Some of your customers will want one of your products, and others will want more. But how many will buy the first and never return, and how can you generate continuous revenue through subscription products from those target consumers?
We’ve written in the past about how The American Ceramic Society is converting single video buyers into all-access club members, and today we’ll show you another example—this time, in the financial niche.
When looking to increasing subscribers by building a membership product that spans multiple products, one of your most important duties is to write copy that appeals to someone who appreciates the zen of getting it all. This consumer isn’t the type who is only interested in one product, which is why this revenue strategy works particularly well with special-interest publications.
Plus, we know direct-marketing guru Dick Benson’s rule that memberships renew better than subscriptions by 10% or more is still true.
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Become a member and get all 11 for “free”
For example, our publishing partner Cabot Wealth Network appeals to investors of all kinds. Most investors know that in order to make money in the market, you need to diversify your portfolio. So someone who subscribes to their Cabot Growth Investor may also be interested in Cabot Dividend Investor, and surely they’re interested in their Cabot Stock of the Week.
So for this type of investor, they offer Cabot Prime, an all-for-one priced product that includes 11 of their premium advisories. Each usually sells for anywhere from $297 to $997 each per year, but Cabot sells Cabot Prime for $297 per month. And to promote it, they tell their subscribers that they get all 11 advisories, plus their new Cabot Retirement Club, for “free” as a benefit of joining. They also receive a load of extras like special access to an exclusive annual Wealth Summit, a dedicated investor relations representative, and access to their editorial team to ask for recommendations.
Three ways to turn buyers into subscribers
Cabot has clearly learned how to turn single-product buyers into much more profitable subscribers. After all, Cabot’s advisories and services are digital, so it doesn’t cost more money to deliver additional investing newsletters to the subscriber. To succeed at this subscription strategy you need to offer three things: inclusivity, curation, and levels.
Inclusivity
You want to be able to tell the customer that they can sample all the products you have. In the print world, this would be cost-prohibitive, but online you can sell one newsletter or you can sell ten newsletters and they will offer you different profit levels but at the same cost to you.
This won’t work for every niche of course. If you’re in the mass health niche offering newsletters for heart health, mental health and foot health, you’ll have a tougher time getting customers that are cross-interested in all the above. But if you’re in the travel niche, you may have a better chance of turning a traveler who is interested in travel to Germany, into a traveler interested in travel to France, Italy, and Spain.
Curation
Many publishers we know who are using this strategy, including Cabot, will offer a personalized service as part of their membership. Cabot offers a promise to reply within 48 hours to any questions about recommendations and their current take on the market. As mentioned before, they also offer a personal dedicated investor relations representative available to subscribers every day the market is open.
Being connected with your customers in this way also offers you benefits as a business, where you get direct feedback and ideas from your customers. It can help guide your editorial and product development decisions in the future.
Levels
Offering different levels of access is just good business. For those who want one product, they can buy one product. For those who want multiple products, you can offer the whole shebang. And there’s still a third option, which is something Cabot offers called Cabot Prime Pro for $397 per month. For options-focused investors, Cabot Prime Pro includes everything from Prime, plus two options-focused advisories and two new advisories, the Cabot Turnaround Letter and Cabot Income Advisor.
Cabot is yet another story of the renaissance of periodical publishing if you know how to take advantage of the Internet. What many publishers think is destroying their business can actually empower massive expansion. The Internet becomes both the destroyer and the creator.
How do you sell all-for-one subscription products? Share your story below
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