Top 5 Ways to Increase Subscriber Engagement
Subscriber engagement is the ongoing, long-term interactions between a subscriber and a business beyond one-time or recurring transactions. The subscriber receives meaningful information and value to build trust and a relationship. The goal here is to increase your average subscriber lifetime because we know it can cost over four times to gain a new subscriber than to retain an existing one.
By increasing your subscriber engagement, you go beyond the box or product and provide greater value where your subscribers can connect with your subscription on a deeper level.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for a business, but we have the top five ways to increase your subscriber engagement below.
Text Messages
We can’t overlook that text messages have a 98% open rate, and we need to be utilizing text messages to communicate to subscribers. They are a quick way to deliver a message and usually read within three minutes. Offer your subscriber the ability to connect via text messages with discount codes, order, and shipping updates. Knowing exactly when your product has shipped and when it is expected to arrive builds trust. The statistics don’t lie; 50% of consumers want to receive promotions or sales via text messages. You can even customize the text messages to have the subscriber’s first name.
Emails
Emails are a great way to connect and offer monthly newsletters or even tips on your products. Get creative when subscribers find value in the products; they are more likely to continue to purchase. Having a monthly email with an in-depth description of the products or different ways you can use or style the products helps the member see a greater use for their subscription. A quiz after they receive the box ensures the subscriber’s satisfaction or what they like or didn’t like. Take that information and see if you can offer more personalized options for your subscriber tailored to what they want.
Social Media
Having a social media presence is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to engage your subscribers. Keep posting! The less you post, the less your subscriber sees and remembers you. Don’t forget to share stories on Facebook and Instagram, offer quizzes or questions to get to know your following. If you have a book subscription box, allow a hashtag or a comment section for your subscribers to connect about the subscription. Encourage your subscribers to post photos of them with their box and engage with the products. If you offer a cooking subscription box, encourage subscribers to share pictures of the meals they made. Another great way to build a community is to create a Facebook chat group for your subscribers to share and connect with each other.
Phone Calls
Making hundreds or, let’s say, thousands of personal phone calls is just not possible unless you have a system that allows you to record your message in your own voice or someone else’s to ensure your heartfelt message is received by your subscriber. Record a message to wish someone a Happy Holiday and thank them for their business and support. You can also have an option to connect a subscriber to a live customer service representative. Some phone services even have the opportunity to press 1 to make a payment.
Payments
You can offer the most amazing subscription or products with the best customer service. Still, if your billing isn’t intelligent or easy to use at renewal, you’re going to lose subscribers. Credit cards are subject to failure. Don’t lose a single subscriber due to a payment issue. The most straightforward takeaway is to have an intelligent merchant processor that proactively checks for updates on lost, stolen, and expired cards, as well as a recovery suite to retry cards that have failed.
You can’t keep everybody! Realize that. Learn from it. Utilize it.
If a subscriber truly wants to cancel their subscription, an exit survey MUST be completed. This gives your business the chance to learn from each lost subscriber, and it may allow you to fix it and retain that subscriber as well. Sometimes the reason they are leaving can be resolved, and you can save that subscriber. When renewal is up, offer discounted rates for your active or long-term subscribers. Overall these tips are sure to increase your subscriber engagement.
