How FT uses polls to engage readers and grow subscriptions

The Financial Times (FT) has been using polls in its newsletters for more than five years, but in 2024 it vastly expanded their use.

Polls encourage audience engagement and habit-forming behaviour. They also help a publisher build up a profile of an audience’s interests and expertise, while predictive polls can tap into the ‘wisdom of crowds’ on specialist topics and help guide editorial decision-making.

After experimenting with polls on an informal basis since 2019, last year the FT expanded its relationship with Opinary, a Berlin-based poll provider across our platforms. Given the greater use of the polls in 2024, we decided to review their performance and came up with a number of interesting findings.

Firstly, we found online polls have the potential to deliver very large audiences, fuelled by elections in the US and UK. One poll that appeared in a live blog on the night Donald Trump debated Kamala Harris on TV generated more than 18,000 votes. A poll asking readers how many seats they thought Labour would win in the UK general election generated more than 11,000 votes.

Polls also allowed us to innovate online and build new features to draw readers back regularly and build a habit. ‘The Big Question’, a weekly poll that we launched last summer, is a case in point. It is designed to allow FT readers to share their views on a topic that has featured in the FT’s news coverage.

Every week a graphic is commissioned from the FT’s art department and journalists on the audience engagement team write an introduction framing the question for readers. Topics covered include demography, mental health, CEO pay and smartphone use in schools. The series has generated tens of thousands of votes for the website.

We have also used polls to reach younger, less traditional audiences. The award-winning FT Edit app launched a new daily newsletter last year, and it includes a poll to run alongside one of eight featured stories. Some of the topics that have resonated with readers include working life and personal finance. A poll in November was even used to guide coverage during a books event, with readers asked to select a topic they wanted covered in the newsletter.

Finally, polls help to reinforce how valuable our specialist newsletters are at retaining subscribers.

Reader surveys regularly reinforce the view that newsletters like Europe Express Weekend, which is dedicated to European politics, and Inside Politics, covering Westminster, are the reason many subscribers continue to pay for the FT.

These newsletters have a very loyal readership who are well-informed and keen to share their opinions, demonstrating their knowledge of the subject area. Polls in these newsletters regularly record engagement rates above 75 per cent and are some of the most successful links in any of our newsletters.

Gordon Smith is newsletter editor at the Financial Times.

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).