A Simple Subscription Model Business Example

There are A LOT of people who pay $30/month for LinkedIn Premium just so they can see who has viewed their profile.

These people don't do anything with the information, mind you. They're just willing to pay $30/month, forever, to see who clicked on their profile.

Curiosity killed the cat...and drains the wallet, apparently.

When I shared that LinkedIn example with one of my coaching clients, she realized that she'd signed up for a "special offer" (those are her words) and forgot to cancel when the free trial ended.

And that's how she ended up becoming an automatic, paying customer to LinkedIn, month after month.

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The Breakdown of a Successful Subscription Model Marketing Strategy

Step 1: Make An Attractive Offer

FREE is the most attractive offer you can make and a free trial of LinkedIn Premium is probably the offer that got my client to sign up.

And, as you can see, your "free" offers will pay you extremely well if you know how to properly execute them.

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Step 2: Make The Subscription Automatic

That means make it "opt out" vs "opt in" when the free trial is over.

So instead of asking "would you like to continue your subscription?" and requiring them to take an action when the trial period ends, you configure your subscription services to notify the customer that automatic monthly billing is about to begin and that they can opt out, if they choose.

And now you have a recurring revenue business.

Conclusion

That, my friend, is the power of subscriptions. It's money that comes in every month that, often, you don't have to do anything for.

Consumers have been trained to pay every month for things, whether they use them or not. That's why subscriptions are such big business...they can be centers of pure profit.

Ideally, your customers will use the services that they're paying you for, but you can't really control that.

You have to focus on what you can control and build a profitable business that generates recurring revenue by offering services that your ideal client will be interested in subscribing to.

You can even send an automated reminder email every month so there's no way your subscribers don't know that they're subscribed and being billed.

That's what I do because it allows you to implement subscriptions into your business with a clear conscience.

It's your job to provide the service. It's your customer's job to use it.

Additional Reading

• The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry