Late renewal ideas and the "We've goofed" strategy.

About 35 years ago Rep. David Obey (D-WI), then a very junior member of the House Appropriations Committee but now its chairman, offered an amendment in subcommittee that my association was supporting. It was voted down. I asked him if he would, as is allowed, offer it again in full committee. "I don't think so, Fred," he said, "You can only make an ass of yourself so many times."

And I can relate this anecdote to renewal strategies.

We had an experience while I was at UCG. We were doing an expire promotion for Funeral Service Insider (a pause while I chuckle over that). It wasn't remarkable, a plain-vanilla sales letter--"... with all the changes in the industry, you need ... more than ever"--and an order device.

And what can't happen did.

It was mailed to the active subscribers. And an amazing number of them sent in checks.

The group publisher for that division allowed that he was greatly tempted to make the campaign an annual feature for all group's titles, but he reluctantly concluded, "You can only look stupid so often."

February 30th?

I was reminded of this when copywriter Bob Bly told a story in DM News about the Personal Finance investment newsletter. They were running a conventional inflation fighter advance renewal campaign, "Renew Now and Beat the Coming Price Increase." It worked so well, they had time to squeeze in an additional effort that headlined "This Offer is Only Good Until February 30th." They got letters and phone calls.

So marketing director Doug Hill, who was then product manager for Personal Finance, sent out another effort headlined, "Oops, we goofed." Hill said, "It killed."

Like those publishers. you, too, have "super loyal" readers who will renew as often as you ask them. At the newsletter association we did a pretty much annual "Beat the Coming Dues Increase" advance renewal.

To make it easy on ourselves, we sent the offer to everyone, including all those then currently somewhere in the regular series. Many would respond to both. What did we do? We put the checks in the bank. If they figured out they paid twice and asked for a refund, we of course made it, but otherwise we just extended the term.

Advance Renewal National Bank

Bill Donoghue liked to say, "All the money you need is out there for you in the Advance Renewal National Bank." When he sold his company, the buyer told me Bill certainly practiced what he preached--he had subscribers extended out years into the future.

Dan Capell of Capell's Circulation Report takes a contrary tack and suggests dropping multi-year subs from programs like advance renewal offers. "Just how long into the future do you really want these people 'locking in the current low price?'"

My thought is that when you do a "final opportunity" late renewal campaign, make sure the subscriber knows it. Stamp "Your Final Issue Enclosed" on the carrier and nest the notice with the issue.

If you allow a grace issue, include the editor's note, "I convinced my boss the publisher to extend your subscription for this vital important issue with our coverage of whumpety-whump."

Personalized "We Miss You Already" letters are effective.

Telephone late renewal efforts

Telephone late renewal efforts always pay, although you must be prepared to learn that a number of people will say "yes" just to get you off the phone. And you will have the bureaucratic effort of continuing or restarting their subscription and a new billing series to get paid.

Certified mail 

Perhaps my all-time favorite was Eliot Schein's technique of sending the final notice certified mail. It isn't that expensive if you don't require return verification. "In every office that mail gets opened and read."

But that can backfire. Should anyone be irked after having to trek to the post office with a "Notice of Attempt to Deliver Mail" slip, Schein realized, "They weren't in a renewal posture."