Sometimes the best way to move forward is to step back.

That was the reminder delivered by Maisie Tan, lead of projects and operations for SPH Media in Singapore, during the recent Webinar, Unlocking growth: the subscription future in Asia. Tan outlined how SPH Media is cultivating growth by embracing both the future and the past.   

“While everyone is racing forward with the latest technology, I though I would make a case for revisiting some of the often-overlooked fundamentals,” she said. “Going back to basics … could actually be our way forward.”

Emphasising that “retention needs more attention” from news media companies, Tan noted that acquiring a new subscriber is five to seven times more expensive than retaining a current one. It doesn’t matter how strong the top of funnel activity is “if we don’t fix the leaky bucket.”

Knowing that and doing something about it are two different things, but Tan said SPH Media has discovered revisiting the fundamentals can be a game-changer.

“In a world that’s flooded with digital messaging, traditional channels can still be incredibly effective. They are trusted, they feel personal, and they often have the cut-through that digital sometimes lacks,” she said.

“Don’t throw out the old playbook just yet.”

Reinventing direct mail

SPH Media conducted a direct mail campaign that contributed to both growth and retention. The campaign, which targeted existing print-only subscribers, encouraged them to upgrade to a print and digital bundle.  

“This not only increased their engagement with our content, but also made them more likely to stay because multi-platform subscribers tend to have higher retention rates,” she explained.

Although the print-only audience is perceived as being more difficult to reach with digital, the campaign was effective, landing a 7.8% conversion rate, which Tan said was an “extremely meaningful lift in the subscriber value and stickiness.”

A second direct mail campaign focused on winbacks, reaching out to those whose subscriptions had lapsed for more than 120 days. “It’s a segment that’s typically considered cold and extremely hard to win back, especially among the print readers,” Tan said.

SPH used a direct mailer that was “a bit hard to ignore if it appears in your mailbox,” and in doing so brought back a portion of those users. While the return was a modest .88%, Tan pointed out: “Every subscriber that we bring back contributes to the net retention and helps offset churn.”

Sending a message

For Zaobao News Tablet, an SPH Media Chinese publication, the company leaned into SMS marketing.

“We sent out a very simple and timely SMS nudge to our subscribers, and this resulted in half of the recipients, which is 51.77%, renewing their subscription with us,” Tan said. That breaks down to one successful renewal for every two messages sent, and she said the campaign was particularly successful amongst senior subscribers.

Another “throwback” type of outreach was the approach to the contact centre. The representatives, or CSOs, previously were the first point of contact but had little authority to prevent cancellations, particularly “if a subscriber sounded firm or if they raised more complex issues.” Those cases were sent to a dedicated retention team.

Tan said the management team decided to empower the CSOs to become specialists, and it developed an incentive programme for them.

“It wasn’t just about the extra dollars, it was about the trust and the ownership that we were placing in the hands of the CSOs,” she said. “The conversations started to shift. The CSOs were a lot more proactive, more persuasive and in fact more invested in the outcome for retention.”

Equipped with the necessary tools and information to resolve the issue on the spot, and with a newfound financial incentive, the CSOs quickly changed their mindset — and their outcomes, jumping from an 18% retention rate to 29%.

“That was a huge improvement, and we did it without increasing our spend,” Tan said. “And it reminds us that retention is not just about the systems, it’s really about people and empowering the front lines.”

Putting it into practice

While these techniques are a bit of a throwback to old practices, Tan explained that they’re executed with the help of modern technology.

The SMS messages aren’t sent out as blasts; the team is leaning into behavioural data to determine the best time to send them. And the direct mailers are personalised to match the recipient’s habits and preferences: “For example, we won’t send a promotion about digital perks to someone who rarely goes online.”

For the contact centre, SPH is looking at how to proactively reach out to those showing signs of disengagement and provide a conversation with a human before they fail to renew or ask to cancel.

Best of all, Tan said, these approaches don’t require a huge budget: “You just need the right trigger points and the willingness to revisit the channels you may have parked aside.”

These old tools, when paired with smart data and automation, can bring a fresh approach and boost retention: “We’re not choosing between the old and the new; we’re actually fusing them together,” Tan explained. “It’s high-tech with high-touch.”

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