subscribers
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IN CONCLUSION
● New subscriber consultation surveys at
on-boarding are a very simple and effective
way to improve user engagement
● Most subscription media can do it
● Subtle changes in how you phrase questions
can dramatically improve response rates
● Test a lot
● Questions? -> Contact me
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YOSUKE SUZUKI
GM Digital Business Development, Nikkei America
yosuke.suzuki@nex.nikkei.com
NIKKEI PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY BLOG on Medium
https://medium.com/nikkei-product-technology