The subscription business is booming thanks to companies like Hello Fresh and Dollar Shave Club that have helped popularize the model. People are starting to see the benefits of subscription boxes more and more.
With subscriptions, customers can access products more easily, and have the peace of mind that they'll receive their products at the commodity of their homes, saving time and energy.
Some companies are starting their own subscription-based business while others are connecting their current e-commerce platform with subscription platforms to get new customers and recurring revenue.
Whether you are a business that is just getting started or an up and running subscription business, we share with you 8 tips that can help you to acquire new customers.
1. Offer customers a deal they can't resist
2. Engage with potential subscribers in Social media
3. Create killer content that resonates with your subscribers
4. Start a movement
5. Create affiliate programs
6. Reach out to bloggers and influencers
7. Build your own newsletter
8. Offer a better deal on your subscription
I've seen some creative subscription companies using promotions and deals that customers can't resist.
FabFitFun offers a spin wheel with a special promo for new customers. This is a smart way of offering customers a deal so they can buy right away with a discount or lose it and pay the full price.
Don't be afraid of putting together a promotion that is outside the box. Just try to make it align with your acquisition strategy.
Try not to ask for any other costs or have hidden fees, but be very transparent with what you are offering, or you might lose them.
Another example comes from one of the companies that helped popularize the subscription box model. The Dollar Shave Club offered its subscription starting at $1, and they used this approach to attract new customers.
Offering a deal that customers can't resist is a great way to acquire new customers and to find creative ways of engaging with them.
Social media is one of the best ways to create brand awareness but usually, it takes too much time to build trustability and establish your subscriber base to acquire new customers. Despite that, in the long game, this could be crucial for your subscription business.
Take for example Facebook that has 1.62 billion users visiting the platform in a day and Instagram that has 500 million active users in a day. This is one of the ways for customers to connect and interact with brands and is a great approach to acquire new subscribers (especially if you are a B2C (Business to consumer)) subscription business.
Social media increases your chances of targeting many of your subscribers and to make a real connection.
Farm To People showcases how you can receive the best seasonal food delivery even if you are in the middle of the city and if you are too busy to go out and buy it. They use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Before you decide on which social media channel to use, you need to be aware of your ideal subscriber. We've explained what does an ideal subscriber entails in our previous blogs.
Let's get started by the beginning. Social media is where we spend most of our time. People like to share and engage with brands in different ways.
We'll like to share with you how to create awesome content for social media that resonates with your potential subscribers.
Content marketing is a great way to help your subscription business grow and earn some new subscribers.
Content marketing is a method to communicate, inform, and keep customers engaged. This is not a way to really promote your subscription business but rather to generate interest and brand awareness that can help you reach new audiences and ultimately acquire subscribers.
The type of content you create is more related and always takes into consideration your (ideal) subscriber. This should be aligned with your subscription marketing strategy and it should work together as a whole.
KiwiCo is an example of a subscription brand that elevates content marketing to a whole new level. They show kids and how they are using their products in a fun and creative way. KiwiCo is using content marketing to create the best content that really connects with their ideal customers.
You can also use content marketing in a way that distinguishes your brand and that creates that connection with your subscribers.
Whether this is through loyalty clubs, with exclusive content and special promos for subscribers or giveaways, these strategies work very well and can make a difference when acquiring new subscribers.
Make it personal, don't underestimate the power of brand loyalty. Add personality to your subscription box and make sure to share it with the world.
Simple approaches give your subscription product(s) a personalized touch that will help your subscription business to tell a story that will keep subscribers coming.
Affiliate programs help you acquire new customers since other professional partners are incentivized (with a commission) to refer you new subscribers.
HelloFresh has a dedicated page so people can register and be selected in their affiliate program helping them reach new subscribers.
For these affiliate programs, you'll need to create a set of assets for your affiliates (ad copy) and a reward ($$) per subscriber that signs up.
There are mainly two types of reviews:
Customer reviews and expert reviews (for subscription boxes you can think of Mysubscriptionadittion). Having reviews for your subscription product(s) is essential to build trust with subscribers.
Blogs:
There are some bloggers online that create communities where they share content related to new products and subscriptions. You can reach out to them and start creating a list of potential bloggers that can share your product in one of their articles.
You can create a list of the bloggers (See the example below) and keep key information like when to mail them samples of your product, how and when to contact them and track which perform better.
Influencers:
There are two types of influencers. Social influences and YouTubers.
Bloggers focus more on written content while influences are more specialized on Instagram or videos. You can use the same approach to contact them and to send them samples of your product for exposure.
We recommend approaching influencers with less than 10K followers as they are more niche and more open to receiving your products.
Is email still good to acquire customers? As a matter of fact yes.
This might take a bit more of time to gain traction but it's definitely a must to go when trying to acquire and convert potential subscribers.
You can make your newsletter as interesting and engaging as you want. The idea here is that you build your subscriber base so people can follow your company every week and at some point convert.
Birchbox sends customers emails depending on the season showcasing the different products they have. They make it personalized and depending on their audience.
You can include a call to action (CTA) to your newsletter in the sidebar, footer, or header of your website, so people subscribe to your newsletter.
Customers often struggle with choosing which subscription option is the best one. In fact, providing savings for customers on longer-term commitments is one of the things that appeals the most in subscription models.
Incentivizing customers to pay a lower fee if they decide to pay the whole year than if they can cancel anytime, mentally this gives some incentive to pay less even if it's for more time.
Some subscription brands also give access to special product deals or free shipping with longer subscriptions, which can be very appealing to subscribers.
There you have it, 8 ways to acquire more subscribers for your subscription business. If you are interested in successfully managing your subscription business in one platform, you can always contact us or schedule a demo with one of our customer experts.
You can also try Firmhouse for free and start increasing your recurring revenue.
