Emailing Your PREMIUM Members
 

So I'm stuck with a question..

I'm setting up an email campaign for our newsletter list and I'm not sure whether to include our premium members or not.

On one hand I'm trying to include those members as much as possible and get them to post, comment and befriend people on our site. On the other hand, as we all know, there are PLENTY of people rebilling without even knowing or they simply forgot and I don't want to remind them about our existence just so they can cancel. Might sound unfair, but we all think that way.

What are your thoughts on this?

My thoughts are the link in your sig is missing an "S".
;-)

Thanks :thumbsup Fixed!

Now for my real answer...LOL!

I have a handful of members that have been recurring for SEVERAL years....it'd be a shame to "remind" them....

Thanks again mate, that's what I was thinking too.. Several years.. that's crazy.

We have a few members that have been registered and paying for 4/5 months now and haven't even watched a single video.

Crazy..

When I was working for Playboy UK I suggested mailing the members with the latest updates and TV subs with the programmes for the week ahead. Everyone laughed at me. I split tested it. It made a HUGE difference to retention, and increased it.

Caveat. This was 5 years ago, things could have changed. But it worked then.

I guess it depends on your product. If it's shit...

I've got a good mailing campaign in my head, which I think will work very well.

I don't see a good reason to send the few hundred premiums an email when you're sending it to thousands of non-premiums so I'm just gonna go for the non-premiums only.

Thanks guys

IMHO, you need to segment your mailing and the way you think about it:

a) acquisition
b) non VIP
c) VIP
d) ex VIP

They all could/should be emailed. However, all 4 segments need a very different creative approach.

They need different copy, different ads, different calls to action.

Put a form in the members section and collect emails from the user base that might be interested in recieving the latest news live events and free stuff via email or Instant message or mobile device. This would be a feature that might please the regular visitors while keeping the ones in silent mode rebilling without stirring the hornets nest.

There's your answer right there.:thumbsup

I like this.

What we currently have is a bit cluttered. Everyone who signs up for an account, either free or paid, is added to the backend newsletter system in 1 huge file. There is no distinction between premium and non-premium. Just the newsletter system though, we do track different member types in the backend ;)

But obviously this needs fixing..