Five proven ways to increase subscription loyalty for scale

How do you earn loyalty? And how can loyalty lead to exponential growth and scalability? By analysing the habits of more than 50 million subscribers on the Recurly subscription management and billing platform, we’ve isolated five takeaways to increase subscription loyalty for scale.

Neutralise involuntary churn

While we work tirelessly to avoid voluntary churn by diversifying offerings or optimising the subscriber experience, involuntary churn because of failed payments can prematurely end a subscriber-business relationship. With more than 2,000 reasons why a payment can be declined – from card expiry to gateway failure to insufficient funds – subscription brands need to stay proactive with their payment management efforts.

Decline management techniques, such as the ability to automatically and dynamically retry failed payments based on unique subscriber and payment data – payment type, decline reason, subscription plan and so on – work in the background to minimise and recover failed transactions while preventing them from failing in the first place. In fact, Recurly has helped its customers recover nearly $800 million in revenue in 2021 alone. Furthermore, smart dunning campaigns – the process of communicating with customers (usually via email) to arrange for the collection of overdue payments, the core of collections – mitigate subscriber churn by automating subscriber notifications for card updates.

Be flexible with promotions and pricing

A recent survey by Recurly found that inflation concerns are hitting 87 per cent of subscribers in Europe, so subscription brands need to nail their offerings. Price increase is the primary reason for cancellations, but that doesn’t mean it’s a given.

If a subscriptions business needs to increase prices due to inflationary pressure, a great way to go about this is to test pricing plans and personalised promotions. A study by Deloitte, confirmed by more recent consumer research, found that 71 per cent of consumers who customised a product stated they would be prepared to pay a premium. Bespoke offerings and unique content are key ways to both acquire and retain subscribers. Customising offers and the consumer experience based on the subscriber profile or local market, from free trials and gift cards to promotions and a variety of billing models, are ideal ways to deliver value to support price increases and propel loyalty. 

Localise, localise, localise

International businesses understand the headache of having consumers from all corners of the world. From tax and compliance regulations to payment methods, the considerations are endless but essential. However, one of the most important elements to consider when scaling a business is content – especially exclusive content. But content is only as relevant as it is understood, so its localisation is key for global audiences.

When thinking about global expansion, a business should be able to charge in the currency and communicate in the language local to subscribers, no matter where they are in the world. And with a growing list of payment options to account for, having the gateway flexibility to extend choice to your customers is imperative. In Europe, 50 per cent of subscribers prefer to pay via PayPal and/or Wise, followed by credit cards (45 per cent) and ACH or recurring checking account withdrawal (29 per cent).

Going beyond in-home subscriptions

As pandemic restrictions fade, consumers in Europe are eager to spend their time and money on in-person activities such as dining, domestic and international travel, and entertainment and events. It’s more important than ever to create an omnichannel subscriber experience that caters to these returning desires.

Traditionally, the subscriber journey starts at the first point of contact with a brand and ends when a consumer cancels their subscription. But now that journey has evolved into a web of experiences. Start by improving quick touchpoints such as upgrades, add-ons and gift options – these are easy ways to enhance the experience. Then ramp up your efforts with digital and in-person events, partnerships, opportunities for social good and much more. In doing so, you’re creating a holistic brand and subscriber experience that presents value in novel and diverse ways.

Optimise all touchpoints – even goodbyes

The renewal and cancellation experiences are some of the most invaluable learning opportunities for brands. More than half – 54 per cent – of those surveyed cited the ease of signing up, changing or cancelling a subscription as one of the top reasons that drive subscription signups, so make these experiences frictionless. However, many subscribers just want a brief halt in their services, and enabling the pause feature places control back in their hands and defers cancellation. While enabling a pause may freeze the subscription temporarily, it continues the consumer relationship and maintains engagement. Renewals and cancellations – no matter the outcome – are an ideal time to ask for feedback and improve. After all, the best subscriber experiences incorporate real feedback from real customers.

Retention and the customer experience go hand in hand, and at the core of any successful business is a satisfied customer. To establish loyalty is to create a subscriber experience that understands consumer needs from all angles, from signup to cancellation, payments to promotions, and localisation to brand perception.