Dose #26: Top 3 Things to Test on Subscriptions
Matthew Holman
Fractional Subscription Leader | Weekly Subscription Tips --> Newsletter + Podcast | Commerce Catalyst Community | Partnerships @QPilot
Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription ??
Dose #26: Top 3 Things to Test on Subscriptions
This week's prescription is all about testing to find opportunities to scale.
There are 3 things you must be testing when it comes to subscriptions:
Let’s dive in!
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First is the offer. This is when people hit a product page and consider whether or not they will buy a subscription.
You can test a lot of things on this page, and the most basic comes down to the initial discount. You’ll need some Google Analytics setup to track purchases and page views to have a good baseline, but the idea is to test if you can incentivize visitors to go with the subscription option with a different discount.
Test smaller or bigger discounts. Run a sale. Track conversions.
Over time, pay attention to the two different cohorts and see how they churn. Can you drive greater long-term profitability with a discount? This means you converted more people, and while they didn’t pay quite as much or maybe last as long, the overall numbers support that.
Other things to test on the offer include: messaging on the product page, presenting the subscription option as the default, or additional offers like free shipping on all subscription orders.
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The second thing you need to test are upsells.
Subscribers are typically your most loyal customers. Can you make them more profitable by offering other products?
You can do this with typical marketing offers, like email or text, but since they are already getting a box of something from you… give them a free sample! Put a physical card and coupon in the box to try something new! Make that unboxing experience powerful—and include an upsell.
This is a cost-effective way to find out if you can capture more value from subscribers.?
Have you tried it yet?
The final thing to test is your most common churn point.
While you may know the average lifecycle of a subscription, that number is offset by those that cancel in the first month or stick around for a very long time.
What months include the biggest drop-off points? Month 3? 4??
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You can get into this with a frequency distribution (see an old dose explaining that here).
Some software makes it easy to see this by looking at cohorts.
Basically, this is a month-by-month view of subscribers to see where they drop off the most.
When you identify that, add something to your workflow so that before Month 3 (for example), you tell them they have a special offer on the way.
You can make this a gift, sample product, or additional discount.
It can be a bit frustrating to test, as churn takes months for effects to work through the system. Still, it’s something that you should be testing to see if you can influence it positively.
Don’t want to give away the farm to save a handful of subscribers?
Then invest more in your value position and messaging to remind them why they subscribed.?
That’s it for this week’s dose on what you should be testing. With testing, you can find out where you can keep scaling your subscription program. If you have any questions, just hit reply and ask away.?
If this dose helped, please forward it to a friend, and stay tuned for Dose #27 next Tuesday!
- Matt Holman ??
Head of Growth, QPilot
Free Resources:
Launch Best Practices: Checklist on what to consider when launching a subscribe and save program.
33 Subscription Tips: A list of ways you can incrementally improve your subscription machine.
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