For any sustainable subscription or membership business, converting new paying customers is just one piece of the puzzle. Subscriber retention presents a very different challenge and one with greater significance for the long-term viability of any subscription business.
Successful subscription-based publishers understand that their efforts to retain subscribers must begin immediately after a purchase is completed and that a critical first step in effective subscriber retention and churn mitigation is a robust and carefully considered onboarding strategy.
What is subscriber onboarding?
Onboarding is the process by which a new customer is initiated into a subscription or membership product: It’s the experience they’re met with in the moments, hours, and weeks after their initial purchase is made.
Why subscriber onboarding is important
Effective onboarding experiences are crucial because it’s during this initial period of exposure that subscriber expectations are set, immediate product engagement can be encouraged, and powerful early value perceptions are formed. Beginning a new subscriber relationship on the right foot and creating a strong first impression can have an outsized impact on that subscriber’s long-term value perception, likelihood to renew, and — ultimately — revenues for the publisher.
Meanwhile, a lackluster onboarding process presents a significant liability and can leave subscribers feeling confused by what they’ve purchased, underwhelmed by the value of a product, or even duped and short-changed. Poor onboarding processes can also prove particularly costly with monthly and weekly subscription terms — for which the window to communicate and deliver value is drastically shorter than quarterly or annual ones — and can represent a wasted opportunity for publishers who offer free or discounted trials.
Beyond boosting early engagement and value perception, thoughtful onboarding experiences can also help drive other parts of publishers’ operations and businesses. They can be used to collect data on users and their preferences to help inform future content and product development, for example, or to help segment audiences for use in advertising and sponsorship sales.