Men’s Health Uses Web to Boost Paid Subscriptions

Men’s Health magazine has generated $85,000 in additional revenue and attracted more paid subscriptions by offering readers online incentives.

As part of a promotion that began late last year, those who pay online by credit card are awarded a downloadable incentive called Smart Start. The animated PDF file offers tips on working out and healthy eating.

The enticement has boosted credit card payments on the site by 63%, and reduced costs and bad debt. Paid-up Web subscriptions also rose 4%.

And that’s only the beginning. The magazine has also attempted to sidestep rising postage and paper costs by offering a downloadable editorial premium at www.menshealth.com.

The premium, recently rolled out after tests in 2001, is an online version of the magazine’s Power Reports booklets. By distributing it on the Web site, Men’s Health will save parent Rodale Inc. $50,000 a year on printing and postage costs alone.

“The benefit to the publisher is to decrease costs,” said Claudia Allen, Rodale’s online consumer marketing manager. “The benefit to customers is that they get instant gratification. Those who use the Internet want things instantly.”

Trials for the editorial premiums began last September at three areas on the home page. Subscription buttons linked to sales pages where two offers tested against the control.

The control offered a printed three-book set. The first test offered an online version of the set but didn’t tell prospects that it was electronic. The second test noted that the premium was downloadable.

The first test outpulled the control by 5%; the second test brought in 4% less. Despite the lower response, Men’s Health decided to go with the second test’s offer because of the cost savings.

Allen said the tests indicated Web response was maintained while costs were cut. Links to download the premiums were sent along with customers’ order confirmations. As Allen said, “The real payoff here is that we’re not paying anything to deliver those premiums.”

Electronic premiums were rolled out as the standard offer on the site in December.

The current premium, which consists of 10 free Power Reports and a free trial issue of Men’s Health, is the same as the one offered in the magazine’s direct mail pieces.

“People would look at the direct mail offer and then at the Web site and get annoyed if the premium was different,” Allen said.

The Power Reports include “99 Health Secrets You Can’t Live Without,” “The Secrets of Sizzling Sex” and “The Secrets of Awesome Abs.”

To create the electronic premiums, the printed documents are converted to Quark files and then to a PDF format that can easily be downloaded.

“No matter what platform customers have for computer operations, the file will work,” Allen said.

The premiums are also used as a quick gift.

“It’s a way to immediately assuage an irritated customer,” Allen said.

Smart Starts are positioned next to the credit card area of the order form and delivered instantly to those who pay online.

“A frequent complaint is that magazines take a long time to deliver (about four to six weeks), so most customers get an invoice and they haven’t really received anything yet,” Allen said. “By getting the PDF, they already have something in their hand, and when they get the bill they’ve already been partially satisfied.”

Men’s Health is hoping to take its online successes offline. It’s begun converting multiple booklets to PDF format and is testing premiums using inserts and direct mail. Printed booklet delivery is replaced by a certificate with a URL and password to retrieve the premium. Links have been added in the premiums that connect to editorial content and related offers on the Web site. “We’re getting smarter about this now,” Allen said.

Men’s Health mails 7 million paper mail pieces a year. Most readers pay when they receive the first bill.