I just heard the most ridiculous statement from a subscription economy* owner who should know better: “The value of what I deliver to my members drives retention.” The value of what you deliver is less than 20 percent of the reason your member renews or not. There’s a value- and quality-driven brand within the motorcycle industry, Honda. The quality of their product is exceptional. The value for the investment is excellent. Yet, they represent a fraction of the sales that Harley-Davidson generates in the categories where Harley-Davidson chooses to compete. In those categories, Harley-Davidson has more than 50 percent of the market share for their products. Yes, customers buy Harleys more than any other motorcycle, even though Harley-Davidson is the premium priced product. Can you name another industry where the premium provider owns more than half of the market share? In retail, this would be comparable with a company such … Continued
Three Key Breakthroughs that are Game-Changers for Membership and Subscription Growth
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Too many people create a subscription business because they heard it’s a lucrative business model. While it’s true that the membership model can help you scale your company faster, generate long-term stability and enable you to grow a vibrant tribe of thrilled members, generating revenue can’t be your only priority. Instead, when you focus on generating a positive impact on your members lives, they’ll reward you with membership and subscription growth. In a recent interview for the Membership and Subscription Growth podcast, I spoke with Tim Broom, the co-founder and CEO of ITPro.TV. Tim transitioned to a subscription business model four years ago and is set to hit $8 million in revenue this year. What he has done, you can do. Your product may be much different than his, but the keys to his success can be applied to any subscription model. ITPro.TV is, as Tim describes, “a Netflix for … Continued
Lisa Sugar’s Five Golden Rules That’ll Generate Subscription Growth for You, Just Like PopSugar Must Have!
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Passion, customer impact, focus, feedback and service are crucial for maximum subscription and membership growth. For an example, take a look at PopSugar and their subscription box, PopSugar Must Have. While I recommend you subscribe to learn more about building your own subscription program, here’s five “Golden Rules” you can use immediately from a recent interview with Lisa Sugar, PopSugar’s founder and CEO. Continued
Customer Success Secrets to Transform Your Subscribers from a Series of “One Night Stands” into Members for Life
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Customer success determines retention rates in the membership economy. If your member does nothing with what you sell her, she’s going to cancel your subscription.
The old model of leaving it up to your customer to figure out how to get value from what you sell may have worked in the old one-and-done product sale world.
Your membership and subscription growth is determined by how well you ensure customer success. It involves helping your members find a lifetime value in subscribing to your product or service. I refer to it as turning your subscribers into a vibrant tribe of followers. And, it starts with how you attract your them.Continued
The Monthly Benefits That Retain Members for Years Increasing Your Retention and Recurring Revenue
It’s not easy bringing you all this great member retention insight. Just last month, I spent a week in Northern California meeting with two clients. I was at the beach a full week for the Florida tourism marketing industry. And, at the end of October, I traveled to Mumbai to work with an Agora Global affiliate on subscriber engagement and retention. Northern California was beautiful. After spending three days in Sacramento working with the team at the California Chamber of Commerce, I moved on to Napa to work with Gene Kelly and his team at the Gun Club of America. The photo for this blog post is the team of the Gun Club of America. Gene Kelly started GCA in 2007 to create a community for people who love guns, know how they work, and enjoy collecting them. We worked together as a team to create a brand-new value proposition, … Continued
What You Can Discover About Membership Retention from Collaborating with 4,000+ Subscription Box Companies
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Discover how to grow your subscription business from the explosive growth of the subscription box industry. Subscription boxes have become the single fastest segment of the subscription industry over the last 12 months, as have the number of offerings. What leads to fast growth within subscription boxes can help you grow your own subscription economy business.
At the center of the subscription box industry is my recent guest on Membership and Subscription Growth podcast, Amir Elaguizy, the co-founder and CEO of Cratejoy. More than 4000 subscription boxes rely on the Cratejoy platform for marketing and fulfillment. Amir has seen what works within the subscription box industry and what leads some subscription companies to fail.
Membership retention comes down to subscription fundamentals, understanding what your customer wants, delivering tangible value and delivering a terrific unboxing experience. …Continued
Subscription Business Experts Reveal What It Takes to Grow Your Monthly Recurring Revenue
The Membership and Subscription Growth Podcast is now on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher! This podcast will help you attract new subscriber members, keep them longer and grow a vibrant tribe. You’ll learn easy-to-implement shortcuts for fast membership and subscription growth. You’ll discover how to get more new members to join and what to deliver that improves membership retention and creates membership growth. You’ll discover the best membership practices, proven retention strategies and unique insight into the membership and subscription economy from some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the subscription economy and membership economy, including specialized information publishers, associations, subscription boxes, digital subscriptions, SaaS, loyalty programs and more. My mission is to serve you with the most current and useful information available. Each of the episodes will include a summary on my blog page with a link to the podcast and the interview transcript. You’ll receive an abundance of … Continued
How To Seize The Membership Economy Opportunity To 5x Your Company
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Why would your company want a member instead of a customer? Studies show the valuation of companies in the membership economy are anywhere from five to 10 times the size of similar companies which use transactions. That’s according to Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Membership Economy. Baxter is a Silicon Valley marketing consultant whose clients have included Survey Monkey, Netflix, Yahoo, Oracle and eBay. I recently talked with Robbie about what she calls “the forever transaction,” a customer who sticks with you forever. You will learn insights she’s gained from advising nearly 100 organizations on growth strategy. Long-term members give entrepreneurs a more predictable cash flow, says Baxter. Also, companies are able to invest more time and money to acquire a new member than they could for a one-time sale. “So many transaction-based companies invest in acquisitions, and then don’t retain the customer,” Baxter says. “They’re on a constant … Continued
Four Ways Specialized Information Publishers Generate New Customers
Business readers will invest to get specialized information that gives them the edge against a competitor. But how do publishers who sell subscription-based newsletters, magazines, reference manuals and training programs get those business readers to invest in their publications? The usual methods of direct mail and online ad campaigns figure into their marketing strategy. But the publication itself is also a powerful tool to reel in buyers, and specialized information publishers often use part of their own content to generate future sales. I asked top publishers to share the methods they use to sign up new subscribers. You will learn their tactics, many of which can be adapted for other types of subscription-based businesses. Back-to-basics marketing is a strategy many subscription publishers still use. Guy Cecala, CEO and publisher for Inside Mortgage Finance Publications says direct mail, and even old-fashioned word-of-mouth, remain part of his marketing strategy. “We get a … Continued
How to Accelerate Your Subscription Growth – Insight and Advice from Zuora
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:02 — 23.2MB) Subscribe: Android | Email | RSS | How to Subscribe Using Different Platforms How would you like to know the secrets of the fastest growing subscription companies? Subscriptions are exploding for everything from information, software, to monthly boxes. This growth has attracted new resources for analytics, software, and marketing to learn what works and how to grow the largest subscription companies today. These tools can give you more visibility, control and monthly recurring revenue for your subscription program. This interview reveals what the largest players in the subscription economy do to attract new customers, understand their subscribers to reduce churn, and grow their monthly recurring revenue. For starters, Zuora offers products, resources, and cloud technologies to help subscription businesses attract and retain members. Zuora has sophisticated monthly billing systems that increase revenue with better pricing models and international acceptance … Continued