I’ve written before about how smart subscription marketers will tie their year-end renewal efforts to a gift subscription offer. This technique does double duty by increasing both your retention and new subscriber acquisition rate.But year-end and holiday subscription marketing can go both ways, which means that renewal efforts for gift subscriptions can also include upsells for additional subscriptions. Take a look at this email campaign from Consumer Reports for a print subscription to Money Advisor.

Consumer Reports does a number of things right in this email renewal effort. First, it mentions the gift recipient in the subject line and the body copy, as well as the gift-giver’s name in the salutation. Then it offered two options — the ability to renew the subscription either for the recipient OR the gift-giver at a reduced price, or the option to buy additional gift subscriptions at a further reduced rate. And lastly, the email has a number of places to click, from the green circle with a hovering mouse to the red button.My main critique is that the button needn’t be so far down the page — and better yet if it was above the fold. But what I especially like is the brevity of the message. Since this message is for an existing subscriber who gave the publication as a gift to someone else, they’re already a converted fan and don’t need a hard sell — just information to get them to renew.