Catch of the day

How list rental opens up an enriched experience for “house” subscribers

If you are a list owner who is considering renting your list to third-party advertisers, you probably know all of the benefits to you. But what about your readers? Are you just selling them up the river? Absolutely not. Handled correctly, there are many benefits for readers in receiving third-party offers from select advertisers-really! Read on to see why list rental is a win-win situation for you and your subscribers.

Deals, steals & spicy content

1.Cool opportunities. Third-party messages, branded as “special offers,” “Discount for Tennis Magazine Readers” and “invite-only webinar invitation” all serve to further charm your readers into loyal retention. By offering them great deals and opportunities, there is plenty of incentive to stay subscribed-what are they missing if they don’t? Third-party offers remind your readers of your massive industry clout and make them feel excited to be part of such a popular heavy-hitter list, all while taking advantage of juicy deals and offers in the process.

2. A more palatable alternative. Your readers will love third-party offers because they prevent you as a list owner from having to engage in other more invasive forms of revenue-generation. We’re talking about things like covering your site in pay-per-click ads, posting ad trailers on videos, or hiking your subscription costs-all things readers definitely don’t love! You subscribers know you’ve got to eat, and posed with the decision, most will choose third-party offers over other options every time.

3. Spicy new content. Readers love new interesting content, but producing it on a regular basis can be exhausting.  Give yourself a break, and please your readers at the same time, when you let someone else do the dirty work (or the wordy work, as the case may be.) If you don’t have a particularly interesting offer going on or you are in a slow season, don’t just send out another same old sales offer or tired content for the sake of frequency-readers can smell that a mile away.  Instead, allow a third-party advertiser to send a timely offer. This keeps your content spicy and on schedule. Everyone appreciates a fresh view from time to time, which is why things like guest blog posts and cross-promotions can be so effective.

4. A sustained sweet user experience. List rental provides the lucrative revenue stream you need to keep bringing readers the great product or services they love and expect from you, and even upgrade them. Marketfish encourages our list owners to communicate this to their subscribers. Once your readers understand how list rental is tied to the grand user experience to which they’ve become accustomed, they will have no problem with the occasional webinar invite or cereal ad. See, win-win!

email marketing, list marketing, list rental, subscribers