In this week’s edition of Five on Friday, PYMNTS tells us about fitness-as-a-service for business travelers using the subscription model, Zuora publishes the subscription economy index for the second quarter of 2018, Digital Commerce 360 explains why smooth payment processes are key to shopper satisfaction, Hubspot offers freemium success secrets, and LinkedIn posts a variety of top subscription jobs.

Localfit Tries the Subscription Model to Sell Fitness-as-a-Service

If you’re a business traveler, you know it can be challenging to squeeze in a workout. Your options are sometimes limited. You can use the gym at your hotel, or if you belong to a national chain like L.A. Fitness, you might be able to take a cab to the gym. Thanks to the subscription model, options for working out on the road are improving.

Localfit, which launched in 2017, is one service hoping to change that. Ranging from $11.95 to $19.95 a month, Localfit subscribers get access to more than 5,000 health clubs and 800 fitness studios across the country. The company offers three-, six- and twelve-month membership plans. When customers sign up, they receive a prepaid Localfit debit card. When the subscriber finds a facility through the app they want to use, Localfit loads the money the subscriber needs to visit that gym.

“They’re the larger health clubs that have all the plush amenities,” said Localfit founder Rob Gilliam in an interview with PYMNTS.com.

There is one catch. Subscribers cannot visit a gym within 35 miles of their home address. Learn more about Localfit on PYMNTS or at Localfit.com.

Zuora Publishes Subscription Economy Index for Q2 2018 

Zuora has updated its Subscription Economy Index (SEI). The proprietary index reflects the growth of hundreds of subscription companies around the world, including everything from SaaS and media to IoT and telecommunications. Here are a few highlights from the report.

• Between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2018, subscription businesses grew revenue five times faster (18.1 percent) than S&P 500 company revenue (3.3 percent) and U.S. retail sales (4.1 percent).
• The B2B segment grew fastest in the period since January 2017.
• In the last quarter, Telecommunications businesses grew by 20 percent, followed by IoT at 18 percent, SaaS by 15 percent, Corporate Services by 8 percent and Media by 3 percent.
• Overall, churn has decreased in the past year, particularly for B2C subscription products and media companies.

Review the full report and Zuora’s analysis at Zuora.com.

Keep Your Customers Coming Back for More with a Smooth Payments Process

If you’ve ever ordered from Amazon, you know how the process works. You find an item, put it in your cart, and when you’re done browsing, you go to checkout. You typically will click on your default address, payment method and shipping option, and within about a minute, you’re done. Easy peasy. You know what to expect – every time.

Whether you are selling subscription boxes, meal kits or streaming video subscriptions, your checkout experience – including payment processing – must be seamless to keep your customers coming back for more. In a recent article, “A smooth payments process is key to keeping shoppers satisfied” on Digital Commerce 360, BlueSnap Inc. explains why.

“Retailers often think of payments as just one more function they need to add to their e-commerce sites,” said Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap. “But they really need to think about payments strategically as another step in the customer’s journey.”

Global payments company BlueSnap offered a few tips for an appealing payments process:

• Retailers should work with a payments processor who accepts multiple curriencies.
• Ideally, retailers should work with a payments processor who will help them fight fraud to protect themselves as well as their customers.

Read more about a smooth payments process on Digital Commerce 360. 

Five Freemium Success Secrets

Many subscription companies like Dropbox and Spotify have found success with the two-tiered freemium model. With this model, users can access a limited or ad-supported tier for free. To access premium services or ad-free services, they pay a recurring subscription fee. As Hubspot explains, one reason to use the freemium business model is to lower your customer acquisition costs. Customers have the opportunity to try your product without barriers to entry, such as a limited time free trial. Freemium users also create a lead funnel for your sales and marketing team to market to.

Here are five freemium success secrets to ensure your trial of the business model is a fruitful one:

1. If you have a low freemium conversion rate, consider limiting product features to free users. This creates an incentive for them to try the premium version of your product to unlock specific features.
2. Offer a free trial that includes all features, so users can get a sense of the value of the premium version of your product.
3. Ensure your customers have a great onboarding experience, making your product easy to use and fold into their daily lives.
4. Market to your free users with upgrade opportunities – in-app notifications, calls-to-action, emails, etc.
5. Show users how your product scales to meet their needs. Dropbox does this well by offering 2 GB of free storage when they start out. That’s fine for a user at first, but as they fill up that storage, they may see the value when they get close to that limit. But you have a plan for that – a premium plan with more storage!

Get more freemium success secrets and case studies at Hubspot.

Top Subscription and Membership Jobs

Content Writer & Strategist, Subscription
Rent the Runway
Greater New York area

We’re looking for a creative writer and content strategist to join our Marketing team! You will work hand-in-hand with the Subscription Product Marketing team to create and execute our content strategy for our subscription brands, Unlimited and Update – aka the future of fashion. You’ll bring to life our messaging strategy for acquisition and engagement marketing by developing content across our website/app, emails, paid, partnerships, offline, and more. This role requires a deep and nuanced understanding of the value proposition of an RTR subscription, as well as an intimate knowledge of who is our subscriber. The ideal candidate is a unique blend of strategist, storyteller and writer/creator… one day you may be writing and producing a video ad, the next writing UX copy for our iPhone app. This is an incredible opportunity for someone to help tell the story of how RTR is changing how millions of women get dressed every single day. Read more.

Senior Marketing Manager, Prime Video
Amazon
Seattle, WA

We are seeking a Sr. Marketing Manager to oversee Prime Video Channels expansion globally as part of our Prime Video International marketing team. This leader will define work streams, processes, and mechanisms across marketing channels to drive Prime Video Channel sign-ups, engagement and retention as part of the overall Prime Video ecosystem. This role is inherently cross-functional. You will work closely with marketing, product management, operations and executive teams to support our content experience platform which enables business owners the flexibility and power to show the most relevant, engaging content to every PrimeVideo customer. Read more. 

Subscriptions Marketing Manager
COMPELO LTD.
London, England

An international publishing group is looking for an experienced subscription professional to be responsible for subscriptions marketing for its flagship titles, as well as working with other titles within the division. Working as part of a busy team this role would suit someone with a solid publishing experience and a keen eye for details. Responsibilities include developing and executing creative marketing plans/campaigns for each brand in order to achieve agreed targets; utilizing channels to include email, social media, SEO/PPC and digital advertising; analyzing and optimizing the subscriber acquisition, on-boarding, engagement and retention processes and strategies, and developing plans to enhance and improve performance in these areas. Read more. 

Membership Development Specialist
Emergency Nurses Association
Schaumburg, IL

ENA is looking for a self-starting, deadline-driven, Membership Development Specialist to join the ENA team! This role works independently, and as a team lead in a variety of functions, establishing programs and initiatives focused on cultivating new members and creating a pipeline to transition members into active and engaged members of ENA. This role will also manage the day-to-day execution and tracking of membership recruitment campaigns working closely with marketing department colleagues. Read more.

Director, Subscription Programs
Groupon
Seattle, WA

We’re seeking a Product leader with experience growing and driving customer value through paid subscription programs. This role is both technical and business facing and the successful candidate will be analytical, creative and comfortable driving strategy, leading meetings, and developing a cross-functional team of product managers, business analysts, merchandisers, engineers and marketers. If you’re passionate about leading subscription programs that are win/win for consumers and for local businesses, this is the opportunity you should explore. Groupon’s culture offers a perfect hybrid between startup-like atmosphere and impact and the assets of a public company. We’re curious, fun, a little intense, and obsessed with helping local businesses thrive. Does that sound like a compelling place to work? Read more.