In our last issue of the DailyZoo, we talked about the difficulties of customer retention in this economic climate and why it might be tougher to sell products with a recurring subscription fee.
That should not stop you from trying, though!
Having customers pay monthly for your product or service should be the goal. It will allow you to get paid without creating something new, gives you capital to make other products, and lets you continue adding new customers to increase the amount you’re bringing in each month.
What most people do wrong is treat that recurring element as an afterthought they throw into a marketing funnel hoping for the best.
That won’t work if you want to charge a monthly fee; you need to design and create your product with recurring payments in mind.
Most of us gladly pay recurring fees for services and products we like, and sometimes we do it because we simply have to. For example, your Netflix subscription, cable TV package, weekly meal box or health insurance.
The key is that we feel we get a service or a value from those payments or would lose something if we don’t keep paying.
If something no longer provides value or pleasure, we tend to cancel the subscription.
Your products aren’t any different.
Here are a few ideas you can bake into your products to justify recurring charges and ensure your customers stick around.
Coaching: This is one of the easiest things to include in a subscription. It can be as simple as a weekly group call on Zoom. With coaching, you’ll be delivering value month after month.
Automation: people buy your product to fix a problem. A monthly recurring solution could be something that solves the problem for them.
Updates: if you add new features and content to your product regularly, people won’t mind paying for it, but they will complain about monthly charges for something that really should have been a one-time purchase.
Hosting: Improve software by including a hosting element. People will gladly pay monthly fees not to lose access to their data, work or digital assets.
Bottom line, don’t be afraid to try a recurring price point. The passive monthly income streams can be life-changing, just make sure you do it with the right product and for the right reasons.
