How To Get (And Keep) A Subscription Customer with Chase Alderton

Subscription business models require a different set of marketing skills to keep customers happy. Chase Alderton joins Stewart Hillhouse to share the common trends he's seen across 10,000+ subscription businesses.

Who's The Guest?

👤 Name: Chase Alderton

💪 What They Do: Chase is the Growth Marketing Manager at Recharge Payments.

🌐 Chase on the web: LinkedIn | Twitter

🧠 Best Advice: Pay attention to every single touchpoint you have with your customers. Improving the experience even slightly will reduce lost revenue and decrease churn over the long haul.

Episode Takeaways

A short summary of the most actionable takeaways and best advice of the episode.

Business Models That Work Well With Reoccurring Payments

  • Consumables: Coffee, soap, deodorant, cereal. Pretty much anything in your kitchen or bathroom.
  • Curated Sets: Themed boxes, specialty items, curated pairings. Items that make for nice gifts but people typically buy for themselves.
  • Memberships: Specific content, access to a network, insider perks. All the things that you wish you could get for free, but can't.

Pay Attention To Every Touchpoint To Avoid Churn

While making pretty Instagram feeds seems enticing, don't get lax with your communication. Ensure that every touchpoint is communicating your benefits and how the user is part of something bigger than themselves.

This goes for every touchpoint - physical or digital.

3 Steps To A Profitable Subscription Business

  1. The product must be amazing - make sure your product is quality and make sure it's something that people would actually value.
  2. Don't Guess - Know exactly who you're serving and what they need from you. Use onboarding quizzes, customer interviews, or Jobs To Be Done framework to get deep into their head.
  3. Ensure You Stay Fresh - Don't send them the same thing they would have already gotten. To keep existing subscribers, offer them something tangential to what you're already providing them

Commitment Is The Biggest Hurdle Marketers Need To Get Over

The customer may want to buy manually a few times before they trust that they'll want the product consistently. Education is key in teaching them how they can swap, return, or skip a shipment without outright cancelling their subscription.

Brands, People & Resources Mentioned In The Episode

Fringe – Freshly Picked
Freshly Picked baby clothes
Bokksu | Authentic Japanese Snack & Candy Subscription Box
Discover Japan through snacks! Get curated Japanese snack subscription boxes of authentic Japanese treats, candies, and teas delivered to your door from Japan. Experience Japan from home with Bokksu and get free shipping worldwide!
Bokksu Japanese Snack Boxes
VIP PRO
Shop beauty products by celebrity make up artist Scott Barnes. International shipping. Free domestic shipping.
Scott Barnes beauty community
Uncomplicated Skin Care for Men
Get science on your side for great skin with Tiége Hanley’s world class line of skin care products for today’s man. Yes… they REALLY are that good! Our goal was to design the highest quality skin care products on the market. The chemist was given the task of creating the men’s skin care products of …
Tiege Hanley skincare for men

Market Smarter (Without Trying)

If you found this useful, consider joining Top Of Mind Weekly – a short email I send on Thursdays where I share ideas that are top of mind where The Attention Economy, Marketing, and Culture overlap.

Join Top Of Mind Weekly

Email address
Powered by EmailOctopus