People Are Getting Sick Of Subscriptions - These Expert Marketers Have The Cure

People are sick and tired of all their subscriptions. It's a shocker headline in WSJ.com that—together with data that shows cancellations have outpaced new subscriptions for two straight quarters—should have alarm bells ringing. Fortunately, marketers don't have to drive their businesses blind.?

Companies, including RevenueCat [State of Subscription Apps 2023 ] & Recurly [The 2023 State of Subscriptions Report ], have stepped up to share best practices and benchmarks that help marketers navigate this tricky terrain.?

And CleverTap is also working on a subscription data science report that delves into the channels, models and mindset essential for growth through retention. The report examines the engagement metrics and conversions across 3 verticals: Education, Health & Fitness and Media & Entertainment.?

Subscription Marketing Thought Grenades

CleverTap's internal data was an eye-opener—and I was delighted to host my last webinar on behalf of CleverTap with three seasoned and smart Marketing Divas ( Jillian Lee Stout , Chief Product Officer, Co-Founder, Mindful Mamas ; Stacy E. , Vice President, Marketing, Cardiogram ; and Vernesa ?utuk , CRM Marketing Specialist, Sleep Cycle ). I’m continuing the conversation with each of these amazing ladies & you’ll see podcasts and Forbes articles soon!?

We zeroed in on some of the more powerful thought grenades.?

Marketing matters: One-third of subscribers convert as the result of a campaign (and for Health & Fitness, the total is 42%).

Push delivers: Push captures the attention of 70% of users who engage for the first time with Health & Fitness apps. Deeper in the funnel, email makes some gains, but push continues to dominate. Meanwhile, in-app numbers may appear at the low end of the scale, but they are highly effective, converting users to subscribers within 15 minutes.

Patience pays: At under 30 minutes, the time it takes for new users to engage with Health & Fitness apps is lightning speed compared to other app categories. But turning engaged users into subscribers takes 3.5x longer than the other app verticals.

But the killer insight was the interplay between marketing personalization and revenue impact.?

CleverTap calls it the Personalization Ladder, and it's a future-proof framework well worth the climb.?

Messaging triggered by what you know about your users and what they do in-app is 2x more effective than basic segmentation (for example, demographics). And if you combine all the data you know about your users and their context (even better if it's real-time) to deliver hyper-personalized messaging campaigns, then the outcome is a 5x increase in conversion rates.

Top tips for moving users from free to fee

It was fun to talk shop and weigh in on the data. But I was blown away by the wealth of practical advice that showed doing the little things has the biggest impact.

#1 Social proof is powerful. At Mindful Mamas, it's all about helping moms & encouraging mom to share the problems she wants to solve and where she needs support. The app responds with answers - but it also displays stats about how well it has solved that specific problem for its members and what they think. Social proof is critical.?

Jillian walks me through a scenario where mom is looking for help sleeping and managing anxiety. "Just by asking that one question very specifically, and then telling them exactly how we can solve that or exactly what we have in the product, we are seeing 70% of the moms that come through the funnel are completing that & they're converting at a much higher rate directly into that free trial."

#2 Develop ways users can help themselves and others. It's all about coming up with new ways to show users how spending time in the app is a worthwhile investment that pays off for themselves or the wider community. Kudos to Stacy and Cardiogram for nailing the latter.?

To demonstrate value - and deepen engagement in the process - her team has launched "Projects." In practice, these projects create connection and result in a virtuous cycle. In this scenario, the app does one better than help users understand their data. It involves them in an effort that shows how it goes the extra mile to protect the health of its users. One project looked at ways to use heart rate data for early prediction of migraines. Interested users can fill out a survey & they can even push a button to log their migraine. They aren't clinical studies; users get involved because they want to help the community.

As Stacy puts it: "These projects have been just highly successful [and have] some of our highest engagement. People want to help, they want to share their data, and they want to help us find solutions for them. So, that's been amazing."

#3 Marketing is product. Communications in the app go a long way toward making your app habit-forming. But users have a lot of options & effective marketers use all the touchpoints to drive connection and conversion. The focus isn't only on the message: it's on figuring out which channel will reach the user.?

“Think of the campaign as more than an extension of the product. It is the product," she tells her team. All conversations across all channels have an impact, and it all shapes the experience. Push, text and email are all part of the product & that is part of the experience. "I don't think we should even be thinking about them as separate things."

No matter how many channels you use, it's essential to cultivate a two-way exchange.?

Just asking users why they have come to the app in the first place can boost conversions. Jillian tells me about a survey she is running that asks why mom is hiring her (that is, what jobs she wants the app to do). Even better, the app responds by showing how it can tackle the job. "I'm seeing 6% higher initial conversion just by asking them why they're there. And so, to me, that's the business case for personalization."

My take: Ask critical questions in context, show a simple social proof that underlines your app's ability to solve problems, or invite users to take actions that help others and have an impact bigger than themselves—these are all ways marketers can demonstrate value and convince users to commit.?

Empowerment, encouragement and empathy. The great thing about this flywheel is that it takes relatively little effort (and budget) to keep it spinning or make it turn faster.

?? I think you may have gathered by now that I am in awe of these webinar guests, Jillian, Stacy & Vernesa went above & beyond in keeping it real & sharing their immense knowledge. I highly recommend you tune in ???? webinar ????

?? CX is hot & I am really excited to have hosted this masterclass that counts down the top CX trends with Shubhayu Datta & Marc Marchal de Corny ?- and you can check it out here & watch for my analysis of the top tips, takeaways and cool stuff in the next newsletter .... until then I look forward to interacting with you online ?????