Detailed view of Subscription Management

Tiers of Subscription

Our Subscription Management is centered around three tiers of Subscribers:

Free Users – They are our Readers who visit our website without registering or subscribing. They are able to view and consume all the Free Content.
Signed In Users – They are the readers who have signed up in our website by providing their email id, google account or their social media IDs. There is no payment involved in the process.
Signed In Users are able to read all the Free contents, including the Restricted Free content
Subscribers – The Readers who have purchased our subscription and it gets activated for a defined period of time.
Subscribers are able to read all the contents
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Types of Contents

The Hyphen team would categorize the content as one of the following. The team should have the flexibility to change it whenever required.

Free Content – which can be read by all Readers
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Restricted Free Content – Which can be read only by Registered Users
Premium Content – Which can be read only by Subscribers

The intersection of the Tiers of Subscribers and the Types of Contents can be represented as follows

Tier of Subscription	What they can Read	Other Privileges
Free Reader	All Free Content
Signed In Reader	Can read Free and Restricted Free Content	Can comment on and bookmark the content. Can subscribe for the Newsletter
Subscriber	Can read all contents – Free, Restricted Free and Premium	All of the Above

Signing Up and Subscription Process in detail

Signing Up and Subscription are two distinct processes and would be represented by two different buttons in the Homepage and wherever required. At the same time, Signing Up should also be a prerequisite for Subscription and this interdependency should be enforced in a seamless fashion.

The below pic is given only for reference. We can have these two similar buttons in our Homepage top Row and any other suitable places

Paywall Behavior :

When the Free User tries to read a Restricted Free content, the paywall banner, after the preview, can nudge the user to Sign In – “This is a Restricted Free Content and you can continue to read it for Free by just Signing In for free “

When a Free User or a Signed In User tries to read a Premium Content, the paywall banner, after the preview, can nudge the user to Sign In – “This is a Premium Content and you can continue to read it after Subscribing “

Both the above Paywall Messages can include a Banner worded to give the privileges of Signing Up and Subscribing, along with the Buttons

Please note : both the Banners and the Paywall Messages to be finalized

Process of Signing Up

The user can Sign Up either through the Pay Wall banner or through the Sign-Up button in the Homepage.

Sign Up process should be as seamless and smooth as possible
Should have the facility to Sign Up using the Google Sign In or the social media Sign In, in which case there is no need for OTP validation
If the user enters a specific email id, it should be validated with otp
The sign-up screen should prominently display the option to subscribe for Newsletter as a check box
The database to be updated with all the details of the Signed-Up user collected

Process of Subscribing

We will have the following criteria for the User to choose to determine the model of Subscription opted for –

Only Digital
Digital + Print
Starting from – Current Issue / Next Issue
No of Years – 1 or 2

Example – If Current Issue and 1 year, then Current and Current + 1 print issues to be shipped. The Subscriber would be valid for Digital Platform for exactly for one year from the date of subscriber with access to all the contents including all the archive Issues.
If Next Issue and 2 years , then Current+1 to Current+4 would be shipped and the digital subscription also would be valid for the duration of the next 4 issues starting from the Next issue
( the subscription interface will have to convey this clearly on the screen depending upon the selection made , before getting it confirmed )

A user can subscribe through the Pay Wall message or through the Subscribe button displayed in the Homepage

Before proceeding on the Subscription process the User should be Signed In. If not ask the User to Sign In or register as explained in the Sign In process above
Only a Signed In user can choose the Subscription Model as explained above
After selecting the Subscription, the user should be displayed the exact date range the Subscription would be valid for, before proceeding with confirmation
If ‘Digital+Print’ is selected, the User should be prompted to enter the Contact Number and the contact address with a validation of OTP through SMS. The contact number is required for shipping the Print issues
All the details of the Subscription and the User info to be updated in the database after the process is completed
On successful completion of the process, a confirmatory email should be sent with all the relevant details such as the duration of validity and the type of subscription

Gift Subscription Process

This is a process a Signed In user( The user need not be a Subscribe as such ) of Hyphen buys a Subscription as a Gift for another Reader. The user who buys the Gift Subscription should be logged in at the time of Buying. The rest of the process would remain same. Additional details like the Receiving users Email ( in case of only digital ) ; Email, Address and Contact Number ( in case of Digital and Print ) would be collected. The Email and Contact Number would not be validated. The onus is on the buyer to mention these details accurately. On completion of the process a confirmatory mail to be sent to the Receiver and the Buyer for record. The Receiver can then click on the Sign In link in the embedded mail to Sign In with Email Id and then the Email ID can be verified with OTP. ( which should be done only for the first time).
The database to be updated with the details of the Buyer and the Received data . We should be able to identify the Receiver as a Subscribe created through Gift

Newsletter Management

Newsletter to be sent only if the User opts for it while registering
Once subscribed the user should have a facility to unsubscribe in the mail itself
If a user has not subscribed it while registering , should be able to subscribe in the Profile at a later point in time

Outreach Program

This is an initiative or a campaign Hyphen would be undertaking in the University or College Campuses. Once the Institute agrees to participate in the campaign, Hyphen team would update the Master of Participating Institutes in the Website

Afterwards the Students would go to the ‘Outreach’ option in the Website and enroll for the Program. The program is designed to either give them an opportunity to participate in a competition to win free subscription for a year or opt for a 50% discount for the One Year subscription, provided they prove their credentials as genuine students of the participating Institute.

The steps for student enrollment:

Click on ‘Outreach’ option in the website
Select the Institute from the drop-down list in the form
Enter Name and email id
Upload the official Student Id issued by the Institute. Facility of clicking the pic of the ID and directly uploading using the camera app to be incorporated.
Click on the option to either participate in a competition or to apply for 50% discount
If opted for Competition, open a Text Box ( restricted to a predefined no of words ) for the student to type in the Write up
Once submitted, the Hyphen team would receive the details submitted for Evaluation:
Hyphen team would validate the Student ID. If rejected in the workflow, a rejection mail to be sent to the given email
If valid id and chosen 50% subscription , generate a discount coupon and send an Email
If valid and chosen Competition, evaluate the submitted write up

If approved , create the Sign Up and Subscription and intimate the student through email
If rejected, send a rejection mail to the student

Bulk Subscription

Bulk subscription can be bought by any one for a group of Readers by making the total payment negotiated with the Hyphen Team.
In the system the buyer will choose the Bulk Subscription option to submit a request. The Form would ask for the Contact
Person’s Name, Contact Numer and Email ID . The buyer needs not be a registered User in our platform.
This request would be received by the Hyphen Team and the rest of the discussion/negotiation would take place offline.
Once the Payment is done, the buyer would submit the list of recipients ( with their Email Ids ) as an excel sheet to the Hyphen Team.
In the system , the submitted request would get approved by the Authorized Role
The excel sheet of the Recipients would get uploaded and processed by the Hyphen Team
The Sign and Subscription would get created and emails would be sent to all the Recipients

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