12 Subscription Marketing Strategies to Increase Your Revenue [2024]

Subscription marketing is one of the best strategies for building long-term customer relationships. It also ensures consistent engagement and generates steady revenue.

The subscription industry is growing at a rate of 200% annually.

Selling subscription-based products and services can be challenging, but with the right strategies, you can achieve long-term business growth.

In this article, I will tell you 12 powerful marketing strategies that will significantly increase your subscription sales and help you achieve higher customer retention over the years.

So let’s get started, So let’s begin,

What is Subscription Marketing?

Selling subscriptions refers to offering products or services through recurring payment models. It ensures you receive continuous value.

Subscription marketing means executing well-planned marketing strategies that you can use to actively promote your subscription products or services and get more subscribers.

And then, continue the process to ensure these subscribers renew their subscriptions over and over again, giving you a long-term business model.

Benefits of Selling Subscriptions

Selling subscription products or services comes with several benefits.

• Predictable Revenue Streams: With subscription sales, you can enjoy a consistent and predictable income. It makes financial forecasting easier and more reliable for your business. This steady revenue stream helps you plan for the future with confidence.

• Enhanced Customer Retention: Subscriptions naturally foster stronger loyalty, turning one-time customers into repeat customers. When you offer valuable and engaging subscription services, your customers are more likely to stick with your brand for a long time.

• Lower Renewal Costs: The cost of renewing a subscription is significantly lower than acquiring new customers. By focusing on retaining your existing customer base, you can reduce marketing expenses and maximize your return on investment.

• Long-Term Sustainability: Recurring earnings from subscriptions create a foundation for long-term business sustainability. This ensures that your company remains competitive and grows steadily over time.

• Scalability and Growth: Subscription models allow you to scale your operations efficiently. As your customer base grows, you can expand your offerings and adjust your subscription marketing strategy to meet increasing demand.

• Tailored Customer Experiences: By leveraging customer data and feedback, you can create personalized subscription experiences that cater to specific customer interests. This personalization enhances satisfaction and drives brand loyalty.

• Unique Marketing Strategies: Subscriptions open the door to innovative and unique marketing strategies. For example, you can use subscription advertising to target niche audiences and keep your customers engaged with exclusive content and offers.

• Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction: A well-crafted subscription strategy not only increases loyalty but also boosts customer satisfaction. Happy customers are more likely to refer others, contributing to the long-term success of your business.

Importance of Effective Subscription Marketing

To get those benefits, marketing subscription products with well-planned strategies is very important. Following are a few good reasons:

• Achieve Higher Retention and Loyalty: By using a well-planned subscription marketing strategy, you can keep your customers engaged and loyal. This approach targets specific customer interests and behaviors. It also ensures that your current customers remain satisfied and reduces the unsubscribe rate.

• Earn Revenue Stability: Implementing a strong subscription strategy stabilizes your cash flow, offering predictable income that helps you manage financial planning. With consistent subscription sales, you’ll experience less revenue fluctuation compared to relying solely on one-time purchases.

• Gain a Competitive Edge: A unique marketing strategy tailored to your subscription service ideas can set you apart from the competition. By focusing on what makes your service or product special, you can attract and retain customers more effectively.

• Leverage Customer Feedback for Growth: Incorporating customer feedback into your subscription strategy allows you to refine your offerings and improve customer satisfaction. This can lead to better customer referrals, stronger customer service, and overall growth.

• Enhance Long-Term Business Success: A well-crafted subscription marketing strategy not only helps you achieve immediate success but also supports long-term sustainability. With the right approach, you can build a business model that continually attracts new subscribers while maintaining a loyal customer base.

So, having a great subscription marketing plan gives you an edge over the market and helps you grow into a sustainable and profitable business.

What will Customers Get from Subscriptions?

Let’s explore what you gain from a subscription and why it’s a smart choice for you.

• Convenience: Subscriptions save customers time and effort by delivering products or services directly to them, whether it’s physical goods or digital content.

• Cost Savings: They often get discounts or special deals with a subscription, making it more affordable in the long run.

• Exclusive Access: They can gain access to unique products, content, or services that aren’t available to one-time purchasers, giving them a special experience.

• Consistency: Subscriptions provide a steady supply of what they need, whether it’s a regular service or essential products, ensuring they never run out.

• Personalization: they receive tailored offerings based on your preferences and behaviors, making the service more relevant and enjoyable for you.

These benefits highlight why choosing a subscription is a smart move. Plus, it’s an excellent strategy to implement innovative subscription service ideas and unique marketing strategies.

12 Subscription Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Revenue

Now, let us look at some of the best subscription marketing strategies that can help you get more subscribers and grow your revenue significantly

1. Offer Free Trials before Offering Subscription

Giving away free trials is a smart move to attract possible subscribers. It lets customers try out your product or service and understand the value you offer before making a decision.

