Five ways to turn your subscription into a membership in a few minutes
It doesn't have to be hard to make your subscribers feel like VIP members. Here are some quick tips you can implement today that will make your subscription program convert and retain better.
Written by
Emily Yuhas
Subscribers are more likely to retain if they feel like they’re getting more from their subscription than just a refill. These are often your most loyal customers, and it’s not lost on them when they’re not treated that way.
With the holidays coming up, the idea of turning your subscription into something that makes your loyal customers feel like true members can be daunting, but - fear not - there are things you can do in a matter of minutes that will give you meaningful benefits to communicate, without creating complex operations for your team.
At Awtomic, we’ve built a lot of features that enable membership type perks and experiences for any kind of subscription. If you read this and want to talk through your subscription or membership programs, shoot me an email at emily@awtomic.com.
Five quick tips
- Offer free gifts or discounts after key retention moments
Give subscribers something to look forward to! Sometimes this can be even better than an ongoing subscription discount. If you have little pieces of swag, give them to subscribers after orders where you often see churn. Have product that’s at risk of expiring? Give it to subscribers as a free gift! Disperse discounts so they get bigger ones every few orders. Better yet, offer an additional, ongoing discount after they’ve been a subscriber for a certain amount of time. If you communicate, display and reinforce these incentives they will incentivize customers to stay subscribed for the long run.
- Give subscribers early access to new products
Even if you don’t have a new product in the works, this is an easy benefit to list for your subscribers and to follow through on. Simply enable customers to add it via their subscription portal a few days before you enable it for purchase on your site. You can hype it up leading to the product launch and make sure subscribers feel the exclusivity that they’ve earned as your most loyal customers.
- Enable discounts on non-subscription items for subscribers
Do you sell merch? Hardware? Items that don’t make sense as a subscription? Give your subscribers discounts on these items as a perk. Even a small discount can feel like a huge benefit unlocked if it applies to more products.
- Let subscribers participate in voting on new products
You can create a Google Form in a few minutes and email it to subscribers asking them to vote on the next flavor, color, scent or product. This is a great way to not only get their input, but hype up products that you may already be in the planning process. Want to take it to the next level? Let the customers who voted for it know they “won” and give them a sample. Their feeling of engagement and loyalty will skyrocket.
- Create habit-building follow up communications
Sometimes people have too much product because they’re getting it too often, but sometimes it’s because they’re not using it enough. Help them build habits around your product and mission by reinforcing the behavior through follow up “coaching” and communication. This can be as simple as regular reminders and reinforcements of the benefits to your subscribers. They’ve bought into the goal of using your product, so a benefit of being a subscriber can be “coaching” or “tips” for usage that keep them engaged.
Ready to go?
The best part of all of these benefits is that it should only take a few minutes to set them up, and you can add them as perks to your subscription program right away! Change a few settings and then update your subscription benefits to say something like:
Subscribers are our VIPs!
- Receive gifts and discounts after future orders
- Get early access to new products
- Exclusive discounts across the store
- Vote on our next flavor/color/scent/product
- Coaching and follow ups to help you build a healthy habit!
If this isn’t easy with your platform, we’d love to help you transition to unlock these capabilities and more that will improve your retention and LTV! Email me at emily@awtomic.com to talk retention strategy.
Excited to connect and learn more about your brand and story!
