Subscription Membership and Customer Belonging
Most growing companies acknowledge that email subscribers are their business marketing lifeline.
But they are more than that. Much more.
If recent events are any indication, having loyal subscribers that consider themselves to be members of your community will soon be a requirement for business survival and success.
The Dollar Shave Club Phenomenon
In five short years, Dollar Shave Club built a billion dollar business by leveraging digital technology to solve one problem. Making it easier and more cost-effective for men to buy razor blades.
Razor blades are costly. That’s one problem. They are always locked up at the retail store, so you have to find the person with a key to even buy them. That’s another problem.
Surprisingly, the key-holder is usually not even trained in the many different brands to help you make an educated choice.
There’s more, but you get the picture.
For a few bucks each month, Dollar Shave Club ships its members a kit that gives them a fresh razor blade every week.
Dollar Shave Club has no stores and it makes no razors, which it secures from a supplier in Korea. So, why did Unilever recently buy Dollar Shave Club for a billion dollars? For the subscription membership list, and most important, their preferences.
This is why co-founder Michael Dubin likes to refer to them as members, not subscribers or subscription customers.
Respecting Member Preferences Earns Loyalty
We join clubs for many reasons, but most of them relate to exclusivity and a feeling of belonging. How are we defining that?
Give people what they want in a way that shows them you understand them. How that is accomplished nowadays is much different than in the old days of simply segmenting markets.
Success today is learning about people as individuals to understand how they are like others, how they are different, and serving the ones you can help.
You may not be able to solve all (or any) of their problems right now. But you can be learning about their preferences and discover ways for giving them that feeling of belonging.
Just making the effort to care is often enough to win people over as customers.
If you are not familiar with Dollar Shave Club, you owe it to yourself to watch their first 90-second marketing video advertisement. It cost less than $5,000 to make and has earned over 22 million views.
It’s irreverent and funny. How about your marketing?
Get creative. You can do this too. On any budget.
Want more on this? Check out the show
Check out the show Subscription Relationships: How Wildly Successful Companies Do It. You’ll discover how Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple leverage subscription relationships, and how to apply that to your green industry business.
And of course, considering becoming a member of Landscape Digital Institute to get free access to premium content, like our monthly webinars.