Best Practices When Offering a Free Trial

• Keep The Terms Clear: Ensure you have transparently communicated the trial duration, limitations, and other expectations from your product or service.

• Capture Necessary Data (With Permission): Take advantage of the trial period to collect user data for tailored follow-ups and personalized offers.

• Offer Effective Onboarding: Create a good onboarding process to help subscribers use your product or service effectively and love it before the trial period ends.

• Make The Subscription Process Easy: Once someone wants to subscribe after or during the trial period, make it super easy to go through the checkout process. If you need additional details, collect them after the subscription is complete.

• Request To Give Feedback Even Before Trial Ends: Many make the mistake of asking for feedback after the trial ends. You should ask for it as soon as you know the customer used the tool for 24-48 hrs.

• Offer Quality Support: Make sure your subscribers always have help available. Non-responsive or late support can lead to not converting after the trial period.

2. Lead Generation Followed By Email Automation

You can create lead generation funnels where after someone opts in, an automation email series is sent out to nurture them and convince them to purchase your subscription offer.

For lead generation, you can offer a lead magnet that your prospects can find useful.

For example, if it’s a membership subscription that you sell, then offering a free course on a certain topic will be a great lead magnet. To get this free course, they will provide their contact information and indicate that they are interested in such courses.

Next, set up an email automation workflow with the intention of nurturing and converting them. It could be as simple as a 3-email series where

• In the first, you can give them another free resource related to the free courses.

• The second email could be about introducing them to your membership subscription, highlighting your most valuable courses, and laying down the benefits of subscribing.

• If they do not convert, you can trigger a third email with a discount offer which they can claim within 10 days.

Here, you need to make sure you have a good email copy for each. Also, try to have a subscription model with multiple payment plans where 1 seems more lucrative for example, a monthly subscription and a quarterly subscription that costs less compared to accumulated monthly plans.

The combination of the lead generation process and email automation makes it a great subscription marketing strategy.

3. Customer Retention Email Automation

Keeping a good and long-lasting relationship with customers is important in subscription marketing. Hence, keeping in touch with your audience and keeping them engaged regularly is important.

To do this, send out helpful and interesting emails every week. This should be a mix of informational, and how-to type content, and an occasion advice on actively using your product or service to their advantage.

This approach will make the customers understand how much you care and always keep them engaged with your brand.

When it comes to renewing your subscription, this engagement will act as a strong emotional drive for them to subscribe again, provided that your product or service helped them.

4. Influencer Partnerships for Brand Visibility

Partnering with social and industry influencers can substantially increase your subscriptions.

Most people follow several trusted individuals on social media that seem to hold expertise or create regular useful content around a certain industry.

You can actively collaborate with influencers that have an audience base you want to target. In most cases, these will be paid agreements where influencers will ask for a certain upfront fee to promote your brand message.

Another option is to run a lucrative affiliate marketing model. If you offer a good commission, you will find several people automatically promoting your subscription product or service.

But if you want a good push, then you have to reach out to renounced influencers to promote for you. Sometimes, offering an exclusive higher commission will be needed for people with more number of followers.

While you will not make the same amount of profit as usual sales, you will get more subscribers which is an advantage in the long run.

5. Run Special Deals & Discount Campaigns

Discounts are a marketing strategy that will always get you some sales. You can run occasional discounts on your subscription plans and actively promote the discount offer on social media, emails, or paid Ads to get conversions.

Best Practices When Offering Discounts On Subscriptions

When offering discounts on subscriptions, it’s essential to follow some best practices:

• Limited-Time Offers: Create discounts that only last for a short time. This makes people feel they need to decide quickly.

• Segmented Discounts: Make different discounts for different groups of customers. This way, everyone feels like they get a special deal that fits them.

• Clear Terms: Be clear about the rules for the discount. This helps build trust with customers because they know exactly what to expect.

• Exclusive Rewards: Give special rewards only to customers who stick around for a long time. This encourages them to stay with you and be loyal.

• Non-applicability to Renewal: Offer a discount that is only applicable for the current purchase and not for future renewals. This is to maximize the value you get from this campaign.

6. Craft A Lucrative Customer Loyalty Program

Implementing a loyalty program can encourage you to refer more subscribers. You can craft a lucrative loyalty program for your existing subscribers.

For example, you could offer a discount on the next renewal upon referring new subscribers. Another one could be bonus rewards upon frequent renewals from the same customer.

For example, if it’s a Saas email marketing tool for a customer who renewed back to back 4 months, you can offer an additional 1000 emails to be sent for the 5th month as an appreciation for staying with you.

