How to use Poool throughout the user funnel to increase ARPU

Whilst Poool is mainly known as a dynamic paywall software, our products can be used for so much more!

In fact, you can use Poool for every step in the user funnel in order to increase engagement, conversion, retention and, ultimately, ARPU.

In this article we list some of the many use cases that our clients have already put into practice with Poool, including engagement, registration, recirculation, revenue diversification, subscription promotion, onboarding & first moments, subscriber loyalty & upsell, churn-reduction, and off-boarding & win-back.

1 - Engagement

Your user won't decide to subscribe in a day - strategies need to be put in place to gradually engage, convincing the reader of the value you provide, and the additional value they could get from subscribing.

Encourage newsletter sign up with a banner, in-article module, wall or pop-up.

To go a step further: target this module to the content-type, promoting the newsletter that discusses the same topic.

These same module-types can be used to promote other channels or engaging features, such as push notifications, alerts, WhatsApp channels, etc.

2 - Registration

Convincing anonymous users to create a free account is incredibly valuable to your business. Registered users are highly more engaged, have a custom reader ID, so can be tracked across devices, you can collect key data points for increasing ad revenue, and they're more likely to subscribe (10-40x according to various media brands).

Of course, one of the most common ways to convert readers into free members is via a registration wall on content:

But you can also use pop-ups, banners or walls to block member-only features such as commenting, saving content for later or games.

3 - Recirculation

Recirculation is a real-time metric that compares the number of visitors to a page to the number of users who move from that content to another page. It can be increased with a variety of techniques, such as internal linking, tagging articles and a clear UX, but also with Poool's modules.

For instance, pop-ups, banners and modules inside of content

4 - Revenue Diversification

Subscription is one thing, but there's plenty of other revenue streams that you can promote with Poool.

Such as accepting cookies (or subscribing):

Promoting events:

Or pushing your print edition:

5 - Subscription Promotion

Promoting your premium offer shouldn't just happen at the point of the paywall, but across site in various, less frustrating ways.

This could include banners, pop-ups and end-of-article 'epics' on free content or the homepage.

As well as on articles, as a call-to-action below the headline:

Or in the menu bar:

To go a step further in these soft-promotions, you can target messaging to the user or their context. Here, Le Point adapts the marketing message to the content type.

Or they can be triggered after a user visits a certain page, such as the subscription offers page.

Just like with registration, you can also show subscriber-only features to highlight the value of paying for access, such as this "listen to articles" feature.

And finally, you can allow readers access to your premium content for a limited time, for instance with an open-access day/weekend, or discovery pass.

6 - Subscription

What we're most known for! Dynamic paywalls that block content and convince a reader to subscribe. But not only this - Poool's solution can be used for a variety of different types of paywalls, adapting to different factors (such as user status, level of engagement, content type, etc.) and for building engaging landing pages.

For free content, or in a support model, this could be an end-of-article module to encourage donation.

Go a step further: put industry best practices into place with Poool to increase conversion rates:

1. Build a dynamic model that adapts the paywall journey, messaging or design to the user's profile or context:

2. Regularly change paywall design to reduce blindness to your marketing campaigns

3. Run A/B tests on paywall journey, messaging and design to understand what converts best for each audience segment

4. Don't forget to update your subscription offers landing page too, ensuring consistency throughout the funnel

7 - Onboarding & First Moments

Retention is incredibly important for ARPU, and these efforts should start the moment that someone clicks 'pay'. On-site onboarding is therefore essential for all digital publishers with a paid subscription model.

And yes, this can be implemented with Poool!

Le Parisien for instance, leads readers through a 4-step onboarding journey to welcome them, encourage newsletter sign up, app download and collecting key data points.

You can also see our onboarding on The Audiencers:

Learning from SAAS or e-learning models, you could also consider product tours, like L'Équipe:

And of course ensure that subscribers are logged in:

8 - Subscriber Loyalty & Upsell

Poool can also be used throughout the subscriber's experience on your site to help them get the most out of their monthly payment, see the value in your product and continue to engage to ensure high retention rates.

This can be achieved by promoting subscriber-benefits for instance, such as the ability to gift articles, share their subscription, personalize their feed or listen to articles.

These strategies should also be developed based on the features that are most important for your retention rates. For instance, downloading and using the app regularly often correlates with high retention.

L'Équipe has also put in place a very strategic top banner, showing readers what they'll publish for subscribers in the coming month, highlighting the value of continuing to subscribe:

9 - Churn Reduction

Reducing churn can be divided into voluntary and involuntary.

Voluntary churn, when a subscriber chooses to unsubscribe, can be prevented by increasing engagement and building a close relationship with users throughout the funnel.

Involuntary churn is a little tricky, as it's due to external factors such as a credit card expiring or a subscription ending without any payment being able to be taken automatically. But by linking Poool to your subscription management and payment solution, you can avoid this kind of churn with targeted messaging.

Even when the subscriber has cancelled, you can present targeted messaging through the grace period:

10 - Off-boarding & Win-back

Thanks to the ability to target elements based on user status, you can use Poool to address ex-subscribers with adapted messaging and offers, even going as granular in your segmentation as specifying the number of days post-subscription.

Sufficiently inspired by all of these use cases that our clients have put in place with Poool? Ready to do the same, with complete autonomy from tech, agility, speed and (importantly) results?

Let's chat! Book a demo here, or email Madeleine at madeleine@poool.fr.