Escape Collective switched from a metered to a hard paywall because the former obscured crucial data. With users bypassing the meter in incognito mode, it was impossible to know which articles converted subscribers. A hard paywall provided clean data, sacrificing reach for clarity.
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Applying a single attribution model, like last-touch, to all channels is a mistake. It undervalues top-of-funnel activities and can lead to budget cuts that starve the pipeline. Instead, measure each channel based on its intended outcome and funnel stage.
To make content discoverable by AI, static 'resource pages' with downloadable assets are becoming obsolete. Gated content will still be used for lead generation, but it will be offered transactionally within specific campaigns (e.g., via email or paid social) rather than living permanently on a website.
Instead of focusing solely on conversion rates, measure 'engagement quality'—metrics that signal user confidence, like dwell time, scroll depth, and journey progression. The philosophy is that if you successfully help users understand the content and feel confident, conversions will naturally follow as a positive side effect.
Cookie deprecation blinds ad platforms like Google and Meta to on-site conversion quality. Marketers can gain a significant performance edge by creating a feedback loop, pushing their attributed first-party data (like lifetime value and margins) back into the platforms' AI systems in near real-time.
AI's need for scannable content will render traditional gated resource pages obsolete. Gated assets will still exist but will be offered transactionally through specific campaigns, like an email or a paid social post, rather than living permanently behind a form on your site.
Basic Capital initially used a $25/month subscription fee not for revenue, but to filter its user base. The fee made the product mathematically unattractive for small investments (e.g., under $5k), ensuring that only customers with sufficient capital to make the economics work would sign up.
To attract top freelance talent, Escape Collective is testing a model that can pay more than Substack. They offer writers a base rate plus a share of the subscription revenue directly generated from their articles, aligning incentives and rewarding high-performing content.
When a tool gets massive attention but users aren't willing to pay (like Trust MRR), pivot the business model to advertising. Create scarcity by offering a limited number of ad slots and rewarding early advertisers with lower prices. This builds FOMO and generates more reliable revenue.
"Anti-delight" is not a design flaw but a strategic choice. By intentionally limiting a delightful feature (e.g., Spotify's skip limit for free users), companies provide a taste of the premium experience, creating just enough friction to encourage conversion to a paid plan.