You will also find tools to manage rewards & points systems to create some sort of competition, maybe by setting a tier-based rewards system, for your customers to try and get more rewards from you while giving you more business.

Loyalty programs naturally work best with subscription marketing, so you can take advantage of this strategy.

7. Host Webinars & Live Demos

Engage your audience with webinars or live demos showcasing the value of your subscription.

For example, if you are a marketing coach, you can host a free live webinar to teach people some advanced SEO techniques. And then, during the end of the webinar, you can offer a good discount on taking your services on a subscription basis.

Again, if you sell online software, let’s say a PM tool, you can host a free live demo session with your prospects to display exactly what benefits your tool offers. This will help to get many people interested in your tool.

Later, you can connect an automated email marketing series to nurture and convince these attendees to subscribe to your products and services. You can consider offering a free trial to make this extra convincing, provided that you are super confident with your product or service.

8. Targeted Content Marketing

Regularly publishing new and relevant content/articles ensures you attract an organic, targeted audience.

Among the content, include a few content where you showcase the use and benefit of your product or service. This will help to make people realize your dedication to helping them and eventually get interested in your subscription products.

Best Practices on Content Planning for Subscription Products

• Keyword Research: Spend time researching the right keywords that your target audience is more likely to search for. And then prepare relevant content that aligns with their need. Try to target keywords that are less difficult to rank for but have a high search volume. You will find several keyword research tools to help you out with this.

• Diversified Content: Use various formats like videos, infographics, and blogs to cater to different preferences. You can find a lot of organic traffic through well-planned blogs, and then get a whole new group of audience from YouTube through videos.

• Consistent Schedule: Maintain a regular content publishing schedule for audience engagement. This will help interested prospects know exactly when to expect new content, increasing your brand authority. This is especially important for video content.

• Interactive Content: Implement interactive content like quizzes, polls, or interactive infographics to enhance engagement and user experience.

• SEO Optimization: Optimize your content for search engines by using relevant keywords, proper keyword distribution, maintaining good keyword and content relevancy, using engaging meta descriptions, and ensuring mobile-friendliness.

9. Run Paid Ads On Social Media

Setting up ad campaigns on social channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube can effectively promote the benefits and use cases of subscription products.

Most social platforms keep track of people’s interests and interactions with brands and content topics. So, it’s easier to target the right audience with Paid Ads there.

It’s a common subscription marketing tactic that almost all businesses use. But you need to make sure you have done your customer research well to be able to target the right audience with your Ads.

10. Highlight Customer Success Stories and Testimonials

Although this tactic is straightforward, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You need to try and video reviews and interviews from customers and leverage them across your marketing channels.

If you can get honest video testimonials, or interview customers for their real success stories with your product, it will help to genuinely connect with potential subscribers who are looking to get a similar level of success.

You can use these testimonials as your direct content on YouTube, or use them as part of your landing pages, Ads, and promotional content. These can even be converted into written case studies to get organic traffic.

A Mistake to Avoid When using testimonials

However, most businesses make a mistake common mistake that you want to avoid. You will notice that sometimes a business publishes a testimonial video of a customer on their own social channels and makes the customer make a comment or reaction to it later.

While this is not bad, this creates a slight suspicion that the video can be a staged one. The better approach is to make the customer publish his testimonial originally on his social media, and then you re-use it on your social platforms as a re-share.

And later download the video and use it on your other promotional content. You have to help your customers understand how this works to make them do this, which is often difficult.

But if you have really helped your customers, many will happily help you out in this manner.

11. Plan Subscription Upsell Campaigns

If you have multiple subscription plans or tiers, then you should plan to upsell campaigns to try and convince prospects to upgrade to higher plans.

You can do this in several ways. Three of the best ways are as follows:

• One Click Upsell After Checkout: When someone purchases a lower-tier plan, right after checkout, you can make a good discount offer on a higher-tier plan as an upsell offer. Make it an optional offer that buyers can accept or reject with one click, and clearly highlight both the discount and the benefit of going for the higher plan.

• Post-purchase Upsell Email Series: After subscription, you can trigger an automation workflow where, after the onboarding process, you can set up a series of emails to try and convince the customer to upgrade. It could be a series explaining the benefits of upgrading to offering a discount to upgrade.

• Re-targeting Ads To Upgrade: You can set up re-targeting ads for your customers that are on the lower-tier plan to highlight the best features and benefits of the high-tier plan. This will often attract them to consider upgrading.

Upselling is a core strategy in subscription marketing and you should set up these tactics to get maximum ROI.

12. Build Up A Social Community

Creating a social community, such as a Facebook group, centered around your subscription product’s niche can expand your reach.

