How to keep subscribers: What’s working at Hearst, Immediate and Mark Allen Group

Marketing and retention bosses at Hearst, Immediate and Mark Allen Group on how they keep subscribers.

Subscriber retention panels at PPA Festival — Seema Kumari, senior director of consumer marketing and CRM at Hearst UK, Tony Hill marketing and events director at Mark Allen Group and Ed Garcia, head of retention at Immediate Media, on panels at the PPA Festival on Tuesday 25 April 2023. Pictures: PPA Festival

“Friendly friction”, personal phone calls and positive reinforcement are among the subscriber retention techniques advocated by marketing and retention bosses at Immediate Media, Hearst and Mark Allen Group.

Subscriber retention was a key theme of last week’s PPA Festival in London, coming up in multiple sessions – indicating a shift in focus from growing subscribers particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, to keeping them on the books.

Ed Garcia, head of retention at Immediate Media, revealed that Gardeners’ World Premium, launched under a year ago, has unlocked new ways of engaging with print subscribers other than waiting in the dark to see if they will renew at the end of their contract.