Drive up Lifetime Value with more subscriptions

How to make your website convert more subscribers

Hi there,

The DTC dream: most of your customers are on subscription. Well, profitable growth is the DTC dream, and subscription is definitely a key part of making that dream a reality. It helps make monthly revenue more reliable and drives up your Lifetime Value (LTV).

But it is hard to convince a new customer to subscribe. So I wanted to share a few key parts to increasing the percentage of your customers on subscription.

Note: I’m assuming here you’ve got your core product offering right first: that people love and value your product. Without that, subscription is just a plaster on a leaky bucket.

1. Get the discount right

Too low (e.g. 10% cheaper) and customers might not be willing to lose that freedom for a small discount. Too high (e.g. 50%) and it results in high churn (as people might subscribe just to use the discount once and cancel) and a lack of trust in your pricing structure (as it devalues your product). I find the sweet spot for most brands is between 15% - 25% off on the subscription vs One Time Pricing.

Fussy deodorant subscription offer

2. Have an interesting welcome offer to subscribe

A welcome / starter kit is a great way to make subscription extra interesting. I tend to prefer this to extra discounts as I find the cancellation rate is lower afterwards vs excessively discounting the first order.

Dirtea starter kit when subscribing

3. Sell the benefits of subscribing 

Subscription is a product in itself, don’t forget to sell the value of the subscription as well as the value of the product. Definitely have a separate page to explain subscriptions and highlight in more depth why to subscribe there.

Harringtons dog food’s subscription page

I would also suggest having it on various parts of your website vs just the subscription / product page. For example a block on your homepage and in your product menu / category page:

Grind Coffee highlighting subscription discount in their menu

4. Build trust in flexibility and setup

You want to make sure it is super clear they are in control, that they’ll save on every order and are able to cancel / adjust at any point.

MatchaBar clarity on their product page about managing your subscription.

The product block is a key place to do this but don’t stop there. Also build it into your FAQs, I’ve seen brands even add videos or screenshots to build further trust of the ease to manage and adjust your account.

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Recommendation

We’ve focused here more on your website, but email is also a key part of this puzzle. I found this interesting article with inspiration around where you can highlight subscriptions in various email flows to increase uptake.

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It is harder to convert people to subscriptions but well worth the effort. Have a critical look at your website and setup to see where you are missing opportunities. 

Want a second pair of eyes? Feel free to hit reply and I’m happy to take a quick look and send over some suggestions,

Daphne