Case study: How to use ad techniques to boost subscriptions

Creative Use For Existing Tools

The Texan is a young publication that focuses on political news from the Lone Star state.

The publication prides itself on being advertisement free, as part of its mission to focus solely on the news and on the reader experience.

As a subscription-based service, it is not surprising that The Texan has found creative ways to promote those subscriptions.

The surprise is that they’ve taken a leaf out of the advertising book to do it.

Subscriptions, Not Ads

A lot of publications use auto-injectors to place ad-content into the middle of their articles.

The Texan has done something similar only with a simple subscription nag instead.

Instead of an auto-play video or even a static ad, The Texan inserts a cheerful notice of the subscription price. Paired with the article countdown at the bottom of the screen, it makes for a powerful motivator.

If the reader decides that being “the most informed Texan you know” is worth the price of “one over-priced sandwich a month” and follows the link, they are taken to a simple subscription page.

The only thing that might improve the entire experience is a bit of sales copy on that final page, describing the benefits of a subscription.

Even so, for a publication that strongly believes in the standalone worth of its content, the consistent message in the simple presentation is clear:

An Easy Win

The best part of this idea is that it’s simple to execute. Though there is no plug-and-play option, any WordPress developer you work with can write a bit of custom code to make it happen. That endless custom-ability is the beauty of WordPress.

The Texan has found a creative way to use that flexibility to boost its revenue.