Optimizing the Entire Business How The Boston Globe moved beyond the landing page Peter Do Doucette Pam amela Mark arkey VP Consumer Sales & Marketing Senior Director Marketing The Boston Globe MECLABS
Optimizing the Transition from Free to Paid Subscriptions 2012 2012
Discovering and Optimizing a Value Proposition 2013 2013
Peter Do Doucette VP Con Consumer Sales les & Marketin ing The e Bo Boston Glo lobe Peter Doucette is responsible for all all con onsumer-facing g as aspects of of cir circulation and and aud audience de development for or bo both pr print and and dig digital subscribers, consumer strategy, CRM, customer service and customer loyalty. Doucette joined The Boston Globe in 2007 and has served in a number of roles in the circulation department. Prior to his present role, he was Director of Circulation Marketing, where he was an ar architect for or the pr premium-focused ci circulation strategy, a critical component in the fina financial turn urnaround of of The he Bos oston n Glob lobe in in 20 2009 09. Prior to that, Doucette was Director of Home Delivery and Single Copy Circulation, where he was responsible for gr growing revenue for or The he Glob lobe's 's ho home de delivery @PMDoucette busi business, maximizing newsstand sales and profitability, and incr increasing cus customer sa satisfaction and and en engagement .
Boston is is the top newspaper market Each week, 77% of adults in the Boston DMA read a Daily/Sunday newspaper or visit a newspaper website – that makes Boston the top newspaper market in the county.* Read a Dly/Sun ePaper Read a Dly/Sun print newspaper Visited newspaper site 77% Print + Digital newspaper usage 74% 74% 72% 69% 68% 67% 66% 63% 63% 58% 58% 57% 54% 51% 49% 49% 46% 41% 30% 26% 26% 25% 24% 21% 17% 17% 14% 14% 4% 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% Boston New York Chicago Philly D.C. San Fran LA Dallas Atlanta Houston *Among top ten markets based on population 18+Print/ePaper: Dly Cume, Sun Avg Issue Digital: Past 7 days Source: 2013 Scarborough Research Rel 2, Multi-Market
The Boston Glo lobe (abbreviated) tim imeli line 1872 1996 2011 TWO BRANDS The Boston Globe Boston.com site BostonGlobe.com newspaper founded launched launched
BostonGlobe.com audie ience created an opportunity for testing of BostonGlobe.com 74% users do not use Boston.com 5,347,000 3,909,000 Boston.com only BostonGlobe.com only 1,376,000 shared
The Glo lobe subscrib iber trends 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
The Glo lobe subscrib iber trends 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Optim imization beyond the la landin ing page – Reporting Beyond marketin ing Printing Delivery
+102% A. President Obama a skeet shooter? B. White House offers proof that Obama shoots a gun +26% A. Mo. Powerball winner turns in ticket B. Winning Mo. Powerball ticket turned in +60% A. SJC adds protection for youth defendants’ cases B. Dismissal of Lynn teen’s murder conviction upheld +46% A. Mayor Menino declares flu health emergency in Boston B. Health emergency declared in Boston after hundreds fall ill +117% A. Red Sox gear up for spring B. Oh yeah: Time for the Sox
+102% A. President Obama a skeet shooter? B. White House offers proof that Obama shoots a gun +26% A. Mo. Powerball winner turns in ticket B. Winning Mo. Powerball ticket turned in +60% A. SJC adds protection for youth defendants’ cases Live Newsroom Headline Test B. Dismissal of Lynn teen’s murder conviction upheld +46% A. Mayor Menino declares flu health emergency in Boston B. Health emergency declared in Boston after hundreds fall ill +117% A. Red Sox gear up for spring B. Oh yeah: Time for the Sox
Let’s go to Boston.com…
Live Headline Test Police Allege Sex Assault in Walpole Not Reported Text GlobeA to 22-333 Did School Run by State Contractor Fail to Report Rape? Text GlobeB to 22-333 OR go to MarketingSherpa.com/LivePoll
The result lts
1 Making a case for optimization 2 Creating a sustainable testing framework 3 Going beyond the marketing function 4 Optimizing against the odds
My every intention is to push the kind of boldness and in investment that will make The Globe a laboratory for major newspapers across the country. http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013/10/27/why-bought-globe/QmFHhvRGFajQh1oMcAJ64M/story.html
Dig igit ital l access pric ice testin ing Prices tested: • Control price point = $3.99 • T1 price point = $0.99 • T2 price point = $1.99 • T3 price point = $2.99 • T4 price point = $4.99 Each treatment featured a 99¢ trial offer for four weeks stepping to the full rate noted in the treatments.
