By: Elizabeth Coffey, Marketing G2 Digital Marketing Specialist

More and more businesses are turning to the subscription model to make money in this ever-increasing digital economy, especially those companies within the publishing industry. If you’ve been contemplating growing your subscription business but are unsure as to how to go about it successfully, it is important to remember that all subscription companies share one, common objective: creating a high-value experience for their subscribers.

To get started, you’ll want to focus on the fundamentals of any successful subscription business – building a thriving community, establishing value, creating discovery opportunities, and having amazing customer service and integrity.

1. Building a thriving community – Cultivate a community of enthusiasts around your brand that are willing to share their experience with others. Your community must be a trusted group of peers that can authenticate your product, provide you with needed feedback, and help establish a sense of belonging around your brand. Your community is the lifeblood of your subscription business and great care must be taken to create, nurture, and grow it from the very beginning if you wish to be successful.


2. Establishing value – In order to start a successful subscription business, you must answer the following question, “Why would people agree to a recurring payment for my product or service?” Your subscribers need to get more perceived value from your product or service than the value of the money that they’re trading in exchange.


3. Creating opportunities for discovery – How are you helping your subscribers come across new products, services, or in the case of publishers, content and information? You're not doing your customers any favors if they aren’t aware of what you’re offering. Create a discovery experience for your customers that is fun, helpful, informative, or all three.


4. Having amazing customer service - It may be easier and far cheaper to outsource your customer service experience or to only offer e-mail support, but the value of having a real person, empowered to help you there on the other end of the phone, cannot be overstated. Every customer and every situation is unique and deserves to be treated that way. Also, having a dedicated, well-trained customer service team gives you the opportunity to collect valuable feedback from your subscribers that you can use to make your product or service better.


5. Having integrity - You must be committed to quality and your customer’s experience at every touchpoint throughout the customer journey if you want to be a successful subscription business. MG2 ConneXt gives you the opportunity to communicate with your customers every step of the way.

What reasons do you have for starting a subscription business?