Having It Your Way

An efficient and properly organized online preference center has the power to ensure that your customers remain in touch with all of your brand’s products.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Monday, March 30, 2009

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With publishers offering more products for their readers to choose from, from e-newsletters to digital editions and whitepapers, online preference centers have become an efficient way for customers to manage their own touchpoints as well as for publishers to make sure they remain engaged with the brand.

AdAge.com’s 500,000 registered users, for example, are able to go to one area on the site to easily manage their online profiles, e-newsletter subs, and print subs. “Subscribers can update their online profile, opt-in or out of any or all of our e-newsletters, select which areas of the industry most interest them, as well as manage what other offers they receive, whether from us, our business partners or other Crain publications,” says John LaMarca, group director, audience development, Crain Communications.

Print subscribers are also given a bit of an incentive to link their online subscriptions with their print subs. “If they are also a print subscriber, they can link their print account to their online profile to gain subscriber-only access to premium content. Subscribers are also given a link to manage their print subscriptions online, whether it’s updating an address, changing their title, renewing their subscription or determining their expire date.”

According to LaMarca, about 58,000 registered users engage the preference center to update their accounts and 50 to 60 percent of print subscribers link their online accounts with their print accounts to access the premium content and receive a subscription to Ad Age’s digital edition.

Empowering the Customer

LaMarca says providing an online preference center is important, especially since customer expectations have changed. “They are no longer willing to wait on the phone, or even wait a few hours to get a response to an email,” he says. “They want the ability or that empowerment, if you will, to manage their accounts themselves and see that the change they have made has been reflected on their account in real-time. They want to pick and choose what type of content they receive, how frequently they receive it and through which channel. It’s our job to give that to them.”

Online preference centers are also an efficient way to deepen audience engagement, LaMarca adds. “We have the ability to serve targeted messaging to our readers,” he says. “For example, if they have indicated a particular area of interest, and we have an upcoming issue or special report that we feel would be of interest to them, we can promote it. And if we identify someone as a student or professor, we can serve them an ad or link to our student and educator subscription program or our Ad Age on Campus site license program. The same goes for events or other paid products such as whitepapers.”