Have you ever wanted to run a successful subscription business? Generate recurring revenue? Or you already have a successful store, but you are looking to expand?
Subscription services are the ideal solution.
They offer additional bonuses, provide a more personalised customer relationship, generate passive income and so much more. They are so effective that over 78% of adults currently have a subscription in a trend that has seen these services grow up to 437%.
Best of all – they are for every business! Whether you are big or small, or your products are physical or digital, you can run a successful subscription business easily.
Why Run A Subscription Business?
Ideas To Run A Successful Subscription Business
How Can You Set Up A Successful Subscription Service?
Why Run A Subscription Business?
Because everybody wins. Your business and your customers both walk away with a feeling of satisfaction every single month.
A balanced blend of convenience and discount sees that both parties are satisfied, which creates an ideal business arrangement that continues into the long term!
Reliable Revenue
Forecasting your figures is tough, especially for small businesses. When you run a successful subscription service you can manage your books with greater oversight.
Obviously it is possible that a minority of subscriptions will be canceled. However the majority of the time, you have a clearer picture of how much income you receive every single month. You can worry less about the financial ups and downs that come with your business seasons.
This means you can focus your financial decisions with your subscription data in mind and budget accordingly. Maybe you need to retain more money in cash for supplies? A brand new range of products in your library?
Whatever your trick, a successful subscription service will not let you down.
Passive Income
You can be picky and insist that passive income is not possible for many businesses – and you could be partly right. But for a large majority of businesses, passive income is not only completely feasible – it is a lucrative way to grow your business.
Any products that are digital including music, eBooks or artwork are capable of passive income. Once you create the work ahead of time any new subscriptions that are added can be incorporated into your subscription plan.
Of course you still have to create your work, increase marketing efforts, and improve your customer service. But those are all jobs that you would have to do anyway. When you run a successful subscription service you can generate this passive income in a much easier manner than a more traditional format.
Increase Your Return On Investment
Every business is concerned with return on investment (ROI) to an almost obsessive level. At the end of the day, you have to be! Indeed, companies are so obsessed with ROI because landing a new customer is five times more expensive than selling to an existing one. That can be an enormous amount of money lost simply to gain a one-time customer.
The good news is that subscriptions services have a much greater ROI than click-and-purchase business models. In fact, there is no upper limit as long as your customers remain satisfied!
Let’s take an example. Your marketing efforts mean that it costs $10 to acquire a new customer. If they make a single purchase and you only make a profit of $5 on the sale – you have lost money!
But if you run a successful subscription service – your ROI breaks even fairly quickly. With every passing month you now have an overall profit on acquiring that customer. Now multiply these solid profits over thousands or even millions of customers.
It is a fairly effective business strategy – especially when you upsell to your existing customers on a regular basis!
Customer Relationship Bonus
You can connect with customers to a much greater degree via a subscription service. One-time sales are great (and hopefully develop to a full subscriber) but they offer little in the way of customer connection.
WIth a long-term recurring subscription, you can gather real data on your customers. Their preferences, shopping patterns and other personal information. When you offer consistent high-quality service, professional products and the occasional birthday discount and other marketing schemes, you promote loyalty to your brand!
It is also easier than ever before thanks to automation!
Ideas To Run A Successful Subscription Business
“But SuperDisty” you cry out “My business would never work as a subscription service!”
Well you would be surprised.
The sheer numbers of individuals engaging in subscription services clearly shows that there is an enormous demand for this type of business model. It is successful and convenient. You simply need to come up with a creative way of offering your products under a subscription plan.
So let’s go through some ideas, and we’ll see if your business could provide any of them.
The Essentials
Are they glamorous? Not necessarily. Is there a high demand? Absolutely.
Cat litter, dog food, contact lens cleaners, cosmetics, body washes, air filters, vitamins even coffee beans. These are items that people use every single day and that everyone has forgotten to buy at least once. Usually followed by an exasperated sigh after a long day and an unwilling trek to a store after a long day.
More customers than ever are subscribing to subscription services to maintain these supplies of items. It is convenient for them and profitable for you, so fill that niche!
Consumable Boxes
What comes to mind when you think of delivered meals? A microwaveable plastic tub covered in some plastic-looking cheese? That hasn’t been the case for years!
Subscription-based models now deliver food in several different ways. Some are more gourmet – you might be delivering a special variety of cheeses and a bottle of expensive wine every week for couples looking for an easy date night!
Others provide full ready-to-go meals for customers. This isn’t meals on wheels however, many are catering towards gym-goers and athletes. People who need rewarding pre-packaged meals but do not always have the time to prepare them themselves. Many gyms have started subscribing to these types of business simply to fill the needs of their clientele.
Lessons Or Services
One thing that you can thank Covid for is the way many people altered the way they learned and exercised. People became so adept at altering a living room into a classroom or a home gym in 30 seconds or less.
Even now, customers are still subscribing to educational services or training. The convenience of having in-depth lessons at their disposal fits into their busy schedules. So if you teach languages, offer pilates training or tutor at all – a subscription service can work perfectly for you.
Obviously you can still offer one-on-one bonus sessions, but if you keep a library of videos available for subscription customers you can generate a large amount of passive income easily.
Build-Your-Own
Most customers are satisfied with good business choices, but there are always some picky ones. How can you satisfy those prickly customers? Give them their own choice of course.
If you run a successful subscription business that allows customers to customise their regular subscriptions you are, quite literally, giving them what they want. Allow them to select their favourite types of chocolate, a different coloured t-shirt or make the choice between a hardback or paperback book.
Any type of business can be customised by customers. Whether you are in apparel, selling coffee bean varieties or creating homemade gifts – everything is possible!
Digital Content
We saved the most obvious for last, but digital content is incredibly effective in subscription-based services. You do not have to be Netflix or Spotify to run a successful subscription business, you can be anything.
Maybe you create design assets, templates or brushes for photoshop. Maybe you have a unique comic book style that you release on a monthly basis. Or perhaps you have knowledge about certain subjects and create guides, descriptions and blogs in a newsletter (unlike our free resources section!)
Any materials that can be delivered online can be used in a subscription-based model for business!
How Can You Set Up A Successful Subscription Service?
With eSuperStore, you can set this up quickly and easily.
It goes without saying that the core of eSuperStore is absolutely free – you can build your own personal online store at your leisure. It is flexible in its creativity and incredibly easy to set up! On a side note it also charges ZERO commission on every single sale that you make, meaning that what you earn, you keep!
However it also offers a subscription service option for customers. We even have a convenient guide to show you how to set it up! No matter your products or the size of your business, we believe that subscription-based models should be available to everyone. Your customers receive a better experience and so does your business – so sign up here:
Check out our eSuperStore today and start to run a successful subscription business. Earn passive income, develop long-term relationships with your customers and scale up quickly. If you need any other advice, feel free to contact a member of our team or check out our resources and guides section!