Mediahuis Belgium recognises long-term subscribers are their best customers and bases its customer strategy around that knowledge.

Hanne Hendrikx is manager/customer retention at Mediahuis Belgium, which has four brands within the country. During a recent INMA Media Subscriptions Town Hall, Hendrikx detailed the long-term relationship advantage the company has with many of its readers and how retaining them is baked into its overall strategy.

Subscriber profiles

Hendrikx shared with attendees a bit about their subscribers: “Our print subscribers have had subscriptions for a very long time; 80% have a long-term relationship, more than three years, but often for decades. And 80% pay full price. Their average age is 68.”

Mediahuis has brands in five countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and Ireland with 35 news titles in their portfolio and 1.8 million subscribers — 54% digital, 55% print.

Their digital subscribers look a bit different: 35% have had a long-term (longer than three year) relationship with Mediahuis, 70% pay full price, and their average age is 55.

Mediahuis Belgium makes a point of not offering long discounts. Within one to two years, all subscribers are paying full price. The why of that strategy is the long-term relationship, Hendrikx said.

“The focus on long-term retention is really important to us,” she said. “That also has an impact on the choices we make.”

The tenure-to-retention connection

Hendrikx’s team sees a direct connection between the tenure of a subscriber and retention rates, she said. So they set goals around just that: 

• A 3% churn rate among first-year subscribers.

• A 2% churn rate among subscribers of 1-3 years.

• A less than 1% churn rate among subscribers of 3+ years.

And they are succeeding. Hendrikx shared these numbers:

• 3.7% monthly retention rate for print subscribers, 2.9% for digital.
• 2.1% print retention rate/1.4% for digital for subscribers of 1-3 years.
• 0.9% for print, 0.7% for digital retention rate for subscribers of 3+ years.

“For digital, we were afraid we wouldn’t get the same rate as print, but we did. We are really happy [with the digital retention]. Digital is the future so we are really happy with these churn rates.”

Retention-focused customer journey

Hendrikx shared a few principles for that have helped Mediahuis Belgium retain readers:

• Don’t offer exaggerated discounts. Mediahuis Belgium doesn’t offer anything over a one-year discount).

• “A good start is half the battle,” she said. The team puts a lot of energy into a personalised onboarding experience for subscribers.

• Detect problems quickly. A follow-up questionnaire with new subscribers helps identify issues early on).

• Build strong brands. Each of Mediahuis Belgium’s four titles has its own brand team.

• Listen to the customer. The team added the ooption for readers to cancel subscriptions online instead of having to call in because readers asked for it.

• If readers want to downgrade their subscription to a less expensive one, offer them that option.

The general strategy at Mediahuis Belgium is to focus on sustainable relationships, Hendrikx said. 

“If they exceed three years [as a subscriber], they become very loyal,” she said. “Often we have a discussion about something that will give us extra money or subscriptions for the short term, but if it won’t work in the long term, often we don’t do it. A loyal audience has an impact on everybody.”

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