‘Tis the season to be shopping. In a normal year, that would involve a combination of online and in-store shopping. This year has not been like any other year though, so we can expect the majority of shoppers to do their shopping online. This is a great opportunity for subscription companies to attract new customers with special promotions, make gift giving easier for subscribers, and show off your wares for recipients who might eventually convert into paying customers themselves. It is also a good time to devote some attention to brand awareness and customer relationships. Whether you are well into your seasonal marketing plan, or want to switch things up for the last three weeks of holiday shopping, here are 12 tips to boost holiday subscription sales.

1. Focus on connecting with customers

Anne Janzer, author of Subscription Marketing: Strategies for Nurturing Customers in a World of Churn, recommends that subscription companies focus on connecting with their customers.

“This holiday season, double-down on community and connection. Adding a community component to your solution is always a great way to differentiate your offering—and an important value nurturing strategy that keeps people re-subscribing. But after a year in which many people feel isolated, community is more powerful than ever. We may not need more stuff, but we do need more connection. Find creative ways to offer a sense of community to your subscribers, whether by soliciting and sharing input from subscribers or providing forums where people can connect,” Janzer says.

Social media platforms are an effective way to connect with subscribers and prospects, regardless of which platforms your brand uses. Through nonpromotional posts, ask them how they’re doing, what their ideal holiday gift would be, or how they are coping through this challenging time. Share holiday messages, and add a little levity and light to their lives.

In this example, Bark Box added a little humor with this Instagram post. Their accountant might not approve of their retirement plan, but 13,515 followers did, and they liked it enough to comment 300 times. Fluffy and Fido would probably approve too.

2. Make it easy peasy

With COVID continuing to plague our lives, the last thing we need is for things to get any harder. That’s what makes giving subscriptions so wonderful. Shoppers can plan ahead and give everyone the same subscription, or wait until the last minute and choose from thousands of subscription options for those on their holiday gift list. This is your time to shine by making subscription gift giving easy peasy with simple reminders. No hard core sales pitch or gift wrap required. Book of the Month has the right idea with this soft sell.

3. Tap into FOMO with limited time offers

Everyone loves a good deal, especially when money is tight. This year, many subscription companies like Amazon have extended the holiday shopping season. Amazon started in mid-October to encourage shoppers to get their shopping done early. Other subscription companies have extended the Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend. In this Instagram offer, Barreworks extends their Black Friday sale through today. It is too late to promote deals for BFCM, but there is still time to offer special discounts between now and Christmas. Creating a sense of urgency with limited time offers, also creates the FOMO (fear of missing out), which can boost sales when executed well.

4. Bundle subscription services

While some subscription companies are trending toward a la carte services, others like Disney and Apple are offering bundles to subscribers. The bundles combine multiple subscription services for an all-inclusive fee. For example, Disney+ offers a three-way bundle, packaging Disney+, Hulu (ad-supported plan) and ESPN+ for a monthly fee of $12.99 a month, saving subscribers $5.98 per month. Purchased separately, the services would cost a total of $ 18.97 (Disney+ at $6.99, ESPN+ at $5.99 a month, Hulu at $5.99 a month). Though this bundle is available year-round, bundles are a great option for holiday gift giving. Gift givers get a deeply discounted deal, and gift recipients get to try out all of Disney’s direct-to-consumer streaming video services.

Apple One has recently launched bundles too, giving iOS users access to multiple Apple subscription services for a flat monthly fee, saving subscribers between $6 to $25 per month depending on which plan they choose. Plans range from $14.95 a month to $29.95 a month. The Individual and Family plans include Apple Music, Apple TV+, Arcade and iCloud. The Premier plan includes those four subscription services plus Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+, Apple’s new fitness app. This bundle is also available year-round, but it would make an affordable gift for Apple users.

Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction and The Membership Economy, talked about the trend toward subscription bundles at Subscription Show 2020. She recommended that subscription companies experiment with different types of bundles and, when partnering with another company to create a subscription bundle, both parties should ensure the relationship is mutually beneficial. She also recommended that companies keep the bundles simple.

“Simple bundles are easier for customers to understand – all you can

5. Offer freebies – free gifts, free shipping and BOGO

Everyone loves free stuff, whether it is a free gift with purchase, free shipping, or a buy-one-get-one-free offer. Freebies are also popular with gift givers who can (a) add the bonus item to their subscription gift for the recipient; (b) regift the freebie to another recipient; or (c) keep the gift for themselves. These are popular with subscription box companies, but any subscription company can offer free stuff.

Here The Fit Boxx offers a $50 gift voucher with a six-month subscription. This checks off a couple of boxes – a partnership with a complementary company, a freebie, and FOMO because it has a deadline for purchase. [As an added bonus, when subscribers visit The Fit Boxx website, they can connect with the company’s Facebook group.]

Candy Club combined two offers in one – 50% off the first box plus free shipping. Plus it’s candy! You can’t go wrong.

6. Add a personal touch

Online shopping can leave shoppers feeling like they are just a credit card number to your company, not a person. You can change that by following Anne Janzer’s tips on community and connections, and also by adding a personal touch. When you are engaging on social media, by phone, or via email, take the extra time to provide quality customer service to foster long-term relationships. Listen to your customers’ concerns, and answer their questions as quickly and thoroughly as you can. And, whenever possible, send a handwritten note or email to thank your customers for their business.

If you represent a big company like a tech firm, streaming service or SaaS company when personal thank yous are harder to accomplish, thank your customers collectively on social media or via email. The Small Business Administration suggests making a compilation video of staff thanking their customers for their business and wishing them happy holidays.

