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Unlock growth at every stage of the customer journey
Digital publishers today face pressure at every stage of the funnel, from user acquisition to monetisation.
At FT Strategies, we speak to those managing the customer lifecycle, and their concerns typically fall into four areas. For acquisition, many question whether relying heavily on SEO and Discover is sustainable. Engagement is often challenging to measure due to anonymous traffic, so teams primarily focus on volume. Conversion is difficult with stagnant subscriber growth and uncertainty about how to improve it. In terms of retention, there’s difficulty in keeping and monetising subscribers amid tough competition and heavy discounting.
Our Funnel Analytics service tackles these challenges by helping organisations identify key performance gaps and understand trade-offs. It also pinpoints the most effective strategies to increase engagement, improve conversion rates and increase long-term value.
OUR APPROACH
1. Discovery
We begin by building a detailed understanding of your existing funnel performance through interviews, historical analysis and data collection.
Solutions
- Stakeholder interviews: Engage key teams across product, marketing and editorial to surface objectives, past activity and pain points.
- Audit of prior work: Review past experiments, strategies and insights to understand what’s been tried and what’s worked.
- Data collection: Gather key metrics across traffic, engagement and conversion stages to establish current funnel performance.
- Cross-team alignment: Build consensus on priorities and challenges to ensure organisation-wide commitment to change.
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2. Benchmarks/Best Practice
We complement your internal data with external insight, applying proven industry frameworks and competitor analysis.
Solutions
- Lifecycle benchmarking: Compare your funnel metrics with industry peers across acquisition, activation and retention.
- Competitor research: Assess positioning, messaging and conversion tactics of comparable publishers or brands.
- Best practice mapping: Identify effective tactics used by market leaders to accelerate audience movement through the funnel.
- Strategic guidance: Provide tailored recommendations based on FT Strategies’ proprietary benchmark data and case studies.
3. Analytics
We conduct a granular analysis of your funnel, highlighting performance levers and trade-offs that influence growth and revenue.
Solutions
- Access model snapshot: Review your current access model and identify the conversion impact of gating, metering or free access.
- Funnel mapping: Visualise user journeys to uncover friction points and performance gaps across key stages.
- Tactical lever analysis: Identify which interventions, such as registration prompts, paywalls or onboarding flows, are driving behaviour.
- Flexible data integration: Collaborate using direct analytics access or structured exports, depending on your internal data protocols.
4. Delivery
We translate insights into a clear roadmap of next steps, equipping your team with prioritised, actionable recommendations.
Solutions
- Insight synthesis: Consolidate findings into a set of strategic and tactical actions aligned to your goals.
- Prioritised roadmap: Deliver a structured plan balancing impact, feasibility and resource requirements.
- Activation support: Work with your team to begin implementation through sprints, experiments or campaigns.
- Measurement guidance: Define the KPIs and frameworks needed to track and sustain long-term funnel improvements.
OUR EXPERTS
Head of Analytics
Emanuele is Head of Analytics at FT Strategies and has worked with clients in developing engagement metrics, building data architectures and conducting business analyses and insights. He previously spent seven years at Realised UNLIMITED, a boutique analytics consultancy.
Head of Insights
George is Head of Insights at FT Strategies and an expert in the media industry and its accompanying business models. George has led and contributed to a number of high-profile projects including the News Sustainability Project, the National Theatre and various leading European news publishers. Prior to joining FT Strategies, George spent 4 years guiding FT's data strategy and their future approach to marketing & advertising.
George holds an MBA from IE Business School and is a regular speaker at media events.
Senior Data Analyst
Sarah is a Senior Data Analyst at FT Strategies. She is experienced in delivering audience insights and strategic growth and has previously worked in similar roles at HuffPost and The Guardian. Sarah has a Master’s in New Media and Digital Culture from the University of Amsterdam, where she specialised in the digital transformation of the news industry.
Senior Consultant
Lamberto is a Senior Insights Consultant at FT Strategies, co-leading on original research and supporting the building of media and subscriptions expertise. He has worked with publishers across EMEA and done extensive research on how newsroom can transform in the digital era to meet evolving audience content and product preferences. Prior to joining, Lamberto worked as a Research Analyst at Enders Analysis, a media research firm, writing about the transformation of the publishing industry towards reader-revenue models. He holds a Msc in Media and Communications Governance from The LSE.
OUR IMPACT
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Transforming Il Sole 24 Ore towards a data-driven digital first newsroom
FT Strategies' work with Il Sole 24 Ore began with their first engagement in July 2020 when Il Sole participated in a five-day immersive program designed to drive reader engagement and build a future-proof business strategy.
In 2023, Il Sole 24 Ore decided to make significant investments to accelerate its digital transformation. FT Strategies was enlisted to help them achieve this objective and help re-orientate workflows and revenue from print-first to digital-first.
FEATURED INSIGHTS
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