Dynamic Content Meter
12th August 2016
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Managing customer access in digital diversity
The debate about paywalls continues to rage with many in the media industry fearful that asking consumers to pay for online content will drive them away - after all there is so much available online for free. If you put all your content behind a paywall how do consumers know that it is worth paying for? This is a particularly vexing topic when managing customer access. Site content requires investment to produce and in an age of digital diversity, with today's consumers accessing content via numerous different devices, (mobile phones, tablets and laptops, each with different operating systems, different screen sizes and connected via networks of varying speed), the cost becomes even greater in order to be able to serve a digitally diverse consumer base. As a result, the challenge of setting limits as to what people can access, how often and at what price becomes very tricky.
If subscriptions are bought indirectly via a 3rd party, it's not easy for media companies to ensure that they are always aware of the status of those subscriptions.
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Third Party subscriptions
To compound the complexity presented by digital diversity, it is also necessary to account for the fact that consumers are purchasing media subscriptions in a number of different ways. Some come to the media company directly. Increasingly, however, they can purchase content subscriptions via Apple’s App Store, or Google Play. If a subscription is bought indirectly via a third party, it is very difficult for the media company to ensure that they are always aware of the status of that subscription.
The limitations posed by the Application Programming Interface (APIs) presented by the 3rd party channel are limited in the data they provide. For example, many online newspapers are challenged to accurately understand when a customer has cancelled their subscription if they originally purchased it via a third party. They rely on the third party telling them that the subscription has been cancelled and if this doesn’t happen the customer is still able to access their subscription even though they are no longer paying for it.
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Password sharing
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Flexibility on tap; identity-based permissions
So what can digital content providers do to ensure they are adopting the best strategy for managing customer access and not losing revenue? One common method is the use of location-based permissions technology combined with simple login credentials and cookie tracking but this falls down in situations where the customer is a regular traveller, using a VPN or looking to avoid a paywall.
Once you know who your customers are you can start to collect data on them and their preferences. You are not only in a position to develop new products and services, you can also effectively cross-sell existing ones.
An emerging, more flexible approach is the use of is identity-based permissions management where the user of an online service accesses cloud and corporate applications using a single identity. This provides media companies with the ability to offer their subscribers a single point of access with which they are able to access a variety of online content using the same credentials. This identity can be cross-referenced against a content package a user has licensed to allow them to access the content they’ve subscribed for (and not the content they haven’t). And critically, identity-based permissions allows content packages to be tailored to the user – it is no longer a case of one-paywall fits all.
Identity-based permissions has also become more crucial since popular online services such as Google ID or Facebook Login have changed expectations regarding the ease with which a subscriber now expects to be able to access multiple pieces of content – anything more than a single set of credentials (usually email + password) and the subscriber will likely click away.
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More effective targeting
Managing customer access by accurately identifying who your customer is can provide the foundation for a far more effective sales strategy. Once you know who someone is you can start to collect data on them and their preferences. And with that knowledge comes the ability to offer much more granular and targeted subscription packages to suit a customers’ needs. It also provides you with information that can fuel your product and service development. If, for example, you know that a sizeable element of your customer base is consuming a lot of sports-focused content then you might want to consider investing in new services that can bring them closer to the sports they love; membership only online communities with the opportunity to engage direct with players and pundits, exclusive access to interviews or cut-price tickets for events.
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Are you a software developer looking to sell more? Learn more from our guides:
Should You Build Or Buy a Licensing System?
How to Monetize Software Products?
Guide to Software Licensing – Basics Explained
Software Licensing Solutions – Buyer’s Guide
Software Licensing Models – Ultimate Guide
What Is Software License Management?
Customer Identity and Access Management – What should a good CIAM solution provide?
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Organisations have been distributing digital content, to consumers for a long time and yet for many, the issue of managing customer access and how to monetise that content refuses to go away.