The business concept has been different from what it was a few years ago. Previously, you were set to achieve your financial targets by just opening a physical store. Nowadays, the competition has increased so much across every niche and industry. As a result, entrepreneurs have figured out different types of businesses to keep their revenue afloat. The subscription business is one of those types that have gained popularity in the last decade.
As time passes, the subscription business concept has gained more attraction within the online community. If you are lost and need to learn how to start a subscription business, you can think about the most popular platforms on the Internet, such as Netflix and Amazon. You pay monthly fees on both of these platforms to visualize their content. The content published on these platforms is worth every penny, which is why users subscribe to their offers simultaneously.
What is a Subscription Business?
As we have said previously, the best way of doing a subscription business is to sell a product or a service based on a recurring revenue stream. In other words, if you stop receiving money weekly or monthly, you revoke their product or service. Unlike purchasing a product and having complete authority over it, you must regularly pay to attain the rights of a particular product or service.
Image taken from Strikingly
If you need help understanding the subscription business model, you can relate it to the case of paying the monthly rent of your house or residence. You must pay for electricity and the Internet every month to access them in your home. The subscription business is like being a landlord of a place people rent from you.
Benefits of a Subscription Business Model
1) Predictable Revenue Streams
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Since you are a business owner, you can attain the subscription model benefits by looking after your revenue. As the subscription business model revolves around repeat sales, it is easier to predict your income at the end of each month. When you already know how much money you will earn, you will find it easy to make business decisions. The monthly revenue earned by your subscription business can be used to:
- Reinvest back into your company
- Improve your products and services
- Focus on developing other parts of your business
2) Increased Customer Lifetime Value
The customer lifetime value (CTV) is the total revenue you expect a customer to generate throughout your relationship with them. By providing quality customer service over an extended period, you can give them a user-friendly experience that makes them return to your website continuously. Once your customers feel they will continue to attain subscription business benefits, they will continue paying your fee.
Tips for Starting a Subscription Business Today
1) Conduct Market Research
Although the subscription business model has been excellent for many businesses worldwide, it may not suit you. Before you decide, consider doing market research to determine whether your business is compatible with attaining subscription business benefits.
You can research the products or services that your customers will need desperately. Moreover, you can decide on the capacity to provide a recurring subscription to a growing number of subscribers. If you identify any weak points, you must address them before moving to the next step.
2) Conduct Customer Research
Like market research, your customer research also has a lot of significance. Before starting a subscription business, you must know who you want to attract to your website. After getting all the required data, you can design your website and marketing campaigns accordingly. For example, your campaigns can be based on profession, age, gender, or habits. If you pay special attention to your target audience, there are higher chances of success in the long run.
3) Have an Effective Product Pricing Strategy
Your pricing strategy holds extreme importance when we talk about the subscription business. But first, you should do a market analysis to determine whether you want a fixed subscription price or offer any pricing incentives.
Let's start with a straightforward approach. Some business owners open their subscription business by just offering one option. Eventually, they add more levels to it as they get customer feedback and learn more about their preferences.
4) Establish a Seamless Sign-up Procedure
It is essential to include a straightforward sign-up procedure on your membership website. Hence, you will make your marketing more effective and help remove customer confusion. Since you are a business owner, the last thing you would want is to see your customers abandoning your cart before clicking on 'subscribe.'
Since you are the business owner, you must ensure that your billing system is established to accept and process recurring payments. Furthermore, you must have a user-friendly website design for subscribers. Finally, you have to make it easy for your subscribers to update their billing information or manage their subscriptions.
5) Scale With Infrastructure
To make a successful subscription business model, you must have an automated process that allows you to scale your business efficiently. Before launching your subscription service, you must integrate seamlessly with your eCommerce system, payment gateways, and fulfillment companies.
If you are offering a physical product, you can use innovative warehouse management software online that integrates with your eCommerce website. In addition, look at the bulk shipping service to streamline your business operations and lower costs.
If you are yet to build your eCommerce website, you can consider the most fabulous website builders worldwide. With the emergence of these website builders, you can create an exciting eCommerce website without spending a penny or having any technical skills related to programming or coding.
6) Provide Awesome Customer Service
You can only achieve your objectives by providing excellent customer service regardless of your business type. Customer service is one of the biggest reasons why customers return to your website (or not).
If you offer quality customer support, your customers trust your brand to make the right decisions. Customer service can also play a massive role in deciding whether or not they will renew a subscription to your platform. As a result, you will likely succeed and attain the subscription business benefits if you satisfy your customers.
Subscription Feature on Strikingly
Strikingly is a professional website-building platform used by various organizations and individuals worldwide. Our forum has gained much popularity in the past few years due to the updates in features and user base growth.
One of the best things about Strikingly is that it allows you to add membership to your website. When you build a website on our platform, you can authorize your users to register for it for free or for a certain fee. If you are building your website for the first time and are struggling to implement your ideas, you can look at the established Strikingly websites for further assistance.
Hence, you can run your entire online store based on the subscription business model through a website built on Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly
Another important thing about starting a subscription business on Strikingly is that you don't need to invest in unnecessary aspects. For example, we provide our users with a drag-and-drop feature so that they can build a website on their own. In addition, you don't need to invest in experienced web developers or programmers to do your job. Not only will it help you save money, but it will also save you from the headaches of dealing with a technical person.
Image taken from Strikingly
Since you are the website owner, you can add the subscription feature to your website by going through the following steps:
- Go to your Strikingly website editor and click on 'Audience.'
- Choose 'Membership.'
- Click on the green button saying 'Activate membership.'
- Select your preferred registration method. You can choose either the paid subscription method or the free subscription method. The third option can only be selected by the registered members who purchase a product from your website.
Image taken from Strikingly
Following these steps and activating the subscription business feature will make your website look like a pro. It will give you a competitive edge over other players in the same niche and help you increase your monthly revenues. In addition, the subscription feature will allow you to accept payments from your users every month.
We ensure to provide a smooth experience of running a professionally built site. Once you can make your online business thrive, your objectives will be fulfilled. We provide our users with easy-to-use tools that help them achieve peace of mind.
Conclusion
With creativity and a quality business plan, you will understand how to start a subscription business. The subscription business effectively grows your business and achieves an online presence in the digital industry.
Once you have landed on Strikingly, you can begin by registering yourself as a free plan user. By becoming a user of our platform, you will familiarize yourself with the platform. As you grow your business and update your content, you can upgrade to our subscription plans to get more advanced features. Advanced website features will help you to increase your sales revenue more efficiently. You can shift your focus to more expansion strategies for the ultimate success of your business.
