Renewal-after-expire strategies.

"Early Birds" and "Renewal at Birth" techniques can be an important part of a renewal series, but equally important is the other end of the series.

It has been said that nothing will have a more positive effect on the bottom line than raising the renewal rate three to five percentage points.

I certainly thought of that adage when I examined results from one renewal series I created and noted that the response from three (and sometimes four) post-expire efforts was 4.5 percent of the total renewal response.

These efforts are not easy to create. You get copywriter's block from thinking you've written "Act Now to Be Sure You Don't Miss a Single Issue" and "We Know You're Busy" every way you can. If they've already ignored four or five notices, will one more make a difference?

It almost always will. Don't give up. Glen King Parker, publisher of Market Logic and other financial titles, liked to say, "I've almost never seen a renewal series that couldn't profitably begin earlier, end later, and include at least one more piece."

Here are several strategies for getting back those lapsed subscribers, but first a word of caution: Never use the term "expire" or even "expiration date." They carry too much of a sense of finality. Use "lapse" or some similar euphemism.

* Part of the regular renewal series. Add another piece one, two or three months after the present end. And make mailing of this notice a regular part of the series. Once it is included, no one has to think about it. It doesn't have to be "created." It just gets mailed.

* We want you back. Accompany the renewal notice with a one- or two-page salesletter--sometimes with this exact headline (or perhaps, We miss you already). At the newsletter association we made this a personal letter.

When I was with UCG we did that as well, although there was a problem, in my view, in that what our fulfillment system produced didn't really look or feel like a personal letter.

We also had some interesting test results that showed that on promotions to our own subscribers, who already knew and loved us, personalization didn't repay its costs.

* Sample issues? At Spidell's California Tax Letter, Bob Spidell tested and found a four-page sales letter to expires was more effective than what had been his traditional effort of sending a current issue and a one-page letter stating, "See what you are missing."

* How does it feel? Spidell also reported good results with a copy technique which he borrowed from consultant Eliot Schein. "How does it feel when you lose an important client?" The copy went on to say the publication was better than ever, but that everyone at the office was morose and down-in-the-mouth since they realized the former subscriber was no longer aboard.

* Schein's favorite. Make the final effort Certified Mail. Without "Return Receipt Requested," it isn't that expensive, and Certified Mail gets signed for, noticed, and opened.

* Undated renewal notice. Once a year or so, simply send an undated renewal notice to the entire expire file. This technique, however, is not without controversy. Some publishers call it "unethical, the sort of thing that gives newsletter marketing a bad name, mailing a bunch of undated notices to expires and hoping a few slip through the system and get paid."

Your call.

* Phone efforts. They do work. Even after "all else has failed." Caution: It isn't easy to get credit card numbers on the phone, and many expires will tell you to bill them just to get off the phone. So you often do wind up starting a new billing series.

Experience will tell you whether this is worth the effort.

But, given even the added expense of post-expire efforts, renewing a subscriber is almost always cheaper than finding a new one.