Steps to Developing A Subscription Model for B2B Brands.

Whether you accept it or not, there are numerous brands just like yours who are ready to hijack your customers. Great products, flawless service/product delivery, excellent customer experience and all those good stuff is no longer enough. But what can you do to secure your customer base? How can you prevent competitors from luring your customers away with other exciting offers? Creating a subscription model for B2B brands might just be the way forward. 

Building a sustainable business involves a lot of strategising and re-strategising. Especially with events like the global pandemic which impacted the world’s economy, crumbled businesses, and reduced people’s purchasing power. It’s no longer business as usual for many business owners. To ensure your business survives this time, you need to devise a means to consistently offer value to your customers and remain profitable as a brand. 

Why is a Subscription Model for B2B Brands Necessary?

Regardless of the size of your B2B company or industry, the implementation of a subscription model is absolutely possible. Subscription models for B2B brands work in a manner that provides the business you serve an opportunity to make a regular payment for your service over a period of time. A subscription model is a customer-focused approach where customers have the opportunity to customise your offerings to meet their individual needs. This way they never get to feel cheated since they are enjoying just the value they paid for – nothing more, nothing less.

Apart from that, the liberty to pay in bits over a certain period makes more sense in this season where business have limited resources and are operating on a stringent budget like never before. Look at it this way, unlike the regular B2B approach that requires a one-time payment, businesses will find it more reasonable to pay for a service in bits and opt-out anytime if they aren’t getting the value you promised. 

In recent times, many companies offer a free trial period ranging from a couple of days to a full month just to allow businesses to experience their service/ products. If your offering is great and meets their needs, they will not hesitate to select a subscription plan that is perfect for them. You can now get to accurately calculate your Customer Lifetime Value amongst other metrics that were previously unpredictable.

Steps to Developing A Subscription Model for B2B Brands

Even as a service-oriented B2B brand, you can adopt a subscription model. Here’s how to go about adopting.

Understand Why You Need this Model

We have already established a number of reasons why creating a subscription model for your B2B brand is necessary. But we must add that every business is dynamic and times keep changing rapidly so you mustn’t expect that the methods used in getting and retaining your customers is a sustainable approach. What happens when they can no longer afford you? Or find a better deal which befits them more? Once you perfectly understand this model, you are more likely to come up with reasonable subscription packages.

Decide How  Users Will Get Value 

Remember that at the centre of your existence as a brand is your ability to provide solution(s) to problems. This means to give out value to your customers. Your subscription model must be carefully thought out to ensure that people actually get value for their investment. Do not simply create subscription plans and expect people to keep renewing those plans when they are unsatisfied. 

Group them Into Packages

Like we mentioned earlier, every type of business can adopt a subscription model if you review and assess your business properly. If you are a B2B brand, the easiest way to start grouping your services into subscription packages is to highlight every individual service/products you offer as a brand. Once you have been finalised, the next step is to determine which services will be put together as a single package. Most brands have three(3)-four(4) subscription plans which could be named as ‘Free’, ‘Basic’, ‘Standard’, and ‘Premium’. You could get creative with the names of your various plans. Also, ensure that the services grouped in each package is relevant to a customer who needs your services in that quantity/quality as the case may be.

Fix Appropriate Prices 

Pricing is an aspect that must be critically looked into when developing a subscription model for brands. You must be willing to provide value that justifies whatever price you fix there. Be guided that your customers will keep paying that price for a period of time so it must be affordable enough to keep them coming around each time without them digging holes in their pockets. Never make them feel exploited.

Create / Update Your Platform to Suit the Subscription Model

On your website, customers should be able to select whichever package they intend to opt-in for. You should also integrate a payment gateway to help you collect and process your funds appropriately. 

With these steps, you can go ahead to launch your subscription-based products/service as a B2B brand. As you grow and learn from your processes, keep reviewing your subscription model, packages, and prices from time-to-time. This helps you take advantage of any low hanging fruit or fix what doesn’t work. In all, your customers should be at the centre, you must do everything ethically possible to retain them if you must keep existing. They are your most valuable assets. Developing a subscription model for B2B brands might just be the secret vault you need to unlock in order to enjoy consistent cash flow in your business. 

Big Field Digital is a B2B company offering digital solutions to brands who wish to scale and leverage the growing online community to experience financial growth. We recently launched SME Digital Plug, our subsidiary company for SMEs who wish to pay monthly and enjoy all-round digital growth at an affordable rate. Let our highly-skilled team be an extension of your marketing department without breaking the bank. Our services include Website Design and Maintenance, Facebook/Instagram, Per-Per-Click Ads (Google Ads), Social Media Management, Email Marketing and Automation, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Get plugged by visiting the website to select your preferred package today!