Episode 54: On Building a Successful Subscription Service with Christopher George, Chairman and Co-Founder of SUBTA

In this week’s episode of Subscriptions: Scaled, we speak with Christopher George, Chairman and Co-Founder of SUBTA.

Christopher is an expert in the subscriptions industry and has plenty of advice to share with listeners. In this episode, we learn everything from how to drive traffic to how to create a strong and growing brand community.

Keep reading to learn more about the episode.

The Subscription Trade Association (SUBTA)

The episode begins with Christopher explaining more about SUBTA and how the organization works. 

The Subscription Trade Association (SUBTA) is a community of innovators, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and hard-working teams aiming to scale their businesses and grow in the subscription industry.

It’s the largest community of direct-to-consumer subscriptions. The business was built to help business professionals find profitability through subscription businesses.

Christopher saw that nobody was facilitating the community of the direct-to-consumer brand’s fast-growing space, so he decided to build SUBTA along with the largest event in the industry, SubSummit.

SubSummit

In the episode, we learn about the popular conference SUBTA hosts called SubSummit. 

SubSummit is the largest event in the world for direct-to-consumer subscription brands. It involves high-profile brands including Disney, Netflix, The New York Times, and so many more, which says a lot about its success.

The conference was established to bring together the leaders in the subscriptions space and curate content for those who want to learn and build their business. There’s also an exhibit hall full of suppliers at the conference that can help attendees grow their businesses.

Christopher explains that a big part of the conference held in 2022 is going to focus on creative ways for customer acquisition. Attendees will learn everything from supply chain issues, operations, fulfillment, and more.

When it comes to acquisition, whether it’s influencer or affiliate marketing, guests will hear about proactive retention. 

Christopher explains that proactive retention is huge, and many businesses in the industry will need to focus on it. Proactive retention involves service improvements, process enhancements, and quality initiatives that promote customer loyalty.

At the SubSummit, there’s plenty of content around starting a subscription. There’s also some higher-level conversations and a great deal of networking. Christopher also shares that there’s plenty of opportunities to meet others in the industry and chances to learn from them to grow a successful subscription business.

Christopher then talks about the company’s experience hosting the first conference since the spread of Covid-19.

Driving Traffic

We learn Christopher’s views on driving traffic for companies running subscriptions. He talks about the importance of deep-diving into marketing strategies for the best success, and how different methods work better for various companies.

Christopher explains that whether a company chooses affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, social media ads, or another marketing method, it’s essential to dive deep and understand how well each strategy is working.

He asks brands to ask the question: What’s the customer lifetime value from each of those different segments and marketing campaigns put together?

Christopher explains that you can’t make a blanket statement about whether a particular marketing strategy works well or not because it may work for some types of businesses but not others.

He asks business owners to question how they’re deep-diving into the strategies they’re using and how to optimize them more for better acquisition.

Rewarding Long-Term Customers

Christopher also discusses tracking cross-platform traffic and the concept of rewarding the long-term customers of a subscription service. He explains that offering loyal customers an experience that they’re not getting on a retail level lets them feel part of the community and appreciated by a brand.

He explains that the customer experience is highly important. Brands should show customers their company values and what their mission is. They should be consistent in their communication to customers and prove their sustainability, if possible.

Brands need to think about the new generation of consumers and what’s important to them. For example, nowadays, many people are more attracted to brands that are eco-friendly or give back to their community.

When brands think about building loyalty, they should create an experience for customers that grows community. According to Christopher, community businesses win now more than ever. He explains that if you’re not a community business, you’re competing against Amazon and you’ll never win.

Building Community

This leads us onto another key topic of conversation, which is how some brands build community. 

Christopher explains that building a community often comes down to the customer experience and service level. For example, are people posting about your brand and using hashtags? Are you responding to them?

If brands are communicating with their customers, that’s when they start to build a community, and people begin to feel more connected with a company.

When brands build community, people become a lot more loyal to the company. Social media groups like those on Facebook can help a great deal in fostering communities.

If there’s a social media group with exciting and relevant content, people are going to start talking about your brand. But building a strong community isn’t an easy recipe. Otherwise, everyone would do it. However, for companies that get it right, it’s highly worthwhile.

For some brands, growing a community starts to happen naturally.

Christopher also believes it’s crucial how brands approach customers on social media. He notes that it’s essential to engage consumers and communicate with them. He believes that the way you present your brand has an inherent effect on its building.

Dealing With Unhappy Customers

Christopher talks about dealing with unhappy customers, and admits it’s impossible to please everyone with a subscription service.

He shares that it’s essential to address unhappy customers, and business owners must also understand that in most cases, only a few people aren’t content with the service. Unless there’s an apparent problem, it’s essential not to take negative feedback too much to heart.

However, Christopher still advises business owners to take negative feedback seriously to help them keep building their brand. At the same time, it’s essential not to get caught up in it or stress too much.

Create a customer-focused brand, and you’re likely to build an excellent company full of loyal customers.

Towards the end of the episode, Christopher shares his advice for new startups hoping to build a subscription service.

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