Fighting seasonality with subscriptions

Many industries are highly seasonal, resulting in reduced income for businesses. Subscriptions provide an advantage.

Exploring additional sources of revenue during slow seasons is a general recommendation for all businesses impacted by seasonality. This can be accomplished in several ways. One of the most effective ones is subscriptions.

Subscription plans

You may be offering products, services, or training on a one-off basis. When people take time off, go on vacations and simply spend less during slow seasons, the subscription business model can help reduce the downside.

The predictable recurring subscription revenue you will receive from your subscriber base will act as a cash flow buffer during the slow season.

You can design a subscription plan by observing the consumption patterns of your repeat customers. If they come back to you monthly or at least quarterly, it could make sense to create a monthly subscription plan with auto-renewal. The pricing of this plan could include a slight discount off of the face value of your offering to reward your subscribers.

Some of your subscribers might want to cancel their subscriptions during the slow seasons and reactivate during peak seasons. To encourage your members to keep their memberships active all year round, you might want to offer subscription plans with long-term commitments such as quarterly and annual plans that include desirable perks and discounts.

Quarterly plans can be positioned as seasonal offerings. Every season is a new beginning, and people love a fresh start. You can offer your seasonal collection as a subscription for that season that auto-renews four times a year.

The annual subscription plan will be an especially effective tool in your arsenal to battle seasonality. This will not be for everyone since it's a higher price commitment, but it'll be a great option for your customers who can afford it. You can price the annual plan with a one or 2-month discount. e.g., if the monthly subscription is $35, your annual plan could be $350 (instead of $420). That would offer two months off to your customers who pay you upfront for the whole year. You may even offer additional perks to your annual subscribers to sweeten the deal. e.g., you could include bonus goodies for your annual subscribers your monthly subscribers won't get.

Your business will benefit from this subscription revenue and upfront cash flow that normally wouldn’t have translated into sales during the slow seasons. You will reward your subscribers accordingly for their long-term commitment to you, and everyone wins.

Entering slow seasons with the added support of your loyal subscribers will relieve financial stress and help you enjoy what you do best: provide magic for your audience.

We can help you set up monthly, quarterly, and annual subscription plans hosted on Subkit's high-SEO platform, ready to collect payments in under 30 minutes. Get in touch.