Meredith Launches ‘Better Homes & Gardens Insider’ Membership Program
The launch of the brand's newest program comes at a time of recent advertising success.
Meredith Corporation announced this week the launch of “BH&G Insider,” a membership program for readers of its Better Homes & Gardens title.
Included in the membership program is unlimited access to the brand’s 95-year archives, exclusive editorial content, and offers, deals, and discounts from various brands in the home, appliance, décor and food space.
Andy Wilson, SVP of consumer revenue at Meredith tells Folio: that the brand wanted to develop a product that would appeal to its core BH&G audience.
“We surveyed BH&G readers as part of the program’s development to see which benefits interested them most,” he explains. “Editorially, we are always suggesting new products and services to our readers — they trust us to curate the best. Now, through the program, they will have exclusive and discounted access to the partners we have curated on their behalf which includes everything from $199 in interior decorating services from Havenly to exclusive discounts at online retailers like Houzz, Overstock and Ghiradelli.”
Previously, the brand’s archive content saw high audience engagement, prompting the BH&G team to include it as part of the insider program.
“We saw high engagement whenever our editors posted stories from the past, including older decor trends and recipe ideas and how they can be evolved today,” says Wilson. “Many of our readers, including millennials, have been subscribing for years, or grew up with parents who subscribed, so sharing the archive celebrates this rich brand history and gives access to a treasure trove of high quality, inspiring content.”
Wilson says the brand will feature content from the archive to market the membership program in the magazine, on the website and on social media platforms.
BH&G Insider membership costs $6 per month, billed annually, or $8 per month, billed quarterly. For a limited time, Better Homes & Gardens is offering an introductory annual rate of $5 per month, according to a company statement.
Stephen Bohlinger (left) and Stephen Orr
The new membership program comes at a time when the publication is also seeing advertising success and market share growth.
Through the September 2017 issue, the brand’s market share has risen 15 percent, up from 13.1 percent year over year, and has also increased 9.8 percent in ad paging, according to data from the MPA.
Stephen Bohlinger, VP, group publisher of Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle, Martha Stewart Living, tells Folio: that BH&G has additionally seen an 80 percent increase in beauty paging and revenue.
“It’s a natural fit,” says Bohlinger. “We have beauty content that our advertisers are searching for, and we wanted to shine a light on that, bringing it to our clients and showing them the depth of how well we cover beauty, and our advertisers really responded to that.”
In addition to tapping into new categories, Stephen Orr, editor-in-chief, also notes that the title is constantly looking to evolve and modernize its content.
Orr tells Folio: that the publication often uses focus groups, online testing, and research to get a handle on what kind of content its audience is looking for.
Most recently, BH&G launched a slew of new editorial initiatives, including The Firsts, Stylemakers, as well as new video content.
“Content wise, we try to create the content that people want,” says Orr. “We focus on diversity, and we really try to feature something for everybody.”
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