Here, your existing or potential customers can discuss various topics that revolve around your product or service. You can start a few topics as well which the prospects can interact with out of interest.

Eventually, you can share a few useful content there from time to time to keep the prospects engaged, and also grow trust in your expertise.

As the group grows larger, you can run webinar campaigns or promotional campaigns with the help of your community, which will trigger several conversations due to common interests and desired benefits.

with the help of your community, which will trigger several conversations due to common interests and desired benefits.

Reliable Tools to Help With Subscription Marketing for WooCommerce

So far you learned several subscription marketing strategies that can help you grow your business. However, to execute them successfully, you will need a few tools that are reliable and can serve all the purposes you need.

If you are running a WooCommerce store to sell subscription products, then the following are a few tools we recommend you use for various subscription marketing strategies.

1. WPFunnels

WPFunnels is currently one of the best sales funnel builders in WordPress that allows you to craft lead generation funnels or complete sales funnels with post-purchase upsell offers for your online business.

The plugin integrates beautifully with native WordPress page builders such as Elemetntor, Divi, or Oxygen, and is specialized to craft funnel journeys for WooCommerce products or courses created using TutorLMS and LearnDash.

Whether you are selling subscription products or course subscriptions, you can easily craft complete funnel journeys to collect leads, promote your offers, get subscriptions, and trigger upsells.

2. Mail Mint

Mail Mint is one of the easiest email marketing automation plugins for WordPress and WooCommerce. Using this plugin, you can manage your collected leads, manage them through lists and custom segments, run custom email campaigns, set up email series, and trigger automated email workflows easily.

The plugin comes with pre-built email templates and a super easy drag-and-drop email builder with full customization control to help you launch highly effective email campaigns.

Its visual automation workflow builder makes it a powerful automation tool for WooCommerce and TutorLMS, with several triggers based on buyers’ actions in your online store.

This plugin also has a special integration with WPFunnels to let you plan email automation flows for your sales funnels.

3. WooRewards

WooRewards is a wonderful customer loyalty plugin for WooCommerce. You can easily set up special rewards for loyal customers for your WooCommerce subscription plans and other products.

It allows you to define custom rules to offer special bonuses for your customers.

4. FluentCRM

FluentCRM is a popular CRM plugin for WooCommrce where you can collect leads and set up email automation series for your customers.

The plugin allows you to create weekly recurring emails which is perfect for setting up nurturing emails for long-term customer retention.

It also has automation features related to customer engagement for subscription services.

5. AffiliateWP

AffiliateWP is one of the best affiliate management tools for WordPress.

Using this plugin, you can set up a well-planned affiliate commission structure that will automate the whole process for you and your affiliates.

You can even set up tier-based commissions to encourage people to promote more actively to get higher commissions.

6. WebinarPress

WebinarPress is one of the emerging plugins for WordPress to create and host webinar campaigns. With this plugin, you will be able to plan and host live webinars or demos for your products and services to attract potential customers.

All of these are great tools to help you with marketing subscription products and getting higher conversions. If you are not using WordPress or WooCommerce, then you simply need to find tools with similar features as these and you will be able to start selling subscriptions actively.

Conclusion

To create a successful subscription marketing strategy, focus on understanding your customers’ needs and preferences.

By offering unique subscription service ideas and tailoring your subscription advertising to target specific customer interests, you’ll attract and retain the right audience.

It’s essential to build strong customer relationships through two-way communication, such as SMS marketing and customer feedback loops, to reduce churn and enhance customer loyalty.

Consider customer segmentation and personalized offers to increase customer benefits and referrals. WPFunnels can help to simplify your process, making it easier and driving long-term success.

** FAQs **

What is a subscription market?

• A subscription market refers to businesses that offer products or services regularly. It’s all about providing ongoing value to your customers. You can benefit from a stable revenue stream while your customers enjoy convenience and tailored experiences.

What is subscribing to social media?

• Subscribing in social media means opting in to follow a page, profile, or channel, so you receive regular updates in your feed. When you subscribe, you’re essentially saying, “I want to see more of this.” It’s an easy way to engage with content that matches your specific interests.

What is the difference between a subscribe and a subscription?

• Subscribing is the initial action of signing up or following something, like a service or a channel. A subscription is an ongoing relationship you maintain after subscribing. It’s the recurring commitment where you or your customers receive regular value.

What are the three types of subscriptions?

• There are three main types of subscriptions: product-based, service-based, and content-based. Each type is designed to meet specific customer interests and needs, offering tailored solutions.

How does a subscription strategy benefit your business?

• A well-planned subscription strategy helps you build long-term relationships with your customers by offering consistent value and convenience. It reduces customer acquisition costs over time, increases customer loyalty, and provides a predictable revenue stream.