“Given the ongoing challenges in the media and publishing space, such as subscription fatigue, news avoidance and declining trust, it’s increasingly clear that cultivating long-term loyalty is the right path forward,” said Georgia Gkolfinopoulou, senior marketing strategist at Marigold. “With younger audiences favoring new formats like podcasts and short-form videos, it’s vital that publishers adopt informed, channel-specific strategies. 

“These strategies should be supported by streamlined data workflows that enable a comprehensive understanding of user behavior, no matter where or how audiences engage with the brand.”

The infrastructure powering modern loyalty strategies

Building long-term engagement requires infrastructure for collecting data and acting on it with personalization, automation and audience insights all working together.

“Consider the data that would be most valuable to know about your consumers to support your business goals and objectives,” said Nick Watson, vp, business consulting, Center of Excellence at Marigold. “That data should also deliver readers a better, more personalized experience. Think of it as a Venn diagram where a certain set of data can be valuable to both parties. By considering your approach in this way, the data you collect can be used in a transparent and trustworthy way, as it’s clear there is something in it for everyone.”

For instance, preference centers and user profiles are a direct line for audiences to tell publishers what content they want and how they want it, an important foundation for personalization. Analyzing behavioral data, like clicks and scroll depth, informs dynamic recommendations across email and web, boosting publisher KPIs. Finally, loyalty programs and gated experiences create a value exchange with the potential to deepen audience relationships and drive retention.

Automation is key for efficiently handling this treasure trove of data, explained Gkolfinopoulou, which reduces manual effort and enables teams to maintain engagement without burnout.

“Successful publishers trust their martech stack to handle the heavy lifting, freeing up time for creative and strategic thinking,” Gkolfinopoulou said. “It’s also essential to have your reporting set up properly, so you can track audience behavior and assess the impact of new strategies, such as curated newsletters with relevant advertising tailored to individual recipients.”

How Texas Monthly drove subscriber growth with first-party data

As publishers move beyond broad segmentation, first-party data gathered from email interactions, app usage and content consumption provides the necessary signals. 

With these engagement signals, publishers can personalize experiences across newsletters, homepages, article recommendations and more — driving longer sessions, higher completion rates and return visits.

For instance, Texas Monthly used first-party data collected via newsletter and on-site behavior to fuel its true crime content strategy.

Executed in partnership with Sailthru by Marigold, a multichannel campaign around its “Stephenville” true crime podcast resulted in more than 175,000 pageviews, a 20-minute time-on-site average and more than 1.87 million podcast downloads. The first-party data from this increased engagement and subscriber counts helped the publisher refine which stories resonated most and where to promote them.

“Behavioral signals will provide a rich data set to personalize from an observed standpoint — ‘you might like this article,’ ‘similar to other articles you read’ or just personalized content promoted without a clear flag,” Watson said. “When you begin to utilize this data, along with a predicted churn or other propensity scoring, it can help to identify which offers to promote to drive subscriptions and when. 

“The additional potential of any data set offering targeting opportunities can be really exciting, providing a clear targeted audience with real, deep interest in topics aligned with a brand is the type of offering unmatched in other paid channels,” he said.

“Offering such detailed targeting opportunities means advertisers don’t have to waste dollars and will pay a much higher CPM to reach their perfect customer.”

How Axios increased subscriber engagement through personalization

Zero-party data, which reflects conscious choices and self-identified interests, drives more precise personalization and higher engagement. Because readers directly state their interests or content preferences, publishers can tailor newsletters, recommend relevant stories and adjust delivery timing based on user choice. 

“It’s possible to identify the most appropriate content for the individual, providing better, more relevant personalization of your emails using zero-party data alongside other interest and browsing data,” Watson said. “This relevance drives click-throughs, an increase in traffic, an uplift in impressions and better ad revenue.”

In one case, Axios used onboarding journeys built with Sailthru by Marigold to collect zero-party data at sign-up. By asking readers what topics they cared about, the publisher rapidly scaled highly targeted local newsletters, resulting in more than 300,000 new subscribers and more precise content delivery from day one.

By personalizing send times so newsletters arrive in inboxes when readers are most likely to read them, Axios saw its open rates increase by 8%. Axios also implemented churn flows to make it easier for unengaged readers to unsubscribe, ultimately improving audience satisfaction and the health of the publisher’s email lists.

“It’s important not to rely solely on browsing data,” Gkolfinopoulou said. “It’s equally vital to understand how and where people prefer to consume content — whether via email, mobile app, podcast or social — and what types of content they consume on specific days. Gamifying the process of collecting this behavioral data can benefit both brands and readers. When users understand the value of sharing their preferences and see the resulting improvements in their content experience, they are more likely to remain loyal.”

Personalization and automation are foundational for data-driven engagement strategies

For publishers like Texas Monthly and Axios, implementing a modern engagement strategy means investing in systems that combine personalization, automation and data collection across owned channels. With the tools to collect first- and zero-party data throughout the audience lifecycle, publishers are strengthening data control and unlocking revenue opportunities.

“This same data can also be valuable to offer a more targeted audience to your advertisers, providing the potential for higher CPM, or to sell custom advertiser solutions in-email or on-site targeted to a highly relevant and specific audience,” Watson said. “This is a real USP for media companies, to have such specialist audiences available to advertisers, offering them a chance to directly reach the exact audience most interested in their products.

“Ensure that your engagement strategy considers the consumer experience first, but that it is also absolutely aligned with clear business goals and objectives,” he said. “An efficient, automated data-driven engagement strategy that delivers happy consumers with higher engagement equals higher advertiser and subscription revenue with less cost.”

Sponsored by Marigold