
This is a big problem
for free publications like the Washington Post. Not only do we not
register, but when we are given the ultimatum of register or be denied access,
we almost always leave the site. This means the registration prompt is a
pivotal moment for Washington Post’s business model – a fork in the road to
profitability.
The challenge for the
digital team at WashingtonPost.com then, was to make the value exchange of
“registration for access” more appealing to consumers.
To figure out how to do
this, Washington Post implemented technology in order track how people use
their website. This transformed readers’ behavior into valuable data.
The data revealed a
counter-intuitive conclusion: It turns out readers are more likely to register
deep within an article (for example, in between pages 3 and 4) than after
clicking on a headline or exceeding an article allowance.
This discovery disproved
a golden rule of online media: Never disrupt the user experience.
It turns out that disrupting
the user at the pinnacle of engagement (meaning deep within an article), is
actually the best way to get the reader to register. The key insight is that
the reader finds the proposed value exchange of “registration for access” more
appealing when it includes the added benefit of being allowed to finish an
article s/he is deeply engaged with.
With this model the
reader actually has a much better experience than the one who has to “x” out
and be turned away from an article.
The disruption helped Washington
Post achieve its business objective and improved the user
experience.
This is a case study for
how data can unearth insights that are contradictory to marketing best
practices, even common sense. It’s also a testament to the open-minded and innovative
culture at Washington Post who had the conviction to implement this
optimization.