4 Strategies for Engaging and Retaining Your Digital News Audience
Introduction
The media industry has witnessed the emergence of several independent news platforms in the digital space. Owning a digital news platform requires unique marketing strategies to turn one-time viewers into subscribers. This article will discuss four strategies 1 that can help keep visitors engaged on a news portal.
Create a Compelling Landing Page on All Devices
The landing page of a news website is crucial as it is the first point of contact with the viewer. Creating a compelling landing page layout for all electronic devices is important to ensure seamless viewing. On mobile phones, people browse news for short-term viewing, and the landing page layout should have the essential news highlights pinned at the top. The display should be clean and concise. People tend to look at more elaborate content on desktop or tablet devices, and the landing page should showcase the news platform's package offerings and values more elaborately. Keep it clean and easy to focus.
Work on Enhancing Your Social Strategy
Consumer engagement can be improved by posting the correct information at the right time and understanding the platforms people use to spread the message. Social sharing trends have changed, and it is essential to rethink social marketing approaches. A new study shows that people between 55 and 64 are nearly twice as likely to interact with a brand's content, unlike the younger age group (28 and under). Additionally, weekdays see 49% higher engagement with shared material than weekends. The following four steps can help improve social strategy:
- Placement: Social buttons should be displayed throughout the article, with an anchor format or a sticky header on mobile.
- Maintain Relevance: Share icons and the order in which they appear should be highlighted based on the platforms your audience uses, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn.
- Less is more: The more options displayed, the less likely readers are to convert.
- Appearance and Feel: Keep the original icon colour of each social network to increase clicks.
Create a Seamless Subscription Flow
Over 52% of consumers avoid taking memberships even after visiting and spending time on a website, despite investments in affiliate programs, multiple membership tiers, seasonal discounts, free trials, and psychological triggers. Therefore, the subscription flow should be quick and easy, with the login process requiring minimal effort. Concentrate on the most important fields for the billing profile and keep the checkout process to three steps: account, billing, and review. Capture the reader's email first, so you can follow up if they abandon the page.
Gather Reader Feedback
Consumers demand quick and seamless online experiences in today's fast-paced digital world. Any inconvenience, delay, or annoyance can quickly turn them off and negatively affect publishers. For example, one poor ad experience can prompt users to install an ad blocker, costing publishers billions of dollars. According to a report by Business Insider, ad blocking cost publishers $21.8 billion in 2015 alone 2
By gathering feedback, publishers can gain valuable insights into what their readers want, innovate new models around it, and generate revenue rather than relying only on revenue from advertisements.
Final Words
Creating a positive online experience for users is crucial for publishers to stay competitive and profitable. By keeping their ads relevant and non-intrusive, using more and more personalization tactics and gathering audience feedback, publishers can create more engaging and effective ad experiences that benefit both their readers and their bottom line.
