Selling Subscription Apps through Apple 3 Case Study Examples, Best Practices and Step-by-Step Instructions

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

Why Sell Apps?

“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 Tablets and mobile apps put information in customers’ hands at exactly the right time. And consumers are willing to pay for this convenience. © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Majority of mobile opens in iPhone 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% © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 average, at an 8.8

© 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 for more revenue numbers

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: © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 Case Study Examples

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. 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 publishersFutureFolio Future also launched three new weekly tablet titles: Gathered, a spin-off of its print monthly Mollie Makes, a craft magazine. Gathered Photography Week, a spin-off of its monthly PhotoPlus magazine. Photography Week CyclingNews HD, a spin- off from its CyclingNews website and Cycling Plus magazine CyclingNews HD

© 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 $ ,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!

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. 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 via the Specialist Media Show discussion group on LinkedIn

Apple’s Terms

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 © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Apple’s Terms for Publishers (cont’d) Apple will send welcome and renewal s 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). © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Best Practice: Sell through Your Website!

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. © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 for one low price!

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.

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Branding Your App The most important information you’ll enter is the Display Name (aka “In-App Purchase Display Name”) and the Publication Name.

© 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… Wrong Display Name Entered Wrong Publication Name Entered © 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

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. 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 by Apple.

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!) © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

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). © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 blast to all subscribers. You cannot have different pricing depending on when subscribers were acquired. Price decreases do not trigger . © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

How Apple Communicates with Customers 1.Customers get welcome with “Purchase Confirmation” as subject line. This 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 ). © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Payment Processing 1.Within 10 days of expiration, Apple tries credit card to make sure there are no payment issues.  Apple sends an 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). © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

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. © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

Trial Offers + Bonus Time

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. 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, address and zip code with you. © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.

“Bonus Time” The reward for customers for opting to share their info is free bonus time in your app without paying. Initial Purchase Renewal Expiration Bonus Extension

© 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. Bonus Time You can set the “bonus time” limit If a customer agrees to share info at sign-up, the bonus time is added before the first charge, in addition to any free trial you have. Free Trial First Charge Renewal Bonus Extension Expiration

More Resources

CHECKLIST: Marketing and Selling iPad Apps ON-DEMAND: Subscription App Publishers Reveal Sales Secrets ON-DEMAND: Subscription App Publishers Reveal Sales Secrets HOW-TO: Optimizing Mobile Sites and Apps for Paid Content Options, 3 Steps and 10 Design Tips HOW-TO: Optimizing Mobile Sites and Apps for Paid Content Options, 3 Steps and 10 Design Tips CASE STUDY: How Fastcase Beats Huge Competitors with an iPhone App & Nimbler Search CASE STUDY: How Fastcase Beats Huge Competitors with an iPhone App & Nimbler Search CASE STUDY: Strategy+Business Turns Free Web Content into Revenue-Generating Apps CASE STUDY: Strategy+Business Turns Free Web Content into Revenue-Generating Apps ARTICLE DIGEST: Magazine iPad & iPhone App Pricing: Most Under $5 ARTICLE DIGEST: Magazine iPad & iPhone App Pricing: Most Under $5 © 2012, Subscription Site Insider, a division of Anne Holland Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved.