Mumsnet Premium membership - new offers are now included

[JustineMumsnet]

Some of you will remember that we launched Mumsnet Premium back in the spring - many thanks to those of you who’ve signed up and we hope you’re enjoying it.

We wanted to flag some Premium-related news and invite the unconverted to give Premium a whirl.

From now, Premium subscribers will get first access to our popular product tests (where brands give Mumsnet users free stuff in exchange for feedback). We’re also lining up some brilliant experts and slebs for our brand new Zoomchats. Places on these are limited, and Premium users will have first dibs.

We’ve created a Talk board for Premium subscribers where the MNHQ team and I will be doing regular webchats there to give you a behind the scenes look at MNHQ - a chance to ask all those tough questions you’ve been cooking up 😉

Our aim for Premium is to come up with new offers each month. We’ve got some of your favourite brands on board, such as Seasalt Cornwall who are giving Premium subscribers a free jute shopper worth £6 for orders over £25. Protected Species are giving a whopping 50% off selected outerwear, and you can also get 20% off Hornit bikes, 10% off Bugaboo and more (see all our offers here.

You can learn more about Mumsnet Premium here

If there's anything else you'd like to see that might persuade you to give Premium a go, then please do let us know. Big thanks!

@LittleMissLockdown

Thanks for this - we'll certainly try to source more offers and more specifically designed for lower income families. It's a great point.

I'm actually very very surprised that it has taken a poster to point out that offering discounts and offers for those with less of an income might be a better plan. Given that we are in the middle of pandemic which has seen a huge amount of families thrown into financial turmoil, I'm pretty shocked not one person working at MNHQ had considered this might be a good idea.

Well we generally have tried to source offers from the brands Mumsnetters have mentioned most to us when we've asked what they want - and from the top performers in terms of our affiliates. We usually take our cues from user feedback and data rather than assume we know what's best.

@fruitpastille

I like mumsnet and read it daily. I could afford 60 quid but I can't imagine what would persuade me to pay it. Perhaps if there was a discount that would be really useful I might sign up for a month to get it and then unsubscribe. Isn't there a danger of lots of users doing that?

Yes that's happened a fair bit but I think that's ok - it just means that from our side we need to work harder at getting the ongoing value exchange right. That may not be just about offers - it could be about campaigning or offering expert help and advice (more akin to a union for mothers type thing) or indeed helpful features on site. It's all in the mix at the moment. Also annual membership is discounted so better value!

@Hellotheresweet

And they should be unique to mumsnetters

The offers I have seen in the past on mumsnet ... a quick google and they are offered by loads of others too

Yes I agree - it's something we're trying hard to do and a fair few of our offers are unique I believe but not all for sure. We do offer incentives to brands to give us premium offers in the form of discounted advertising but some brands are obviously more up for discounting than others. We'll keep at it though.

Hello @JustineMumsnet I’m a Premium subscriber and I’m happy to continue paying. I use Mumsnet everyday and have found it invaluable over the years.

I agree with the PP who suggested that you survey Premium members to see what would make Premium worthwhile to them. I really appreciate the lack of ads and would appreciate some increased functionality for the site eg I hate the fact that if I accidentally bookmark a post I can’t then ‘unbookmark’ it and I constantly get taken back to that post. It seems like such an easy change to make. More generally there seems to be a bit of a reluctance to make improvements to the site’s functionality...I’ve seen people request an ‘edit post’ button for years.

I'm low income and subscribe to premium because MN probably saved my sanity once upon a time and I see it as an investment in other parents' sanity and the continuation of a valuable resource in myriad ways.

I want a gingerbread man emoticon. That's all.

Yes, I do mean the app on Android. That's good to know, thanks.

@ShowOfHands

I'm low income and subscribe to premium because MN probably saved my sanity once upon a time and I see it as an investment in other parents' sanity and the continuation of a valuable resource in myriad ways.

I want a gingerbread man emoticon. That's all.

Snap. I subscribed to premium for no reason other than Mumsnet got me through some tough times and I'd hate to see it go. Literally none of the 'perks' at the moment make any difference to my life. Hopefully, something will be added that I'll find useful, maybe a biscuit delivery at Christmas, or free cheese scones in the M&S cafe... (yes, I'm hungry... 😉) A gingerbread man would be ace. Totally agree 😁

@LetTheBirdsSing you can do that already on the app without premium. Just click on the three dots and 'unbookmark' is there as an option.

@HighInTheHills ah thanks, good to know. I just view on Safari though, I have too many apps on my phone as it is

I second free cheese scones. And the gingerbread man emoticon. Not necessarily in that order.

None of the offers appeal to me.

You can often get similar offers online through vouchers, codes or cashback.

Some of the offers are designed to make you spend even more money eg 10% off a monthly subscription to lightbulbs.

I like the idea of a sort of union for mums, Mumsnet!

Premium: badly thought out, poorly timed,
Unimaginative and basically really grabby.

A Netflix sub is a fiver a month! Audible £7!

WHY do you think that what you offer is worth that sort of cash? You should be offering more for less. We are the product that makes you money, not the other way around. You guys have tickets on yourselves

You can’t even keep it details secure - why would ANYBODY pay you anything?

And yes I agree that product reviews shouldn’t be the domain of the well heeled dolls who can hand over £60 a year for the pleasure of reading parking threads and scrolling through all those deleted posts on feminism pages!!

Still in the plan BoomBooms - but not necessarily just for Premium members

^ but wasn't the edit function one of your original draws to lure people to subscribe? If it is released to all I can see a lot people being mighty annoyed and feeling duped. I know that some people subscribed specifically as they wanted functionality such as this and when premium launched it was definitely indicated that you would need to subscribe to access it.

(I don't personally subscribe and have no strong feelings either way about the edit button).

My thoughts

Pull it. Be honest. Say that you’ve had great feedback and it’s not fir for purpose but you’re going to work damn hard on pulling together something truly exciting for spring next year. In the meantime enjoy some of the premium “perks” for free.

So people get a taste of some of the system perks you were offering, whilst you get a package of benefits together that are going to actually fly.

Then when time comes - you say... ok, you went the perks to continue PLUS these fab benefits, pay a £5 a month. Otherwise back to the old mumsnet for you, which is as good as ever.

Agree with LoudBatPerson.

When Premium launched, the edit function promise was dangled as a specific draw for subscribers. It was something people had wanted for years, and much was made of it. Not only have you not provided this, for the best part of a year, to those whom you enticed by offering it, you are now saying that you will probably provide it to everyone, free of charge.

Sounds quite it e a lot like mis-selling to me.

(Also not a subscriber, and not necessarily bothered by an edit function)

I had a video chat with a (very lovely) member of MNHQ to give my thoughts on Premium and what could be offered. One of the big things was access to exclusive TED-talk type webinars with interesting people, specifically thinking about women-focused issues. So I’m hoping the Zoom chats you refer to Justine are on this track - not sure if I would pay to Zoom with celebrities as such.

Well we generally have tried to source offers from the brands Mumsnetters have mentioned most to us when we've asked what they want

I'm susprised by this. I understand Bugaboo and Seasalt as I see these mentioned on MN quite often, but I've never heard of Protected Species or Hornit Bikes until this post. Although having looked at the websites, perhaps that's because they're out of my price range.

I don't remember them promising the edit function being offered as part of the Premium service. I'm pretty sure they said at the time that would be available to all users.

Agree that users are "the product" - and I guess going ad-free takes you out of that, but a netflix or audible sub sounds better value for money.
Priority access to trials - even if not exclusive access - will still skew the results, rendering the outcome irrelevant (unless you're in the MM-worth-paying-£60-for demographic maybe).
Zoom chats with "celebrities" - sounds like a big turn off.

@NotYourReindeer

I don't remember them promising the edit function being offered as part of the Premium service. I'm pretty sure they said at the time that would be available to all users.

I think the original premium post implied it would be a feature for premium members, although they did acknowledge it might then be rolled out to all users in the future.

Over the next little while we’ll look to add some extra features: things that people have requested regularly like editing, sorting posts by the OP, and reading offline.

we are planning a very limited edit function - only a 15 second or so window... It's not a feature that I think would be wise to make standard

But of course if we try it on Premium we can then test it out. If it's trouble free we can consider rolling out more widely (and come up with additional incentives for Premium)

I could afford £5 a month but just because I have money doesn't mean I will throw it away. I need to get something for it. I don't mind ads on websites. I normally mentally block them. Once in a blue moon there is actually something of interest in which case they can be useful so I wouldn't pay for that. I am 60 years old so tend not to be in the demographic for the trials you do so that's of no value to me and
the sort of discounts you are offering are no better than I could get in a high street sale or from a magazine voucher or simply negotiate myself when buying a high ticket item.

Mumsnet Premium seems very overpriced for so little return. Compare it with Amazon Prime where for £80 a year I get unlimited free delivery on most orders, a free new release ebook every month, free access to the music service and free access to a large library of digital tv and video content. That's a lot more bang for my buck.

I'm not a subscriber as I wanted to see what the feedback was first. I also remember the exit function being dangled as a carrot initially.
Why does everything take so long, it's always something you're working on in the next few months yada yada.
And Whoop! A webchat so that we can look behind the scenes at MNHQ? your fingers are really not on the pulse are they.

I'm curious as to how you came up with the £60 figure. Like others I immediately find myself thinking of what I get with Amazon prime or Netflix etc and thus find it a big ask.

There's nothing you can offer that's going to equate to £5 a month so trying to market it on special offers etc makes no sense. I think if you'd just said a pound a month and even just a monthly prize drawer for a decent bottle of gin or a shop voucher or something you'd have more money and a less grabby feel to it all.

Protected species is mentioned on pretty much every coat thread. I've never heard of them outside mumsnet. They are still overpriced with a discount. I could afford premium but not necessarily one of those coats