As the curator of the INSIDER Guide to New Product Development (NPD), I’m constantly keeping an eye out for bite-size information that will help you develop and scale better subscription products. Here is my “Five on Friday” list for May 15th, featuring the five best trends, tips, quotes or stats from my reading this week.
1. Anything You Can Do, I Canva Better
You may have noticed – the name of the game in presentations today is “elegant.” A professionally-designed look with more images and less text. An infographic? Even better. But how to get this look without spending a fortune on a designer? A colleague of mine turned me on to Canva this week, and I highly recommend it. It’s free (although there are small charges for some graphics and templates), easy to use, exportable to PowerPoint and doesn’t require a Mac.
2. A Thousand Points of Distribution?
While this CMO.com article, “UPS Reinvents Marketing For Age Of The Customer” was a shameless plug for UPS, there were some snacks for thought I thought worthwhile:
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“ shipping products in the e-commerce value stream is no longer simply a logistics issue. Product availability, delivery, and easy returns are core components of every company’s online offerings.” “Consumers love the always-open online retail shopping experience, but now also expect always-available inventory throughout all store channels. Successful retailers are leveraging their brick-and-mortar stores into mini fulfillment centers to provide quick, convenient, and efficient access and delivery of their products, no matter whether the transaction started online or in-store.” “For businesses serving always-on, always-available consumer demands, a complex network of B2B and B2C e-commerce collaboration is required highly efficient inventory management, product delivery, returns, and replenishment is a competitive differentiator.” |
I agree that our customers’ experience with our supply chain is becoming a critical differentiator for every “basket subscription” provider. How flexible and responsive are our delivery options? How easy and cheap are returns? And what are we learning from both that will improve our products?
3. Speaking of Shameless Plugs . . .
All of us know the impact of out-of-date credit card data in our customer files – lower retention, customer churn, and revenue loss. By this October, 100% of credit cards will be reissued to adhere to new security standards using chip technology and subscription businesses are going to have to get smart on updating their customer’s billing records. Subscription Insider is running a timely and important webinar on this topic next week. Join us May 19th at Noon Eastern for: Chip Cards: Don’t Let a Good Thing Crush Your Bottom-line presented by my colleague and INSIDER Guide to Payment Processing Paul Larsen.
4. Face(book)ing the Future of Scholarly Discovery
A great article from The Scholarly Kitchen (which links to a good NYT article on the same topic) “Grab and Go and the Gravitational Pull of Discovery“ is a solid perspective on Facebook’s latest foray into enabling – or disintermediating, you pick – our relationship with our customers. The article is written to engage publishers of scholarly journals and high-value content in the discussion. Read the whole article if you have time. If not, ponder the balance of controlling the customer relationship to increasing audience access, and how you want that balance to enable your subscription business.
5. Come As You Aren’t
The reason we’re here on Subscription Insider is to gain advantage in our marketplace by learning more about our craft. But often, we forget to leverage the vast amount of content out there to learn more about our customers. Today I signed up for free articles from Harvard Business Review. As I chose the categories HBR would use to tailor my content, I started to enter, “Consultant,” “1-10 employees,” etc. Then, it dawned on me – what I really wanted to see was the articles HBR was directing at my customers – not at me. I actually said, “duhhh” to myself, something I haven’t done since I could still get away with wearing hair bows. It’s easier for those of us B2B’ers, but if you’re a B2C subscription business – seek out the sites reporting on your market, and tap into that pool of knowledge.
Have a great weekend!
Diane
Diane Pierson, our INSIDER Guide to New Product Development, is a leader in product management and marketing, having delivered results to companies including Dun & Bradstreet, LexisNexis, American Lawyer Media and Copyright Clearance Center. She has built products & services that have delivered over $100 million in revenue and knows what works, and what doesn’t, when executing product plans and strategies. (Read Diane’s full Bio)