“Small things can make a big difference when distinguishing yourself from the competition,” said the SBA.

7. Email holiday coupons and promotions

If your subscription company uses email as part of its digital marketing strategy, then sharing holiday coupons and promotions will be a no brainer for you. Make sure that the email is branded and holiday themed, so your customers and prospects will recognize that it has come from you.

Keep it festive, and include a call to action, links to subscriptions or one-time purchases, and a holiday message. Also, make sure the subject of your email line is descriptive but concise. Remarkety suggests using these subject line words to get your email noticed: new, free, sales, now, holiday, save, today, gift, shipping, Christmas, and special. [We’d add subscription too!]

As an added bonus, you can repurpose the creative and use it for your social media campaigns – paid and organic – too. Here’s a great example from Birchbox.

8. Create seasonal boxes

Everyone has someone on their list that is impossible to buy for, which makes the holidays a wonderful time to promote your subscription box service. It truly is the gift that keeps on giving, ideal for college students, aging parents, faraway friends and others important to your customers.

Your offerings allow subscribers to share everything from snacks, meal kits, coffee and wine to face masks, fashion, beauty boxes, and sci-fi and gaming loot. Consider seasonal offerings and bonus boxes as an extra incentive to attract holiday subscription sales, or just remind people how lovely it will be for their gift recipients to receive your gift all year long.

Bonus tip! Also make you subscription options flexible – give them 3-month, 6-month, 9-month and annual options. You can also offer auto-renewal, no renewal and renewal at recipient’s choice as options to give your customers choices.

9. Give subscription gift cards

For shoppers who are on a budget or want to limit how much they spend per gift, consider offering gift cards good toward subscription products and services.

Nordstrom offers a standard gift card, as well as an e-gift card that an be emailed to the gift recipient. Gift cards can be purchased for any amount, and they can be used at a Nordstrom store, at Nordstrom.com or for Nordstrom’s clothing subscription service, Trunk Club. Offering options and flexibility will likely help the upscale retailer increase subscription sales this holiday season.

The Winc wine club is another subscription box service that allows shoppers to buy gift cards or subscriptions for their loved ones. Amounts for the gift cards are flexible. Shoppers can buy 1-month ($60), 2-month ($100) or 3-month ($150) subscriptions, or they can select the amount of their choosing. The bottom line – Winc is flexible which makes gift purchasing and giving a breeze.

10. Host a contest or giveaway

Contests and giveaways are a fun way to engage with your audience. Shoppers and subscribers enjoy having the opportunity to try to win something, as well as sharing their experience with a particular brand. In many cases, a follower who enters a contest may be someone who has never subscribed before, so it is possible they could convert if they have a positive experience – or that they at least think favorably of the subscription company in the future.

From the brand’s perspective, it is an opportunity to grow a base of followers (by asking followers to tag their friends),and engage directly with customers. Contests and giveaways do require a bit of work to set up and monitor, and brands must be careful to follow a platform’s rules for contests and giveaways.

Also, be sure to use appropriate #subscription hashtags and emojis, and make sure that everyone follows the rules. We like Instagram for contests and giveaways. Contests and giveaways seem to get lost on Facebook and Twitter in the fray of NSFW (not safe for work) subscription contests. [Helpful hint: Don’t search for “subscription contests” on Twitter. The content is not family friendly.]

11. Try paid marketing campaigns

It would be great if we didn’t need to advertise our subscription products and services – if people just found our products and services on their own, if everyone shared their positive experiences with our subscriptions with their friends and family, and if all our marketing tactics worked everytime. That isn’t, however, realstic. Fortunately, paid marketing campaigns do not have to be expensive (though they can be). Paid ads can be done through social media advertising, pay-per-click, search advertising, digital advertising, etc.

Other paid campaigns involve paying social media influencers to promote your subscription products and services. Paid ads are the most affordable option. Even if you don’t have an in-house creative team, paid ads are easy to create and set up via social media platform ad managers, measure and tweak. They are usually marked “Sponsored” so they can be differentiated from organic content. While the creative and messaging may be identical between free and paid campaigns, the difference will be audience reach. With a paid campaign, your company can designate the target audience and set the budget. The ad dashboard will provide complete analytics and you can tweak if you are not getting in front of the right people.

12. Promote brand awareness

HubSpot defines brand awareness as how familiar a company’s target audience is with a brand and how well the audience recognizes it. While this is an intangible attribute for brands, it is incredibly important to a company’s long-term success. It also speaks to the importance of the customer journey. Janzer explains that subscription companies must earn the trust of their subscribers, whether they are gift givers or recipients. Ideally, holiday subscription sales are not just transactions, but they are customer relationships. From that initial sale, the nurturing of those relationships begins.

So how exactly do subscription companies promote brand awareness during the holidays? It may be easier to do than at any other time, because there are so many non-promotional message opportunities and so many different celebrations around the world that can be acknowledged. The holiday season is also a good time to reflect on the year behind us, and to look at the year ahead. By simply being present and conveying a positive, inspirational attitude, subscription companies can promote brand awareness with simple marketing tactics – email marketing, social media marketing, postcards, etc.

The bottom line is that brand awareness is not about making the sale, but about showing people who you are as a company and the values you embody. It is about corporate social responsibility, helping your community, sponsoring events, telling stories, and more. Like-minded people will follow you and may choose to do business with you.

We would love to hear what marketing strategies you would add to this list to boost holiday sales in 2020! Email us at [email protected] and we’ll consider them for future articles. Happy Holidays from the Subscription Insider team!