Ever wonder how successful businesses make impressive revenue? Making money by selling products and services is the basic idea that comes to our mind. While this certainly is one of the types of business models, there are many other business models, and one of the popular ones among them is the subscription business model.
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What is a subscription model?
In a subscription business model, users pay a fixed amount of money at fixed intervals (either monthly, quarterly, or annually) to get access to the services offered. The main advantage of subscription business models is the pricing structure where a business will charge its customers a recurring fee to access their services or content.
Now, what compelled subscription models to gain high acceptance in the last couple of years? It is personalization- Users these days prefer tailor made products and services. And that is what subscription services are all about. Subscription based businesses focus mainly on offering tailor made services to their customers. The current rage, content creator platforms like OnlyFans and its clone sites work on this subscription model.
Advantages of subscription business model
Think of a subscription business as a contract between the business and the customers. The customers agree to pay a recurring fee to avail a product or a service for a specific period of time. When the contract is on, the customers have the choice to renew or cancel their subscription.
Now that we know subscription models bring in recurring revenue, let’s look at the other advantages of a subscription business.
Subscription models are convenient for customers
Customers can get the service delivered when they need it with little effort, creating a more seamless customer experience. Subscriptions are convenient for users as they just have to pay a recurring revenue and can access the product and services.
Subscriptions attract more customers
Charing for a product or service each time can be difficult for some customers. Whereas charging a monthly or annual fee allows customers to enjoy the services at a more affordable price point. Subscriptions can allow customers to budget it into their monthly bills as well.
Helps to build stronger relationships
Another benefit of subscription business models is working with customers and building stronger relationships over time. If your service is clubbed with rich content and excellent customer support, your customers will learn to trust your business and become interested in working with your brand.
Can accurately predict revenue
Subscription business models make it easier for brands to predict the exact revenue they will make every month. As your customers are paying recurring revenue, it is easier to understand when they are going to make payments and how much the amount will be.
Different types of subscription business models
Now that you know about subscriptions, let’s explore different types of subscription business models.
Access-based
Some subscription websites lock the access to their platform behind a paywall instead of providing free access. This means you need to pay a subscription fee to access the platform itself, and once you gain access, you can avail some services for free and others for a price until the subscription expires.
Content subscriptions
Content subscriptions are one of the most popular types of subscription business models. Your subscription website can allow content creators to make recurring revenue through subscriptions by implementing this business model. Content creators can sell exclusive content, podcasts, photos, videos, online courses, and more to their fans. OnlyFans is one of the subscription marketplaces that connects content creators with millions of fans across the world.
There will be millions of people out there – content creators and fans who share the passion around a niche. If you are building an OnlyFans clone website around this business model, it can be a great business idea. Leverage a professional OnlyFans clone script like Fanso to create a subscription platform like OnlyFans with all the features and customizations you need.
Pricing in subscription business model- Which one to use
One important aspect that makes a subscription business successful is the pricing strategy you adopt. If you provide great quality service to your users at a great rate, they will come for repeated purchases.
If you want to run a subscription business but are not sure about the pricing plan, here are some suggestions you can follow.
Flat rate
This pricing suits businesses that offer products or services with set features.
Tiered pricing
This is another common subscription business model where there are two or more price tiers which come with a different set of features.
Pay-as-you go model
This is a simple business model where businesses charge for a service according to the usage.
Tips from fans
While this revenue approach doesn’t come under a subscription model, this is another popular revenue strategy that subscription businesses adopt, along with recurring revenue.
Are subscriptions the way forward?
Many players in the social media space have been looking for alternatives to the basic ad-based business model to expand their revenue source. Youtube premium is an example of this. Twitter also features a service called “Super Follows” allowing creators to engage with followers and generate revenue. Patreon and OnlyFans also have followed the same path.
The major thing is that the way content is generated is drastically changed. We haven’t even thought about people being ready to pay for a short reel back in the day, but now we are seeing the trend. Content-oriented stuff dominates the social media space as people leverage the platform to bring out their creativity and make videos and exclusive content, especially for its follower base.
This not only helps content creators to gain loss of traction on paid videos, live sessions, and more, but it also helps the audience to receive exclusive and premium quality content in one place. Hence, there’s plenty of rich content; the subscription model will help the audience to consume the content they are interested in.
Conclusion
With the right plan and a little creativity, you can build an approach around subscription that will lead to happy customers and excellent customer retention rates, allowing your business to grow exponentially.
Read also: Understanding Small Business Tax Obligations