Build a membership model to foster community
In the sixth episode of our new Making Money From Magazines podcast, Nikki Simpson talks to Mark Alker, Founder and CEO of Singletrack magazine, about how his business model transitioned from the newsstand, to subscriptions, to membership.
They discuss the importance of community, member benefits, retention strategies, and the technology used to manage memberships. Mark emphasises the significance of quality content and the need for a personal touch in subscriber interactions, particularly in managing churn. The conversation highlights the evolving landscape of magazine publishing and the necessity of adapting to meet the needs of readers.
Takeaways
- Membership signifies belonging, unlike subscriptions which imply payment
- Singletrack evolved their membership model to foster community
- The magazine serves as the core product of the membership, enhancing reader engagement
- Retention strategies are crucial; a retained subscriber is worth five times more than a new one, but churn is a reality – personal touches in cancellations can help
- Quality content is essential for attracting and retaining subscribers
- Email newsletters serve as a powerful tool for communication and engagement
- Building a community means respecting that it belongs to the members, not the publisher
With thanks to our production partners
We’ve been working with Simon Elliott at crowdfindervideo on this podcast for the past 7 months or so.
He’s consistently supportive, responsive, enthusiastic and, we hope you agree from the high quality production, great at his job!
Crowdfindervideo helps magazine publishers to extend their brand into video.
They focus on small publishers, so offer a service that won’t break the bank, and can provide you with everything you need from ideation and set-up, through production, to publishing your final product.
If you’d like them to do something similar for your brand, drop Simon a line.