Subscription Stories: True Tales from the Trenches Robbie Kellman Baxter

Budgets are tight and competition to get and keep subscribers has never been more fierce. But what if I told you that there was a way to nudge your prospects and subscribers to help them engage more deeply and rapidly? It's possible.
Today's guest, Nancy Harhut, has a wealth of easy and inexpensive tactics that can motivate your members to do the right thing at the right time. Nancy is the author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing and Chief Creative Officer at HBT Marketing.
In this special live episode, which was recorded at the SubSummit conference in Dallas, Texas, you'll learn how behavioral science can help you get more from your marketing spend, how to use tools like scarcity, social proof and choice architecture to acquire, engage, and retain your subscribers, and the role of emotion on motivating subscribers to act.
 
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One of the hottest growth areas for subscriptions is farming. Surprising? Maybe. But with small margins and big numbers, efficiency matters. And farming has become an increasingly high tech, high stakes business. Justin Rose is the President of Lifecycle Solutions, Supply Management, and Customer Success at John Deere, a 187 year old company with revenues in 2023 of over 61 billion dollars.
You probably know them for their tractors, but they're investing heavily in subscriptions.
In today's conversation, Justin and I talk candidly about why this manufacturing company has committed to reaching 10% of annual revenue in software subscriptions by the year 2030, the right and wrong way to accelerate transformation through acquisition, and how to maintain the trust of long standing customers when you change the business model.
 
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Many subscription entrepreneurs lament their lack of fancy software and dashboards to allow them to better manage their business. But if you know your ideal member and understand their pain points, and if you're always tinkering and adjusting your offering to better align with the needs of those members, you can build a powerful recurring revenue business.
Even as a solopreneur, this week's guest, James Schramko has developed a unique model to help consultants and experts earn more while working less. And while he has been an early adopter of technology, many of the tools and tactics are flexible enough to be used by large or even very small businesses.
More importantly, James has succeeded in building his subscription-based business by focusing on his members and their desired outcomes. Ultimately, membership is about trust and relationships, and James is an expert in both.
In today's conversation, you'll learn why bundling too much into your subscription can cost you members, how to use technology to support a global community, and why a tiered ascension model sometimes leaves money on the table. 
 
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One of the great mysteries for me is why so many otherwise sophisticated companies don’t focus on involuntary churn. Also known as passive churn or accidental churn, involuntary churn happens when a payment issue raises a flag that causes a merchant to cancel a customer’s subscription. In 70% of these cases, there is no fraud, so the company is literally turning away excellent customers.
Involuntary churn routinely impacts about 10% of Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR), according to some estimates. In today’s episode, Vijay Menon, founder and CEO of Butter Payments, and I discuss what drives involuntary churn, why so many companies underinvest in this problem, and some key tactics to drive revenue growth through better payment management.
 
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Loyalty programs seem to be at a crossroads. Industries including hospitality, financial services, and retail are going beyond the points-based programs we're so familiar with and exploring more personalized, emotionally engaging programs. Some, like CVS, Inspirato, and of course Amazon with Amazon Prime have even incorporated paid loyalty subscriptions which provide benefits in exchange for an annual fee instead of requiring customers to earn benefits through their spending and behaviors.
Today's guest, Nadia Popova of Euromonitor International, follows the loyalty trends and provides insights across industries regarding best practices in building long-term relationships with customers.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about how consumer expectations have changed since COVID, why personalization is so important, and where subscriptions fit in the broader loyalty landscape.
 
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Loyalty programs have been around forever. Points, cashback, branded credit cards, and now increasingly, we're seeing paid subscription loyalty programs, like Amazon Prime or CVS Care Pass. The goal is the same, to smooth out the lumpy buying behavior common in consumer packaged goods, retail, and hospitality, and to drive habits and engagement.
Today's guest, Justin Honaman, leads the worldwide retail and CPG go-to-market team at Amazon Web Services. He also hosts the popular podcast, ContenderCast, where I was a guest a few years ago.
In this conversation, Justin and I talk about the changing landscape of loyalty programs, why loyalty is so important right now, and what's driving the rise in these subscription programs.
 
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