Subscription-based content, products, and services are very popular these days. Thanks to digital technology and mobile communications, the time spent by people on the Internet has become greater than ever, and as such, the opportunity for businesses to transact with millions of potential customers has also grown tremendously.
However, making a subscription-based business successful is not as easy as one may think it is. The basic goal of retaining subscribers sounds easy enough, but in reality, there are many factors that can contribute to the contrary. Fortunately, tech-based solutions such as advanced recurring billing platforms offer a viable solution for addressing the primary challenge of keeping subscribers active and listed.
Automated subscription billing software helps ensure that subscribers are charged regularly and on-time, and in case that their enrolled credit card details expire or change, extra steps are taken in order to rectify the situation and avoid losing them unintentionally. Studies have shown that many subscription-based businesses lose subscribers inadvertently through expired payment details and other types of failed payment transactions. Subscription billing software gave been shown to help address these effectively and efficiently.
Efforts shouldn’t stop there, though. There is more to growing a digital content enterprise than just setting up an automated billing system. Here are some basic tips on what business owners need to be mindful of in terms of improving and expanding their subscription-based business:
- Make things easy for customers as much as possible. The goal is to onboard subscribers fast and painlessly. The subscription program should be transparent, simple, and easy to understand. The fewer steps and less complicated instructions a customer has to go through, the better. It is a good idea to give a free trial for the product or service for a month, requiring credit or debit card information from the get-go. Why? This makes the transition to paid monthly subscription seamless. If the customer enjoys the experience, he or she will not mind to continue receiving it even at a price.
- However, if a customer leaves, don’t panic. Instinctively, subscription-based companies will target to grow its subscriber base by leaps and bounds. However, this is not always an accurate or correct measure of success and profitability. Some companies may even resort to tactics such as making it extremely difficult to cancel a subscription, or to trap customers with complicated fine print and other terms. This is risky because subscribers can always turn to social media and the Internet to complain, thus turning off even more potential new customers. Experts advise that it is not important to retain all customers, but only the right and the best ones. This leads to the next insight, which is related to the cost of retaining existing customers versus signing up new ones.
- It is better to focus on maintaining existing loyal customers. Not many businesses realize that seeking to address churn or customer attrition simply by signing up new users may not always be the best strategy. Sometimes, the cost of marketing tactics and promotions, as well as operations and administration in managing new subscribers, is also prohibitive. Instead, why not mine big data provided by automated subscription billing software and get valuable insights into how existing consumers think and behave? This can provide more effective toward retaining customers, because it can help you come up with more attractive or workable subscription payment schemes. Other related products and services can also be suggested to them to increase profitability through other sales channels.
This is why it is important for the right automated subscription billing software to be put into place. You want one that is designed well and customized towards achieving the specific needs and goals of a digital enterprise. With the many vendors offering such services in the market today, business owners need to be discerning and should take the time to really know the kind of functionalities they need from a subscription billing system.
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