Starting a subscription business is a great idea, and the model itself has lots of benefits. However if you want it to be a success you need to be able to grow it over time – and that can be a little challenging.
To ensure that your business grows, you need to constantly make improvements to it on many different fronts. If you aren’t sure how to do that, here are five useful tips that should give you a good place to start:
- Make sure the price is right
In order to attract new subscribers and keep your existing subscribers satisfied – the price needs to be right. If it is too cheap potential subscribers may feel that it has no value, whereas if it is too expensive they’ll be scared off.
The price that you set must be competitive as well, which is why you need to keep close tabs on any businesses providing similar offers. However that does not mean that you need to compete directly in terms of price, but instead can be flexible and offer greater value instead.
- Establish a connection with subscribers
If you want to retain more subscribers you need to focus on connecting with them in some way. Unlike a conventional ecommerce business you can’t afford to only email or contact your subscribers when they make a purchase.
Instead you should be looking at ways to steadily keep your subscribers interested and build a relationship with them over time. The most common option is to use email marketing, but you could also try SMS, social media, and other methods too – possibly with the help of subscription software.
- Always try to upsell
Ideally your subscription business should have several tiers of membership – and you should attempt to ‘upsell’ new and existing subscribers to convince them to upgrade. That will allow you to acquire more value from each customer, and significantly improve your bottom line.
Successfully upselling subscribers can be tricky, and it will take a bit of trial and error. The key is to position your upsell offer strategically, and try to make it as attractive as possible.
- Improve your content strategy
Content can have a dramatic impact on a subscription business. If you’re able to create content that your target market finds valuable, it can help attract new subscribers and at the same time keep your existing subscribers engaged.
It is important to consider your overall content strategy and come up with a comprehensive plan. It should include not only the topics that you want to cover, but the types of content that you intend to produce and how you want to distribute it.
- Implement a referral system
Referrals can be a powerful tool to grow your subscription base. It will allow you to leverage your existing subscribers to grow your business and use word of mouth to spread awareness of it at the same time.
In general it is easier to convert potential subscribers via referrals due to the social proof that is provided by the person referring them.
Now that you have several ideas that you can use to grow your subscription business, it is up to you to determine what your next step should be. Make no mistake there are lots of other improvements that can be made too, and you may want to focus on other areas if you feel they will provide better returns.
The most important thing is to never let your subscription business stagnate, and always look for ways that you can improve it – in any way, shape, or form.
