Group subscriptions are a way for organizations to buy digital access for a specific group of members: employees, for example, or students at a school. When it’s configured properly, a group subscription provides authorized access to a set number of users and allows an account administrator to manage the list of users. Group subscriptions might be paid in advance by the organization, or it might be paid for by subscribers (perhaps with a special discount offered to the group). In any case, it’s important to manage these subscribers as a group when it comes to marketing and communications since it’s likely they have similar interests in your subscription-based business.

Choose a Subscription Management Platform with Group Capabilities

To manage group subscriptions, look for a software solution that allows you to generate group packages and lets a group “owner” manage the members of the group. The solution should allow the group’s billing to be automated according to the group owner’s preferences. In addition, customization for group members is important. Ideally, group members should be able to manage their own subscriptions within the group.

Important Tips for Group Subscriptions

Create a customized sign-up process for the group. Choose a solution that allows for the creation of a unique signup form that each group’s members can use to register into their group.

Find the right balance of group owner functionality and individual member flexibility. Group owners should be able to optionally add members from within their account. At the same time, each member should still remain a unique login and statistic so you can retain visibility into individual activity.

Set up group communications. This way, you can customize email responders and generate batch email blasts to target either the group’s owners or the group’s members and then populate the email body using a number of optional variables.

Market to the group. Look for a solution that allows you to create HTML email templates that can be reused quickly for future emails when it’s time to market to the group as a whole. Email blasts can be scheduled for a future date and time, while responders are triggered instantly on various user actions.

Contact Subscription DNA

Cloud-based subscription management platform Subscription DNA provides subscription billing, membership, and paywall software that can be used to manage and customize group subscriptions. Enrollment tools designed to accommodate group subscriptions help organizations manage, bill and market to groups seamlessly, and provide the flexibility groups need to offer their members easy-to-manage subscriptions. Contact Subscription DNA via Web site or phone at 513-574-9800 to learn how you can add group capabilities to your subscription management.

While subscription management may seem like the kind of things only large companies such as Netflix use, the truth is that even small companies are good candidates for the subscription business model. The advantages of subscriptions are offering your customers the flexibility to subscribe rather than purchase outright (and a regular amount to make budgeting easier), and for your business, it’s a good, steady stream of revenue.

Your business is a good candidate for the subscription model if:

• You sell products or services that customers buy on a repeat basis, such as maintenance or cleaning services, or products that require regular refill supplies.
• You sell services that people need to access on an ongoing basis. A good example is a web-based software that needs regular maintenance and updates.
• You guarantee or warranty your products or services. The subscription billing model is ideal for product protection or replacement plans.
• You have a lot of accounts receivable activity. A subscription management platform is a great way to manage your regular billing process.

The subscription model has the advantage of encouraging one-time customers to become long-term customers. These repeat customers your small business gains via the subscription model can help boost your customer retention rate and your revenue.

Putting the infrastructure in place to offer your customers a subscription model is easier than you might think. You can either do it in-house or adopt an easy-to-use, Web-based subscription management platform such as Subscription DNA that will allow you to charge, refund and manage subscribers, including email marketing and communications.

Subscription DNA’s subscription management software is ideal for small businesses, and features group enrollment tools and group communications, email marketing automation, cloud billing automation and payments, intuitive membership management, CRM and premium content and paywall management. Your customers can even log in and manage their own accounts right from your Web site.

Even small businesses just beginning to use the subscription model can quickly and easily build the type of community that keeps subscription customers engaged, interested and – most importantly – loyal. Contact us to learn how you can not only attract more subscription customers but keep them loyal into the future.

It seems the public is coming to the end of an era when it comes to free content on the Internet. While most of us still like to be able to find a recipe or a fact about Napoleon for our kid’s book report, more people are coming to realize that free opinion blogs are worth…well, about as much as we pay for them. Free news is often biased, poorly written and downright crazy (lizard people? Flat earth?)

In fact, research from the eighth annual Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford has found that public concern about misinformation is making some people more careful about the brands the content they consume online. The change is most noteworthy among people who are younger and better educated. Forty percent of Americans are now saying they rely on more “reputable” sources for information.

Be a Reputable Source of Information

So how do you become reputable? For starters, ensuring your content is high quality, properly referenced and visually polished can help. Another way you can protect your reputation as a content provider is by installing a paywall. After all, the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal do it. But you might think…who is going to find me if I’m behind a paywall?

The solution is to make some of your content free to attract readers. Keep your best content, however, behind a paywall that asks for a small amount – a few dollars, perhaps – to read your more in-depth posts, according to a recent blog post by Subscription DNA.

“Offer original, premium content that’s only available to people who pay in addition to your regular content,” according to the blog. “Slate’s Slate Plus membership service, which provides membership-only content for a $50-per-year fee, is a great example. They took in 9,000 paying subscribers in their first year, demonstrating the efficacy of the model.”

But What About Ads?

If you’re putting baby goats in pajamas or dressing up as unicorns and talking about gaming, and you’ve got millions of unique visitors, ads will probably work for you. Be remember that click rates on ads are very low, so if you’re only attracting a few hundred readers, or even a few thousand, it’s unlikely you’re going to earn enough in ads to buy a cup of coffee.

Manage Your Premium Content

Premium subscription management platforms like SubscriptionDNA give you a way to manage subscription billing, membership management, subscription sign-up, content filtering, paywall management, and even marketing all in one place. Contact Subscription DNA to learn how you can turn your premium content into a source of revenue.