Subscriptions are everywhere. From Netflix to Amazon Prime, big businesses are discovering the power of the subscription model, and customers are finding joy in constant and simplified access to the content and products they need the most. Who's missing from this equation? The little guys. But subscriptions can be ideal for small business owners and individual entrepreneurs, helping them create sustainable growth with recurring revenue and build deeper, more meaningful relationships to their customers. It just takes some work, and a little creativity, to get there— which is exactly what Subkit is here to help you with. This short guide will help you, as a small business owner or solo entrepreneur, think about how you can build and launch a subscription plan that works for you.
Ready? Let's dive in.
Your subscription plan should be tightly focused around one key benefit. What is the thing you plan to offer to people? If you're a yoga teacher, it might be the yoga class. If you're a florist, it might be the floral arrangement. It's important to make sure that this —your headline benefit—is clear, specific, and singular. You'll build out this benefit with additional benefits (below) and more details, but for now, you just want to focus on what the one, primary thing you have to offer as a subscription is. This will help you focus your subscription plan around a clear and easily communicable value, which will help drive people to sign up.
In order to build a successful subscription, it's critical to identify your ideal subscriber. This is the best possible subscriber you could have. Somebody who is devoted to what you do, or can't live without something you have to offer. Imagine you're a coffee shop. Many people drink coffee, and most people like it. That's enough to drive a one-off transaction here and there.
Some people, though, are coffee lovers. They care deeply about where their coffee comes from, how it's roasted, and delight in discovering new types of beans. Coffee is a meaningful, emotional part of their daily lives, and they're willing to spend money regularly on discovering and consuming it.
Those are the customers who will buy a subscription. When building your own subscription, you want to identify the "coffee lovers" among your customers. What do they come to you for? What do you help them learn or do? How much money do they have to spend?
Once you've identified your subscribers, it's time to build out your subscription plan. Your subscription plan should appeal directly to the subscriber you identified above, and it should also be as simple and direct as possible. You want a potential subscriber to quickly grasp the benefit you're offering, and opt to subscribe.
Let's use an example to show you how this can work. Pretend you're a Spanish tutor offering ongoing language training. What you're offering are "language classes." But are they for beginners or for more advanced students? That's important for any potential subscriber to know, so they can understand quickly if this subscription is the right fit for them.
In this example, we'll decide that your ideal subscriber is a beginner, because they have more to learn, and will gain more value from a subscription over time. What outcomes can that beginner expect from taking your classes? Well, they can expect to gain conversational fluency and talk easily to Spanish with friends or when traveling, in addition to learning the nuances of Spanish culture that will help them communicate in a continually contemporary fashion.
With all that in mind, the final subscription plan might be described like this:
Get started with Spanish. Go from 0-fluent with weekly classes that are perfect for beginners. You'll learn through conversational exchange and practical exercises, with 1-1 sessions covering everything from vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, and local Spanish culture—so that you can stay up-to-date, every day, on contemporary Spanish speaking.
You should also add additional benefits to your headline benefit, in order to build out the value of your plan. Your additional benefits should support and complement your headline benefit. They're things like community meet-ups with other subscribers, "how to" video content, special classes, or additional products. These things will help provide lifetime value to your potential subscriber, and drive retention. Come up with 2 or 3 of them, but no more than that. Too many retention benefits will run the risk of confusing and overwhelming the potential subscriber.
How you describe yourself to potential subscribers can be just as important as how you describe your subscription plan. You'll want to make the case for who you are, and why you're the right person to make good on what you're offering. For example, if you're the Spanish teacher above, what qualifies you to be the right and most relevant Spanish teacher for your ideal subscriber? What about your angle or approach to teaching a language is perfect for them?
You want your pitch to be as brief as possible and highly specific. You don't just have "two decades of experience." You have two decades of experience ...where? And with whom? Have you ever received any credentials or awards? If you mention critical acclaim, from where and by whom? Make sure to use any names or names of institutions or newspapers that people might recognize. Think of it like sharing your resume, in the same way you would for a job you want. (Except, in this case, your potential customer is "the boss"!)