How to use a subscription service strategically for your product

It is no wonder that companies like Spotify, Netflix, HBO Go, and Amazon have adopted the subscription payment method. As you probably know, this model has been used by newspapers and magazines for years.

And for those who own a digital product, this model is also very effective and offers several advantages, both for the sellers and customers.

At Hotmart, there are more than 40 thousand subscription products registered and more than 2.5 million subscribers.

This article is meant to introduce you to the Hotmart subscription model and also to share some strategic tips. It’s worth checking if it fits your digital product and strategy. Let’s go?

What is a subscription service?

Simply put, the subscription service is a recurring payment model in which the customer pays a regular price for a period of time, which is charged automatically, to access a certain product or service.

If you are wondering how this model could be beneficial for your digital product at Hotmart, read on. 

5 reasons to use the subscription model

But first, I’ll tell you the top 5 reasons to use the subscription model in your business right now!

• Customer Loyalty

The first advantage of recurring payment is the possibility of retaining customers for a longer period of time. This means you’ll have more chances of showing the customer the benefits of your product, engage your customer base, and increase LTV *. In addition, afterwards, it is easier to offer other products for your current customers.

• Revenue Forecast

Recurrence is the model that will guarantee you a greater estimate of your revenue in the coming months, so you’ll be less likely to be affected by market fluctuations and seasonality. The biggest challenge here is to ensure that your customer has the best experience to continue renewing their subscription.

• Time optimization

Since charges will be made automatically by Hotmart, you’ll have nothing to worry about and can focus on producing new content or even new products!

• Attractive pricing

By using recurrent charges, customers won’t have to take on a one-time higher ticket payment. Subscription services tend to offer an appealing entry price.  

• Belonging

Collectivity is very well applied to subscription products. In addition to creating the feeling of belonging to a community, by knowing that more people have also chosen to buy that product, it gives the customer more confidence in the decision they made.

How can the Hotmart subscriptions service be strategic for your business and how can you set it up?

Reports, segmentation, plan changes, creation of different offers … You can count on tools that can automate day-to-day processes, in addition to bringing even more intelligence to your strategy.

In addition, the convenience for customers is huge, since the charge is made automatically on credit cards and other payment methods.

Discover the main benefits of this payment model on Hotmart:

Product evaluation period – Trial

Subscription products give buyers the opportunity to try the digital product they wish to purchase for a limited amount of time. Who wouldn’t want to try a product/service before deciding to go through with the purchase, right?

Allowing a buyer to try a product, when they’re still unsure if it meets their expectations, decreases the refund rate and can, consequently, increase the conversion rates of the product. You can offer a trial period with the following objectives:

• Capture leads: subscribing now or not, the trial is a great way to capture leads. After the trial, send an offer for another product (without trial) or keep the lead warm for an upcoming sale. And of course, study the rejection reasons to plan ways to overcome them.
• As a selling point: show that they will only pay for the product if it’s good, so you’re basically guaranteeing quality by offering a trial period.
• Interact with the buyer: use our tools to create moments of interaction. Show that you are there, by their side!
• Gain authority: let your customer get to know you. Prepare captivating content that leaves them wanting more. Don’t show where the prize is, just let them know you have it!
• Use it as after-sales: prepare an onboarding and welcome email after the Trial for those who signed up. Show that there’s much more ahead.

Sending automatic reports

The automatic subscription reports feature allows Producers to configure reports to be sent periodically automatically in order to have access to as much information as possible about their activities on the platform.

You can currently have access to the following reports:

• General Sales Report: shows the transactions that were created or updated in the selected period. This report provides information about the buyer, the name of the product, whether it is a subscription, and other information.
• Subscription Report: lists all subscriptions created and updated in the selected period. This report provides information about the subscriber, subscription code, subscription status, etc.
• Smart Installment Report (* check if available in your country): contains all smart installment transactions that were created in the period you select. This report includes: Information about the buyer, the product;
• And much more.

Here is an article on setting up this feature.

Customize the charge retries on the subscription product

One of the solutions at Hotmart is the customization of charge retries. Currently, Hotmart’s payment system automatically performs up to 5 retries on all subscriptions after any charge has been declined by the subscriber’s card.

And now you can customize this process, determining the maximum number of automatic retries that the system will process and for how long.

In addition, the Producer can set the subscribers’ billing date as the date on which the payment is in fact successful (through one of the retries).

Check out all the steps to set it up right now.

Subscription renewal email alert 

You can also set up an automatic email to remind your customers that their subscription renewal is near, choosing how many days in advance the email will be sent.

One suggestion is to configure this tool for plans with longer periodicity, such as semiannual and annual, for example.

Take a look at how to do this in just a few steps.

Track my subscription product’s cancellation metrics

You can check and analyse all the metrics for your subscription products in an area on the platform called Subscription Cancellations. There, you will find relevant data on cancellations to better manage your business such as:

• General cancellation information: here you can see the number of subscriptions that were canceled during a given period and the respective cancellation fee.
• Graph of evolution of the cancellation rate: observe the monthly comparison of the cancellation numbers of your products and plans.
• Graph of cancellation origins: view who was responsible for the cancellation, with the options: Canceled by the Customer, Canceled by the Administrator and Canceled by the Seller.
• Overview table of cancellations: access general information for each of the days in the selected period.
• Important cancellation indicators such as LT, LTV and average of paid recurrences that will allow you to draw conclusions about how long on average your subscribers remain active and the net amount they usually spend on your product before canceling.

Access the article that tells you how to track cancellation metrics.

Set the plan billing frequency

Weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, semiannual or annually. At Hotmart, you have the freedom to choose the plan frequency according to your strategy.

In addition, within the same product, you can create different plans with different periods, to better meet the needs of your target audience.

That’s all? Not yet!

Check out what else you can do with Hotmart’s subscription service:

• Reprocess the charge retry of a delayed recurrence;
• Offer a plan exchange to your subscribers according to their need;
• The subscriber can change the registered credit card and the billing date for the next recurrences;
• Cancellation can be requested at any time;
• Installment plan (available in some countries);
• Edit the price of existing plans and offers for new subscribers.

And much more!

Take the opportunity to create your subscription product right now:

I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE IT

Let us know in the comments what you think of the subscription model!