Subscription tools

Converting readers into subscribers is a key goal for us all. The CTA component can take advantage of prebuilt subscription features to make this easier. A subscription CTA will be removed when logged-in subscribers visit a story (more on that below). There are two ways to make a CTA into a subscription CTA.

The CTA will module can automatically generate a property-specific link to the subscription offers page, complete with UTM parameters (more on those below). Omitting the buttonLink property from the module configuration result in a link such as this one:

https://offers.floridatoday.com/digitaloffer?gps-source=CUSTOMCTARIGHTRAIL&utm_medium=inDepth&utm_source=storytellingStudio&utm_campaign=DEADLYDELIVERIES&utm_content=CUSTOMCTARIGHTRAIL

When generating a link, UTMs will be attached automatically, allowing us to track the CTA's effectiveness. The only additional piece of information required is a project slug, to be used in all subscription CTAs across the entire project. Define this with a campaign: project name in the configuration. This could be done globally in the {assets.\*}{} block.

This is our recommended method:

Example configuration

{assets.2996940002}
position: right-rail
storytellingComponent: CTA
text: Help support quality local journalism like this.
buttonText: Subscribe!
campaign: Guerrero
{}

If you need a link other than the offers.domain.com, use it as the buttonLink property. It will be recognized as a subscription link and the same tracking UTMs will be attached to the URL.

A URL that contains "offer", "subscribe", "specialoffer" or "checkout" anywhere will be reecognized as a subscription link. If yours does not, then let someone in the Storytelling Studio know so we can update the module.

As with the generated links, UTM parameters will be added to all provided subscription links unless you've already provided some. A buttonLink value with UTM parameters will not have any altered or added.

Example configuration, without UTMS

{assets.2996940002}
position: right-rail
storytellingComponent: CTA
text: Help support quality local journalism like this.
buttonText: Subscribe!
buttonLink: https://offers.desertsun.com/specialoffer
campaign: Guerrero
{}

Example configuration, with UTMS

{assets.2996940002}
position: right-rail
storytellingComponent: CTA
text: Help support quality local journalism like this.
buttonText: Subscribe!
buttonLink: https://offers.desertsun.com/specialoffer?gps-source=INDEPTHCUSTOMCTA&utm_medium=onsite&utm_source=storytellingStudio&utm_campaign=guerrero
{}

For subscribers only: disappearing CTAs

Subscription CTAs are great for the casual visitor, but what about people who already subscribe? It's a waste of our energy and our subscriber's time to ask them to do something (subscribe) they already have done.

To make better use of all resources, subscription CTAs will be replaced with one of two CTAs, each linking to a property-specific page:

These only will be displayed if the user is a subscriber and is logged in. Choose which CTA to swap in, either globally or per asset, by adding subscriberSwap: app or subscriberSwap: newsletter to the configuration. Without any extra configuration, subscription CTAs will become newsletter CTAs.

Subscription CTAs will fire the same analytics as regular CTAs. The swapped CTAs, however, will not. These are the analytic events for swapped CTAs:

About UTM Parameters

Subscription offer links should use custom UTM parameters to help Business Intelligence track them more effectively. These parameters should be tacked on to the end of the subscription offer link. Here are the parameters available, along with what they do:

Live demos

See them in action