Dose #80: Ideal Customer Journey for Subscriptions

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription 💊

This week’s dose is all about the ideal journey for subscription customers. We will cover how you can build a mission-driven brand, then dive into each touchpoint one by one, and end with some final takeaways for quick wins.

Reading too much already? This week’s dose is also on our podcast:

This week’s podcast dose dives deep into the same topic, in case you prefer to hear me ramble on about this topic instead of reading it. :)

This week’s dose is inspired by an Eli Weiss newsletter issue on customer experience. My goal in writing this is to give you an overarching view of the subscription journey, with my thoughts on how you can improve the health of your program.

Each touchpoint is an opportunity to not only lose a customer but also find ways to sell more and give them more so they never leave.

What Makes a Subscription Journey Different

Aside from the obvious (recurring aspect), subscriptions are different. They are a commitment, and how you sell them is different, too.

Consider a typical website experience for one-time products. A customer hits your product page, sees a great deal, and purchases. Frictionless.

Subscriptions work a bit differently. This commitment often requires more thought, initial purchases to try you out, or a powerful offer to get someone to convert.

You can improve on that and even sell to people who haven’t purchased from you by creating a more engaged subscription experience. Subscriptions should be sold alongside an outcome, and here are some common examples:

• Pet food: a happier, healthier pet

• CBD: more focus, better sleep, pain-free

• Supplements: run faster, get more nutrients, work-out

• Food: convenience, taste

• Beauty: cleaner skin, confidence, that wow factor

No matter what you sell, there’s most likely a great outcome in store for your subscribers!

This is part of your mission; customers need to understand that when interacting with your brand. Lean into that mission and message on ads, on product pages, and throughout the subscription experience. The sooner you start showing what life is like with a subscription to your product, the more excited they will be by the potential subscription.

Touchpoint #1: Ads

This is how most people - aside from referrals or influencers - will first hear about and interact with your brand. I’m not an ad expert, but the goal here is to start introducing the idea of what long-term usage looks like.

Ads should introduce the idea of a subscription indirectly (unless the only way to buy is to subscribe) through outcome-based language. “Clearer skin in 30 days, and after 6 months I look 10 years younger!”

Touchpoint #2: Website

One of the best ways to unlock higher LTV from subscribers - and keep them subscribed longer - happens during the buying process.

Since subscriptions are naturally a higher commitment, you can ask for more up-front. Through quizzes or build-a-bundle experiences, potential subscribers are willing to go through a bit more to ensure that what they’re buying is right for them.

This type of engagement is a win-win. They give more and stay subscribed longer. You learn more about what they want and can deliver more value.

Not every brand is a fit for the bundle or quiz, but these options are worth investigating for your site. See how Dr. Squatch delivers a unique build-a-bundle experience (with upsells) to new subscribers as an example.

Key product page design elements include overcoming subscription examples (cancel, pause, skip at any time), outcome or benefit-based copy describing the product (again, with benefits of long-term usage), and positioning the value of a subscription.

This value can be offers like free shipping or a gift, but also includes demonstrating savings.

Touchpoint #3: Checkout + Post-Purchase

Upsells are a common ecommerce practice, and subscriptions should do the same. Either as part of the add-to-cart fly-out, lower on the product page, or at post-purchase, you should test either one-time or subscription products.

The most important thing you can start doing for your subscription program starts at this point too: post-purchase surveys.

These are a veritable gold mine of content you can use on ads or the product page. You can also gain insights into what is compelling people to subscribe (or not). You can also learn more about new customer expectations in case this doesn’t align with what you’re delivering.

Touchpoint #4: Welcome Emails

Everyone wants to know when their order ships and when it will arrive. For subscriptions, you should send a few emails onboarding people to the program. The first email should outline the original value + offer (ie, “Congrats on the next step of your journey to better sleep!”) and explain how customers can see upcoming orders or manage their subscriptions.

Touchpoint #5: Initial Shipment / Unboxing

After the purchase itself, unboxing that first shipment is going to be the highest point of engagement for any brand. Customers are excited, so lean into that! Make the first shipment special, even if that’s just an insert explaining how things work.

Future shipments can include gifts, upsells, and UGC inserts. Even special stickers on the box to let someone know their subscription has arrived can work.

Touchpoint #6: Order Notifications

Most subscription apps have a default template for this. Not sure how good they look (happy to give my two cents if you want to send me a screenshot) but you should do a few things on these emails:

1. Do not mention the word cancel at any time

2. Double down on the value prop (“Better Sleep is on the way!”)

3. Tell subscribers that if they need to make any changes, they can do so here (link to portal).

Remind them what they’re getting and show them where they can make changes. Don’t suggest canceling!

Touchpoint #7: Subscription Portal

I’m sure we could go deep into all the different permutations you could test on a portal, but let’s look at it this way:

Subscribers are only hitting the portal to check on an order or make changes. This means that they should be able to see the upcoming order date easily, and find a skip/swap/cancel button easily too.

This is another opportunity for engagement, so if you have special offers going or upsells you can make, do them here too!

Touchpoint #8: Cancellations

Cancellations are hard to swallow, but you can treat them as another opportunity to reinforce brand mission and customer experience. It’s ok to ask 1-2 questions about why someone is canceling and make an offer to keep them.

For example, if someone selects “Too Much Product” as their reason to cancel, you can suggest a skip instead. Or if the price is too high, give them 50% off their next order.

Keep it simple and straightforward. No one likes a million hurdles to ending a subscription.

Touchpoint #9: Newsletters + Social Media + Community

Depending on your brand, you may have a newsletter and social media campaigns going too. These are fun opportunities to remind subscribers about what you’re all about!

If subscribers get special deals, you can mention them in these channels for anyone sitting on the fence. You can also reinforce outcomes. For example, if you’re selling a CBD-based pain reliever, then social posts about people hiking or moving around pain-free are a great opportunity.

Tie content back into what speaks to your best customers - those subscribers.

You can also look at creating events or engaging experiences. A brand I love in Utah, Mixhers, does this across the country for their best customers. They rented out movie theaters when Barbie came out.

Where to Start Making Improvements

The secret sauce in any thriving subscription program includes raving fans, a great offer, and feedback. So, while there are a million things you could do, here’s where I would start making improvements:

1. Implement a post-purchase tool to learn more about why people are buying

2. Improve the unboxing experience

3. Punch up those emails a bit with more on-brand copy

4. Implement cancellation surveys with offers

5. Find ways to make your offer more compelling and interesting 

That’s it for this week’s dose! Cutting through the noise and making a subscription memorable takes a lot of work, so I hope this helps you craft a better subscription experience.

Stay tuned for Dose #81 next Tuesday!

- Matt Holman 🩺

The Subscription Doc