TownNews Preps iQ Audience+ Solution

One of the greatest challenges facing media organizations is finding a way to effectively convert casual visitors of their websites and mobile apps into highly engaged — preferably paying — members or subscribers, and to keep them engaged after they’ve signed up.

To that end, TownNews is rolling out iQ Audience+, which it calls “an innovative new audience acquisition and retention platform that enables publishers, broadcasters, and digital-native media organizations to precisely tailor their conversion funnels using machine learning and proven industry best practices.”

“TownNews has a proven track record of helping our customers improve their audience engagement and advertising revenue, and iQ Audience+ promises to supercharge that success,” said Brad Ward, CEO of TownNews. “We believe that iQ Audience+ will be a game-changer for our clients, and for the industry.

“TownNews has powered the paywall technology of many or our partners for more than 20 years, and iQ Audience+ is the natural evolution of that product.”

iQ Audience+ features customizable rulesets that allow segmentation of users and content, and targeting of those segments with distinct registration/subscription packages, notifications, offers, email newsletters, and more. Targeting is based on a mix of factors, including a proprietary propensity score.

“Visitors who are more likely to subscribe can be presented with a discount sooner, while drive-by users are shown more programmatic advertising, allowing the site to maximize both subscription and ad revenue,” said Rich Griffin, product manager for iQ Audience+. “Or, certain users may be asked to sign up for a newsletter, which triggers a drip marketing campaign that ultimately leads to a digital subscription offer.

“iQ Audience+ is incredibly flexible, giving you a ton of ways to target audiences and tailor your conversion funnel to meet your goals.”

According to Ward, an increased worldwide legislative focus on digital privacy and security puts a premium on encouraging visitors to register or subscribe.

“With the rise of consumer privacy laws like the GDPR and CCPA, it’s more critical than ever that it be frictionless for visitors to sign up for memberships and subscriptions,” Ward said. “iQ Audience+ helps you maximize these conversions, while sustaining your programmatic advertising income. Audience and advertising are the revenue engines of the media industry, and we believe that iQ Audience+ will spark both for our customers.”

The company plans to begin launching beta customers in January of 2020, with full availability later in the first quarter.