Madeleine White is editor-in-chief of the English version of the media news site The Audiencers, created by the company Poool for media professionals. A specialist in revenue, engagement and reader conversion strategies, she sheds light today on registration walls, or registration walls.
What is a sign wall and what types of media does it work best for?
Madeleine White: A paywall offers readers the opportunity to create a free account in exchange for access to content along with other benefits, such as the ability to save articles, receive newsletters, or comment on articles.
The advantage of this registration model is that it allows you to diversify your revenue streams. By asking your readers to create an account, you can increase your advertising revenue, your number of subscribers, your readers' lifetime value [Lifetime value, or the sum of profits expected over the "lifespan" of a customer—that is, the duration during which a person remains a customer of your business—Editor's note.] and collect data to target marketing campaigns, events, or new products.
Any type of media can benefit from a paywall. Moreover, we are seeing more and more companies, in this industry as in others, benefit from this strategy. For example, you now need to create an account to watch catch-up TV, generate a QR code, download sheet music, or translate text.
What are the main objectives for a media outlet when it decides to implement this strategy? Is it primarily to collect information about users, increase conversion rates, or for other reasons?
MW: In general, three situations allow an online media outlet to benefit from a paywall strategy:
- The media monetizes only through advertising revenue and has not planned to launch a subscription strategy for now. In this case, the main objective is to collect first party data[data originating from the first circle, that is to say all information collected firsthand by a company from its customers or users, Editor's note.], increase engagement and improve user experience.
Example: The online media 20 Minutes indicates that users with an account spend twice as much time on a page and have four times more page views.
- The media outlet plans to launch a subscription strategy. The registration wall then serves to build a base of engaged readers who will be more likely to subscribe. In this case, the registration wall also allows the media outlet to learn how its readers react to a wall that restricts access to content.
Example: In Switzerland, the daily newspaper Blick built a base of 600,000 registered users six months before launching its premium strategy, Blick+.
- The media outlet launched a subscription strategy long ago and is seeking to better monetize readers who may never subscribe, while moving them through an acquisition funnel toward subscription.
Example: British weekly The Economist launched a registration wall strategy a few months ago, and their paywall in 2009.
What are the key elements to consider to capture visitors' interest and encourage them to take the step of signing up?
MW: Think of registration as you would any other premium product. To do this:
- Create multiple acquisition channels (in the comments section, via a sign-up wall, user interface features, etc.)
- Define a clear value proposition as you would if you were presenting a subscription offer (why should someone sign up?)
- Take care of your conversion funnel (reduce friction and only ask for the information you need)
- Work on retention (welcome journey, first moments)
Above all, always return to the reason why you decided to launch a signup strategy and how the user journey and the product can support that goal.
Once a user is registered, how do you maintain engagement and build loyalty? How do you prevent users from unsubscribing and, ideally, encourage them to become subscribers or make a donation?
MW: As with subscription, you need to take advantage of the first moments after conversion.
1. Welcome tour
This should contain steps that lead to high LTV for your subscribers and members.
For example, the New York Times onboarding journey has 4 steps after signup following their paywall encounter:
- Promotion of their paid subscription (objective: conversion to subscription)
- Daily newsletter signup (goal: build a habit)
- Sign up for other newsletters (goal: engagement and personalization)
- App download (objective: engagement, retention, and discovery of other products, such as games)
2. The first moments after sign-up
- Allow readers to do what they wanted to do before being blocked by the wall
- Show the product value
- Personalize (for example, Spotify asks us to choose our three favorite artists to personalize our experience from the very first moment)
To encourage a reader to subscribe, you have several options:
- Only offer a single item with sign-up
- Block with a paywall after a certain number of articles (metered model)
- Block certain higher-quality content with the paywall (freemium model)
- Leave all content open but promote subscription with pop-ups, banners, emails, etc.
But the best option, as always, is a dynamic strategy — that is, adapting these options based on the reader or content.
Is it possible to combine a registration wall and paywall, that is, to require account creation for some articles and subscription for others? If so, how do you associate each piece of content with its respective wall?
MW: Yes. Again, this is a dynamic strategy that makes it possible to adapt the user journey based either on the reader or on the content.
At the reader level, you can for example make this choice based on engagement level: a registration wall for less engaged users, a paywall for active members who already have an account.
In terms of content, it's possible to implement a freemium strategy: content marked as free is blocked by a registration wall.
How to measure the effectiveness of your registration wall? What key metrics should you monitor to evaluate the success of this strategy?
MW: It all depends on your main objective!
If your goal is to increase your advertising revenue, it all depends on your number of subscribers, the percentage of logged-in users compared to anonymous ones, the time spent on the page by logged-in readers compared to anonymous ones… In short, everything that leads to more advertising revenue.
If the goal is to convert readers into subscribers, this will depend on your number of registered users, the conversion rate of registered users to subscription compared to anonymous users, and the LTV of registered users who subscribe compared to anonymous users who subscribe.
In general, the same key indicators to monitor as for subscriptions are conversion rate, form completion rate, registration rate, etc.
To go further
Read more on The Audiencers website
- Finding the best possible paywall strategy for your media outlet is no easy task. Alternatives Économiques has moved toward a model similar to that of the New York Times: based on account creation and a metered paywall. Here's how.
- Plenty of examples of media outlets, e-learning platforms and brands that have successfully executed their registration wall strategy.
- Your paywall should be beautiful, but most importantly effective at converting your users into subscribers. You've exhausted your market opportunities, and now you're going in circles. Here are 50 paywall examples to inspire your subscription strategy.
- Do you have a paywall and want to optimize it? Are you thinking about implementing a subscription strategy and thus a paywall and want to get the most out of it at day 1 as well as day 1000? In either case, this article is for you.
Read on the Médianes website
- A practical guide that surveys existing business models focused on audiences to help you define your own.
- Frédéric Desiles is strategic and commercial director of the monthly Alternatives Économiques. He is the guest of the sixth episode of the second season of Chemins, the Médianes podcast.
- To make it more than just a stern subscription confirmation, the welcome message deserves to be thought of as a tool for building loyalty. Because it's the first connection between a media outlet and its community, it's worth making a good impression. Here are some ideas and best practices.
- Arrêt sur images, Les Jours, Mediapart… more and more media outlets are offering their subscribers the option to gift articles to their loved ones. A closer look at a marketing strategy that helps drive discovery of content and turn subscribers into brand ambassadors, beyond algorithms.