Dig igit ital l Access Pric ice Testing: Early result lts 36% increase in digital access subscriptions The $0.99 price point drove 36% more conversions than the control. Treatment Conversio Co ion Sam Sample les Su Successes Fai ailu lures Co Control ol $3.99 1.65% 17,788 327 17,461 Treatment 1 $0.99 2.18% 18,061 453 17,608 Treatment 2 $1.99 1.95% 17,946 400 17,546 Treatment 3 $2.99 1.80% 17,988 367 17,621 Treatment 4 $4.99 1.47% 18,017 301 17,716
Dig igit ital l Access Pric ice Testing: 52 week k results 62% decrease in digital access revenue The $0.99 price point drove 62% less conversions than the control. Treatment Conversion Cancel Rate 52 Wee eek Revenue Rev/S /Subscrib iber Rev/V /Vis isit it Co Control ol $3.99 1.84% 57% $45,189.15 $112.13 $2.09 Treatment 1 $0.99 .99 2.51% 41% $17,172.54 $36.46 $0.77 Treatment 2 $1.99 2.23% 51% $26,048.01 $61.73 $1.18 Treatment 3 $2.99 2.04% 56% $31,611.53 $82.54 $1.44 Treatment 4 $4.99 1.67% 60% $39,386.81 $130.42 $1.80
Dig igit ital l access accordion checkout testin ing
Dig igit ital l access accordion checkout testin ing
Dig igit ital l access accordion checkout testin ing ASSUMPTION An accordion checkout was successful for
Dig igit ital l access accordion checkout testin ing 35% decrease in digital access revenue The accordion checkout drove 35% less conversions than the control.
That everything we’ve done has been successful is not reality. Some things did id not meet our exp xpectations. But we le learn every ry tim ime and we apply to the next xt test .
1 Making a case for optimization 2 Creating a sustainable testing framework 3 Going beyond the marketing function 4 Optimizing against the odds
Build ildin ing a sustain inable testin ing model • Requires making an investment in optimization and testing • You can’t just layer it onto existing work
The Boston Glo lobe testin ing scorecard 16 Experiments 7 Winning Treatments .438 Batting Average $2.6MM Revenue
Sustain inable testing framework requir irements • Management commitment • Organizational commitment and mindset • Resources (developers, designers) • Scale of trials (landing pages, headlines, number of newspapers delivered per year)
Sustain inabilit ity: Create context xt for your testin ing A framework to protect your value proposition
Sustain inabilit ity: Create context xt for your testin ing A framework to protect your value proposition
Sustain inabilit ity: Create context xt for your testin ing A framework to protect your value proposition
1 Making a case for optimization 2 Creating a sustainable testing framework 3 Going beyond the marketing function 4 Optimizing against the odds
Goin ing beyond the marketing function • Product UX • Operations: production and distribution • People and organization structure • Micro markets for print circulation
New product la launch overvie iew Lean Steps Test/ Hypothesis/G Require- Build/QA Deploy Measure/ Iterate oals ments Learn UX/design Support A/B options Support A/B Options • Inconsistent • Edit/product quality across • Inconsistent defines goals Current State product and • Lack of review of site • Test editorial visibility into or section • hypotheses Inconsistent • • Dev queue Generally fine analytics Sporadic at using data and engagement • • Large projects Lack of best market with Dev in take up testing/iterat- process research capacity ive product • • Design backlog Finance design • Assumes no creates P&L A/B options • • • • Revenue goals Standardize Process to Ensure clear • • A/B platform No product Gaps not widely form/format prioritize and requirements of and backlog or • shared with Process to communicate tagging for training/process resources • product and prioritize and Understaffed launch – to manage allocated editorial communicate for QA Mission critical Source: Lean Startup, Eric Reiss
Setting Your Team Up for Testin ing Success 45 If we roll back editorial close, what could we test? Minutes
New product launch: Boston.com
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