How Subscription Billing Can Increase Artisan Revenue

In many ways, artisan businesses like micro-breweries and other boutique manufacturers are prime examples of synergy waiting to happen when it comes to subscription billing models. Their focus on frequently changing, small-batch product lines marks a perfect opportunity for capitalizing on a recurring customer relationship to increase revenue and strengthen the company.

Putting Consumer Inertia to Work

Consumer inertia remains the bane of marketers and advertising campaigns and refers to the simple fact that most consumers resist changing products to a stubborn degree, especially if it’s a product they use frequently. A customer may love the artisan micro-brew they impulsively picked up one time at the store, but the next time they’re in that aisle they’ll almost certainly gravitate towards their tried and true big brand, even if they don’t enjoy it as much.

A subscription model can break this trend and redirect it in the artisan’s favor by making those micro-brews a regular feature in the consumer’s consumption patterns. When a consumer knows they have a ready supply of delicious artisan beer already at home or a shipment on the way, they probably won’t even stop by the beer aisle. Before long, the micro-brews are the product with inertia, and the competitive dynamic has been successfully reversed.

A Built-in Testing Pool

Although artisan businesses often focus on experimentation and constant re-invention, reliable revenue is still going to depend on at least a few recurring product lines. Knowing when to promote a one-off product to a full-time offering can involve a lot of guessing, especially when a business has little direct contact with its customer base.

Product subscriptions can provide a source of consumer testing by including samples of new products and prospective roll-outs along with a customer’s regular delivery. Businesses can include survey information to solicit customer feedback about the new product and use that to help calibrate their plans for the future. To get the best response rates, surveys should be extremely brief and easy to complete. Many people are conditioned to avoid online surveys, so a simple pre-paid postcard with five or fewer quick questions about the product is likely to get the best response.

A Channel to Upselling

Once a consumer has been trained to switch their inertia to the artisan product, their new loyalty to the brand makes them promising targets for upsells. Whether it’s upgrading to a larger subscription package or simply taking advantage of one-off promotional offers on related products, that brand loyalty will boost the effectiveness of product advertisements included with their regular subscription deliveries.

Not sure where to start when it comes to finding a subscription billing company that fits your needs? Download our free Six Must-Haves guide, which covers the features you need in a subscription billing service, why you need them, and comes with a bonus feature checklist: