Recently, we wrote about the trends expected this holiday shopping season. We discussed tips and best practices related to gift subscriptions, coupons, and free trials which can be very effective tactics that subscription businesses can use to acquire new subscribers during this most wonderful time of the year. 

But what are some other tactics and options that subscription businesses can employ to maximize subscriber acquisition and get the most out of the “season of sharing”—and shopping? 

Suggestive selling through upsells and cross-sells

One very effective way to increase revenue, whether marketing to prospects or existing subscribers, is through upselling and cross-selling. It’s one reason why servers always ask if you’d like to see the dessert menu—suggestive selling works. Let prospects know about other subscription plan options that might better meet their needs or about add-ons they hadn’t thought of. They’re likely to appreciate the suggestion. 

One great way to upsell is at the end of a free trial period. For example, the subscriber may have trialed the most basic service but would actually benefit from a higher-level plan. Suggest this option at their time of conversion. Cross-sells can happen the same way, by offering at checkout or on other conversion pages an item that is complementary to the plan being purchased. 

Improve conversions with multi-currency support

An accepted marketing rule is to know your audience. One intuitive truth is that subscribers are more likely to purchase using their local currency, and if they can’t, they may decide they’d rather find a subscription service that provides that option. Naturally, the more business you do (or want to do) internationally, the more critical this capability becomes.  

Some subscription management platforms support many different currencies, some only a few. Make sure that the subscription platform you choose can process the currencies you’ll need. See what currencies Recurly supports here.

Improve conversions by accepting local payment types

Accepting the local payment methods used and preferred in different parts of the world also increases conversions and customer satisfaction. Your subscription management platform should support several gateway options, including gateways that are geared towards international commerce. Recurly has integrations with a number of leading gateways and supports domestic and global payment methods. We also support Amazon Pay for EU/UK and ApplePay on the Web, and we’re always adding additional payment methods as the market demands.

Consider your audience

At any time of year, communicating with subscribers effectively is essential for healthy subscriber retention and loyalty. Just as shoppers expect to be able to use the payment methods preferred in their countries, they expect marketing communications and checkout pages to be in their language too, which will improve conversions. Additionally, other subscriber communications, such as purchase confirmation emails and dunning messages, should be translated into the appropriate local language.

Language support can include not only different languages but different dialects within each language. Dialects include U.S. English along with British, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian English. Date formats also differ around the world. A fully localized experience includes automatically converting the date format (mm/dd/yyyy vs. dd/mm/yyyy) and currency format ($1,234.50 vs. 1.234,50 $) to match the locale. Recurly has these capabilities built-in.  

The holidays are more than just a festive time of year. For retailers, the season can be an excellent opportunity to introduce your subscription business to new customers and give yourself the gift of new recurring revenue. 

Stay tuned for more helpful tips and tactics to make your subscription business a success.