Greg turned out to be a walking encyclopedia on just about every aspect of subscription. For every question, he had case studies, examples and anecdotes and delivered like a stand-up comedian!
"I want to buy an umbrella from you. But you are showing me a thousand umbrellas! I just need to see three. Limit your options, help your customers."
"You will be surprised how much people value why you do what you do, more than what you do. So communicate your values."
"Who the hell goes to the New York Times to read about fashion or cooking? Content diversification is taking an audience and writing from a perspective you are familiar with about them."
"You go to the restaurant to get a steak. The steak is the centrepiece. But they also need to serve you potatoes, and the salad. Find ways to provide more values to your customers."
“Users stop when you ask them for a username and password. Get their money first, then let them set up an account.”
"I have a shared newspaper subscription with my mother-in-law. No way I'm cancelling that!"
Greg showed us how newsletters have been instrumental in creating a habit among readers. He also showed research results that if readers engage for 100 days, they are unlikely to unsubscribe.
Using his insights and with the hard work from our membership and engineering teams, we revamped how we presented our membership offer. Combined with Malaysiakini’s news coverage of the year’s political dramas, our reader revenue outperformed expectations.
What was looking like a disaster, turned positive. We were able to retain all our staff, avoid the industry-wide retrenchments and even give a little extra to the team at year-end.
As a testament to the year, I have yet to meet Grzegorz Piechota in person. I am sure we will soon, and I look forward to a few drinks together, accompanied by lots of charts, anecdotes and discussion about the next big thing in digital media.
Greg, a big thank you from Malaysiakini!
