Selling Subscription
Apps through Apple
3 Case Study Examples,
Best Practices and
Table of Contents
Why Sell Apps?
3 Case Study Examples
Apple’s Terms
Best Practice: Sell through Your Website
Selling through Apple: Step-by-Step
Instructions
Trial Offers + Bonus Time
More Resources
“On the one hand,
information
wants to be expensive,
because
it's so valuable.
The right
information in the right place
just changes your life.
On the
other hand, information wants
to be free, because the cost of
getting it out is getting lower
and lower all the time. So you
have these two fighting against
each other.”
Stewart Brand, creator of the
Whole Earth Catalog, to Steve
Wozniak at the original
Hackers' Conference in 1984.
Tablets and mobile apps put information in
customers’ hands at exactly the right time. And
consumers are willing to pay for this convenience.
Majority of mobile
opens in
iPhone
Android
18.93%
iOS
80.34%
Apple dominates
52%
of
tablet market via iPad
(although this number decreased
from 82% in 2011)
Mobile Market
Tablet Market
Andriod
41%
iOS
52%
Other
7%
One Third of U.S.
Adults Get News
by Phone or Tablet
On a scale of 1 to
10, iPad users
rated their overall
satisfaction, on
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
$$$ - What You Can Expect to Make
According to app analytics firm
Distimo, the top 100 grossing
apps in that section of the iPad
Store are reaping
about $70,000
a day,
collectively.
The Guardian (despite poor
paywall practice and a
lengthy 3-month trial with a
2% conversion rate) is
estimated to make around
£118,830 per month, or
£1.4 million ($2.1 million)
per year from its iPad app.
See the ‘Future’
Case Study Example
iPad Users Tend to Be:
Male (52.9%)
Have incomes over $100,000
(46.3%)
Under the age of 35 (44.5%)
iPad owners tend to buy based
on brand (while Kindle Fire
owners buy based on price).
Source: “People love tablets, iPads especially,” published by the Online Publishers Association:
Case Study: Future Magazine
Future built an in-house production
software called
FutureFolio
to design its
interactive tablet magazines. It is now
licensing the software to other publishers
Future also launched three
new weekly tablet titles:
•
Gathered
, a spin-off of
its print monthly Mollie
Makes, a craft magazine.
•
Photography Week
, a
spin-off of its monthly
PhotoPlus magazine.
•
CyclingNews HD
, a
spin-off from its CyclingNews
website and Cycling Plus
magazine
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
Case Study: National Geographic
Over 1 million
downloads of its
World Atlas App,
priced at $1.99
468,000
downloads of
“7 Billion” App,
priced at $4.99
Sells apps
through your
Website!
More later on
why this is a
best practice
that will
increase your
revenues!
Case Study: Roadway Magazine
• UK publication is rated 7 out of 169 in the
automotive category of the Apple Newsstand
• Attributes success to two-week ad campaign on
Facebook that doubled downloads & purchases.
“[We] targeted English speaking nations, right hand drive markets
(some parts of Asia), the BRIC nations and most of Western Europe.
Targeting was iPad or iPhone users, who are small business owners,
plus anyone who has stated they work or are interested in Trucks,
Haulage, Logistics, Warehousing, etc…. Facebook gives you a massive
range of options. “
Peter Shakespeare
Head of Publications at Road Haulage Association
Apple’s Terms for Publishers
• Auto-renewal subs are for iOS content-based
apps in App store (i.e., through iTunes Connect)
• You can
set the price and length
of subscriptions
that you wish to make available (weekly, monthly,
bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly)
Nothing over 1 year.
• Apple takes 30% of revenues
• Billed to customer’s card associated with iTunes
account
Apple’s Terms for Publishers (cont’d)
• Apple will send welcome and renewal emails
about app. (See slide 30)
• You
can
offer a free trial
• Can offer “
Marketing Opt-In
,” which gets you
more customer data. In return, customer gets
“bonus free time” with app. (See slide 35)
• Customer can cancel through iTunes Customer
Support (not on their own).
Best Practice:
To Keep 100% of Your Revenues…
1. You
can sell digital subscriptions on your
website
or provide free access to content
for existing subscribers. Apple will not take
30% of your revenues then.
