Episode 75: Helping Brands Create Subscription Services with Matthew Holman, Head of Growth at Qpilot.cloud

In the latest episode of Subscriptions Scaled, we chat with Matthew Holman, Head of Growth at QPilot.cloud. 

In the episode, we learn everything from Matthew’s background to how QPilot works. Keep reading to learn more about the episode.

Matthew Holman

Matthew is a growth marketer, which means he does a lot of content creation and lead generation for QPilot’s software. He also makes many audit analysis recommendations, which involve working directly with customers. This fits nicely with content creation.

Before Matthew worked for QPilot, he worked for an e-commerce logistics company called Essential Hub. So, he’s very familiar with the shipping and logistics space.

When QPilot were looking for a marketer, they wanted someone who understood delivery and shipping outcomes. 

QPilot

QPilot consists of intelligent software for scheduled and automated purchasing and predictive supply chain management.

While many great platforms are built to create custom and robust billing solutions, QPilot is focused on delivery outcomes. That’s where QPilot shines and has a lot of differentiation. 

QPilot does a lot with direct-to-consumer marketing. The company is on WooCommerce right now but will be rolling out a separate Shopify and Salesforce integration later this year. The company also works a lot with B2B wholesale.

Standing Out from the Competition

From a subscription standpoint, there aren’t that many experts in the space. If you’re working at a reasonably large DTC company looking for someone to manage a subscription program, you’ll probably look for a marketer or somebody with an IT background who’s worked in subscriptions before.

There aren’t many companies with this strong niche or experience with roles within a lot of companies that focus specifically on subscriptions. This role is often put upon the marketing department to determine.

A lot of QPilot’s content resonates with people hoping to figure out how to run a subscription service. These may be people who’ve worked in DTC for a decade but have never run a subscription program before, but their business is suddenly prioritizing it.

QPilot creates content that helps people understand how subscriptions work, the best practices for running them, and what other brands are doing. 

The other unique selling point QPilot has is flexibility. The company offers a flexible subscription service, which is overkill for a lot of businesses as they don’t need that.

However, that’s fine, as QPilot isn’t a fit for everybody. The company is looking for people that need something flexible.   

Many people don’t usually need to change what they get in their subscription box or when. But if someone needs pet food, for example, and they’re going to be in Miami next week instead of Denver, they may want to change where it gets delivered. That’s where QPilot shines. 

Helping customers through their journey

The easiest way QPilot helps people is if they’re already selling online and have decided to try and offer a subscription service. They get a lot of businesses that are trying to figure out how they can launch from scratch.

Matthew gets a lot of questions from people including; how long it takes to create a complex, fully-integrated, incredible customer experience subscription program. After all, you don’t build a Dollar Shave Club overnight.

However, a lot of brands seem to think they can get to Tesla’s level between six months and two years, which is very unrealistic.

Matthew often counsels brands to help them figure out their journey. He helps them work out what type of offering to provide and why people would want to buy from them on a subscription business.

Brands can then start gathering data and testing, learning why people might cancel their subscriptions. This is important because good brands understand that if somebody stops their subscription because they’ve received too much, they can then change their product page to explain exactly how much they should order.

If somebody cancels because they feel like there aren’t enough flavor options and they’re getting tired of the same ones every week, a good brand will innovate and roll out new flavors.

That’s how companies should be thinking about their subscription program. They need to figure it out as they go.

Why companies are choosing subscriptions

Many companies opt to run subscription services because they think it will draw in more revenue, predictability, and profitability. If they feel their profits are unpredictable, they may want to choose a subscriber model to have a clearer idea of what’s coming in.

The problem is that sometimes those conversations are with people who think running a subscription service will be easy. They believe they can flip a switch and have all this new revenue.

However, a subscription service should be viewed as a separate channel in a sense. It’s going to have different technology requirements, sales approaches, and messaging. You can’t use the same email flows for subscriptions as you do for an abandoned cart. They have to be different.

The best brands use a subscription model because they see the data. There are brands that are good at converting to subscribers right away. That’s because they’ve positioned their product in a way that the customer feels it should be something to use regularly.

The subscription should be easy to manage and cancel. If people feel comfortable in their subscription and aren't trapped, they will likely stick around for a while.

A shift from a monthly subscription

There’s been a shift away from the monthly subscription, but it isn’t a drastic one. Monthly is still the most common frequency in subscriptions. But brands are starting to see that if you want to create a more engaging experience, flexibility is appreciated.

Flexibility gives some power and control back to the user. The future of subscriptions could be more usage, or consumption, based to meet these needs. 

For example, a young male in his twenties will consume protein powder at a different rate than someone who’s ten years older.

With his experience in the industry, it seems that if someone could predict the future of prescriptions, it could well be Matthew Holman. For now, though, let’s wait and see.

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