Future Publishing is one of the leading content providers in the UK. Founded in 1974 and based in London, Future Publishing has transformed from its traditional publishing roots to a true multi-platform media company. As the sixth-largest consumer magazine publisher, Future Publishing has a portfolio of over 30 media brands, including flagship brand The Week.
The award-winning company operates in four sectors: Current Affairs, Technology, Automotive, and Specialist, reaching over 50 million unique users and selling over 2.5 million magazines every month.
Future Publishing was facing a huge increase in revenue targets for subscription marketing. Since email has been a proven revenue driver for the brand, Future Publishing focused on this tried-and-true channel as a key strategy.
To meet their high goals, Future Publishing’s marketing team needed to:
This project has transformed the way the entire subscriptions marketing department uses email, data capture, and content curation as a whole, and provided building blocks for future campaigns across all brands.
Holly Williams
Marketing Automation Manager, Future Publishing
Working with Selligent by Marigold, Future Publishing was able to easily create, manage, and deliver a multi-stream email campaign focused on targeting, segmenting, and automating. Critical components included:
Testing for success: The marketing team revolutionized its email testing methods, using online and offline techniques to gather data and user information.
Capturing data to enhance journeys: New data capture points were identified in newsletter sign-ups and lead generation forms, and entered in an automated lifecycle program.
Delivering relevant content: Future Publishing tested promotional content offline and converted the most successful into relevant, email-friendly content.
Monitoring & adjusting for proper cadence & messaging: In addition to using clever segmentation, A/B testing, personalization, and data capture, the marketing team looked at recency and frequency rules to make sure cadence rules were followed.
In their own words, Future Publishing “blew our subscriptions target out of the water” with this campaign. It proved to be one of the company’s most successful email subscription campaigns, driving exceptional revenue and engagement, with messaging that was fully GDPR compliant.
“The results have drastically improved engagement and conversion rates, while increasing brand loyalty and providing a fine-tuned customer experience,” said Holly Williams, Marketing Automation Manager for Future Publishing. “With Selligent by Marigold providing the benefit of a single customer view, we’ve enhanced our ability to understand our customers across different data collection points, user journey, and lifecycle stages. Customers are now treated as individuals, not broad demographics.”
Marigold: where relationships take root.