2. HOWEVER: The same (or better)
subscription price must be offered inside the
app as on the website.
3. And you may
not
provide links in your apps
that allow the customer to purchase content
or subscriptions outside of the app.
4. Lastly, you must be
able to handle app
authorization and
customer tracking
on your own.
National Geographic sells
its iPhone/iPad apps on
its website. That allows
the site to collect 100% of
revenues and bundle the
offer with Kindle access
Strategy+Business
also uses this tactic, advertising
their digital package through a homepage overlay.
Selling through Apple
Step-by-Step Instructions
Apple’s Many Faces…
• Publishers can sell apps for the iPhone or iPad.
• iPhone
apps are sold through the
App Store
.
• iPad
apps are sold through Apple’s
Newsstand
.
• However, all apps eventually are sold through
iTunes Connect
, Apple’s platform for customer
management.
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
Why?
When Apple launched iTunes, many customers linked a
credit card
to it. As Apple allowed other content creators
to sell content, it continued to link sales to the iTunes
platform, now called iTunes Connect.
Branding Your App
• The most important information you’ll enter is
the Display Name (aka “In-App Purchase
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
If you do it right…
Proper display
name listed
when user buys
subscription
within app
Proper publication
name listed when
“Marketing
Opt-In” requests more
info.
If you do it wrong…
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
Also…
• Don’t put your subscription length in your
display or publication name
URLs for Privacy Policy and Support
The Privacy
Policy URL is
required
for
auto-renew
subscriptions.
If your Support
URL is a dead
link, your app
will be
rejected
But a Good URL Can Help You…
The Support URL provides a nice way to
get more customer information from app
subscribers.
See our Case Study on Strategy+Business
for more on this technique. (But don’t
copy their form page!)
WARNING
Apps are downloadable software. Therefore,
most subscription apps are listed as “free” in
the iTunes Store.
Customers then buy the
subscription “through the app.”
This is a serious downfall in marketing your app,
and why we recommend selling your apps
through your own website, if you have the tech
support to do so (see slide 16).
Pricing
• You can set pricing.
• You can change pricing.
• HOWEVER, if you change pricing, auto-renew will
be turned off for subscribers and they will have
to opt back-in to auto-renew.
Individual subscribers are alerted within 10 days of
their renewal date about the price change. There is no
email blast to all subscribers.
• You cannot have different pricing depending on
when subscribers were acquired.
• Price decreases do not trigger email.
How Apple Communicates with
Customers
1. Customers get
welcome email
with “Purchase
Confirmation” as subject line. This email
introduces the subscription, has privacy policy
info, and where subscriber can go to turn
auto-renew on or off.
2. Apple groups
renewal reminders
for all apps
expiring/renewing within the same timeframe
(e.g., renewal reminder for monthly subs for two
different companies are included in the same
Payment Processing
1. Within 10 days of expiration, Apple tries
credit card to make sure there are no
payment issues.
Apple sends an email if it looks like customer’s card is
about to expire, or if they tried to buy a song and card was
declined.
2. If a card fails 24 hours before expiration,
Apple will try it again, up to 6 times in an 8
hour window (but no definite practice).
Payment Processing
3. After expiration date, Apple may try card
again, but not for long.
4. After expiration, customer alerted to
subscribe again when opening app. But s/he
will not be able to access content that was
released during gap (like news), unless its
on-demand content, (like video).
Bottom Line:
Apple’s expiration procedure will protect your paywall, but
likely tax your Customer Service department as expired subscribers call
asking for re-instatement and access to content they missed.
Trial Offers
• You can offer
FREE
trials through your app
(sorry, no paid trials, which is a best practice).
• Only allowed for Newsstand/iPad apps
• Period configured by
you
in iTunes Connect
• Auto-renew by default and
charged
automatically
Keep in Mind: Only a third of apps
are still used 90 days after download:
Marketing Opt-In
In addition to a free trial, you can cue a
“
Marketing Opt-In
” to get more information
from your subscribers.
Customers choose to
give Apple permission
to share their name,
email address and zip
code with you.
“Bonus Time”
The reward for customers for opting to share
their info is free bonus time in your app without
paying.
Initial Purchase
Renewal
Renewal
Expiration
© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.
