It becomes painfully frustrating to keep bugging your customers for repeated purchases, taking a heavy toll on your own spirit and energy over time.
There is one marketing approach that can stop you from the constant loop of chasing customers without needing to use new tactics and flashy tricks every time (but it doesn’t mean not targeting them at all).
These days, you probably subscribe to more services than you realize – streaming platforms, e-books (which we don’t finish), or even meal kits.
At this point, your average subscriptions might outnumber your coffee runs. But what makes these wanted or unwanted services necessary while others get canceled faster than a free trial reminder email?
It all lies in the execution of smart subscription marketing – and yes, it is going to be a $1.26 trillion opportunity by 2025.
What is a Subscription Marketing Model?
Let’s clear our basics first,
The subscription marketing model, in a nutshell, is about selling a recurring payment model in which users have to pay continuous payments for a certain amount of time.
With a subscription marketing model, brands can offer customers recurring payment options for certain time periods instead of chasing for one-time purchases. The subscription marketing model equally focuses on retaining customers while closing new customers through thoughtful and engaging strategies.
Just take Spotify, for example. Customers pay for their desired package to experience streaming benefits for a particular time. Spotify tries to retain and entertain its customers to keep using the platform by introducing year-end wraps and personalized favorite artists lists to keep customers’ interests intact.
What’s All The Fuss With Subscription Marketing?
Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Adobe have adopted a subscription marketing model. They have expanded their existing customer base and leveraged many loyal customers while reducing their annoying churn rates.
50% of subscription businesses identified app stores and in-app purchases as the most effective acquisition channels.
Many SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and product brands are shifting towards subscription marketing strategies. It’s not to jump on the hype train but to leverage monumental benefits and long-term results. Here are some of the reasons why this shift is happening:
Convenient for customers: Imagine being asked to pay every time you want to read a new e-book. Well, that’s exactly how it is without subscription models. Subscription marketing is a breath of fresh air for consumers to enjoy the whole package of benefits by paying all at once at a much more affordable price– without being asked to pay every time.
Retain more customers: Closing new customers every quarter seems like a hanging sword on the marketer’s necks. But not with subscription marketing. Lead generation becomes less tolling for more marketers as companies can leverage more income by earning sales from existing customers instead of aggressively investing in acquiring new ones.
Generate a steady revenue stream: Subscription businesses have a recurring revenue stream. This means a minority of the customer’s chunk contributes to the company’s major portion of the revenue. This helps businesses sustain even the worst of financial times.
6 Subscription Marketing Strategies To Propel Your Business Revenue
Well, enough of the fluff around subscription marketing. Let’s discuss how to hone your subscription marketing plan to keep the subscribers coming.
Craft Your Pricing Model
Before creating digital marketing campaigns, brands must first set the foundations by creating a solid pricing model. One of the reasons why customers choose subscription options is their affordable price and convenience. The idea should be to create a pricing option that saves customers money and time.
Therefore, tailored pricing models are among the best ways to target different customer segments. Depending on individual consumption and needs, users can buy tiered packages that suit their budget.
Start A Lucrative Loyalty Program
In subscription businesses, launching a customer loyalty program is one of the best strategies for retaining existing customers and driving new customer acquisition.
For instance, you can launch a new loyalty program to reward your customers with substantial discounts in exchange for referring new subscribers. This motivates existing customers to spread the word about your product to their peers and get exclusive discounts in return.
This way, businesses save money by having their existing customers do the word-of-mouth marketing while fostering deeper and stronger relations with existing customers.
Offer Lucrative Demo Options
Many businesses are more skeptical about purchasing technical SaaS subscription services than average users subscribing to a Netflix plan. This seeds doubt in customers about product quality and whether it has all the right tools to solve their needs. That’s why, to tackle these prospects, offering free trial options is one of the best ways to ease customers into trying a product and have a practical overview of it.
Some of the best practices should be:
- When offering a free trial, businesses must ensure all the terms and conditions are clearly communicated (no hidden charges or forceful paid switches).
- Provide a top-notch onboarding process, helping customers to experience all the features of your product or service.
- Offer exclusive customer support service and help solve any queries or problems promptly. This will encourage customers to try a paid option in the future.
Craft and Launch Stellar Email Marketing Campaigns
Launching email marketing campaigns is not a unique marketing strategy, but blending its presence with lead generation surely is. It means creating lead generation touchpoints and activating an automated series of emails based on each customer’s behaviors and interests.
Email marketing was considered the most impactful third-party solution by 32% of subscription brands.
Emails can be launched as drips to nurture customer interests and build profitable customer relations. Some of the ways to better utilize email channels are:
- Follow-up emails on abandoned carts.
- Reminder emails on switching to paid models from free trials.
- Upsell and cross-selling offerings to customers.
- Keeping existing customers informed with new product advancements and recent developments.
- Convincing stubborn customers with exclusive discount offer emails.
Declutter Your Landing Pages
The last thing you want to do is to overwhelm your customer with a bombardment of unnecessary details only to lose your potential customer. Again! Your digital marketing subscription page should be clear, concise and designed to convert visitors into paying subscribers (or at least setting peace with a free trial).
Landing page optimization is the final touchpoint in the conversion cycle, yet many potential customers slip away at the very moment just due to overlooked landing pages. But you don’t have to– here’s how.
Compelling headlines, clear value propositions, appropriate visuals, and clearly defined descriptions of each subscription’s benefits should be a go-to approach for businesses.
Add testimonials, badges and FAQ sections to solve customers’ concerns. Note that a well-designed and written landing page is crucial in converting wandering visitors into paid subscribers.
Reward Repeat Customers
Repeat customers are the cornerstone of any business’s financial growth. So, you must provide them the right care and attention they deserve while striving to upsell and upgrade your relationship with customers.
So, care and attention here don’t mean providing them with online hugs. It’s utilizing ways to complement their current experience with the brand. This could include providing annual anniversary discounts and upcoming (unreleased) features of products to existing customers.
Wrapping Up
Many subscription marketing agencies have come into existence in recent years. Subscription marketing strategies are no different or unique compared to other strategies. However, they still need careful planning and execution to ensure a continuous stream of value and relevance for users. Keeping customers hooked with a consistent set of email series, SMS marketing, and customer feedback loops is crucial to reduce churn and forge long-term relations with customers.
Partner with Market Pro to transform your subscription marketing strategy into a consistent revenue stream that creates unbreakable customer bonds and utmost loyalty.