A digital sports fan subscription site asked wanted to better understand their customer base to help with retention, acquisition, and customer lifetime value.

Mather Economics completed an analysis of customer online activity for subscribers from 2010 through 2015.  Demographic data was appended to the customer records to help calculate retention by segment over the prior five years.  Mather’s Listener™ data platform was used to track digital engagement on the subscription site to determine how behavior impacted customer lifetime value.  Statistical analysis (survival modeling) was utilized to estimate the impact of customer profile, demographics, and digital engagement on retention and lifetime value.

Findings were presented in a comprehensive report that included recommendations on customer acquisition, retention, and content marketing strategies.  Key findings were that Team Sites have more traffic but less subscriber engagement than Recruiting Sites, which led to different subscription acquisition tactics per site.  Subscribers who preferred mobile devices had very different patterns of engagement than those on  desktop devices, which led to different content programming for each device based on time and day-of-week.  Customer engagement was found to be greatest among their oldest and most loyal customers.  Customer outreach to younger subscribers was increased following this project to improve retention among that segment, which had showed relatively low lifetime value.  Lastly, investments were suggested to improve user experience and content programming to maximize lifetime value and continue growing subscribers.