Building a subscription business from the ground up – Kvartal

Kvartal started as a blog in 2016 as an alternative to the incumbents in the media landscape. Kvartal’s ambition is to be fearless and more nuanced and let the reader and listeners think for themselves. Kvartal launched their digital subscription business in October 2022 and exceeded all prior expectations already the first month.

Kvartal was in a position where they wanted to move from a previous donation funded model, into a long term subscription model. Starting out fresh – with no subscription tech platform, no marketing department and no consistent recurring revenue streams.

Recuro worked closely together with Kvartal’s management team and tech supplier to plan and prepare the business before launch. We planned and executed several growth activities to attract Kvartals core reader community as step one. Recuro staffed a cross-functional team, which changed throughout the process to make sure that the most relevant competencies were onboard. 

In close collaboration with Kvartal we delivered:

• Go-to-market strategy and pricing/packaging advisory
• Executed marketing campaigns – onsite, email and social media
• Constant analysis and adjustment of campaign methodology from new insights
• Setup customer service and ongoing customer support (1st line)
• Optimized marketing automation flows for increased retention
• Growth oriented ways-of-working based on agile methods
• Product and platform requirements towards tech teams

The benefits for Kvartal included: 

• Completely new revenue stream – with massive initial growth. 
• Fixed cost for full subscription team – including mgmt, analytics, paid social, customer service, marketing automation, email campaign management, strategic advice, graphic design, copywriting, and more.
• New competencies and resources seamlessly added to the team, as the business priorities shifted throughout the engagement. 
• Best practice subscription growth strategies and benchmarks. 

During our engagement we helped Kvartal exceed their initial yearly goal with over 50% – the first month after launch. We look forward to continuing our work with Kvartal to reach a wider audience and help them with their future goals.

Find other examples of how we have helped other  Media companies grow sustainable here (Breakit) or here (KSF Media).