How to use social to keep subscribers

By Marketing Team

Subscription-based services revenue boils down to two key things: customer acquisition and customer retention.

In a recent study it was found the average length of time a consumer keeps a subscription service is just 125 days, making the drop off rate a huge challenge for many subscription brands.

If brands are serious about sustaining their user base, they must implement a solid social retention strategy.

If you're a subscription marketer that wants to learn how to leverage social to keep a strong flow of subscriptions, below are our top tips:

1- Mine social data for valuable insights

Alongside measuring KPI’s such as downloads, installs, sign ups and purchases for acquisition campaigns, you can tap into additional social media data streams for retention strategies.

Using social listening to monitor real-time reactions and comments of products and services can provide your brand with valuable insights into how your brand is being received by your users. What are they engaged with? What do they love about your subscription product or service?

Harnessing this data will help you to develop granular targeting campaigns tailored to your existing users needs which will go a long way in building customer loyalty, and contributing to your customer retention strategy.

2 - Reinforce the benefits of your premium plan

Leverage social advertising to launch campaigns targeted to existing users and reinforce all of the great features and value your user base gets with your service.


This can include convincing people to stay after a free trial ends or making sure users continue to get what they want from your product or service over the long term.

By using social to run personalised campaigns which highlight all of the benefits your users are getting, you’re much more likely to increase your chance of generating renewals and for your users to feel that your product or service is worth their investment.

As well as promoting the value of your product or service, you can run campaigns which highlight forthcoming features, offer VIP perks for loyal customers, annual discounts and ways to educate your buyers on how to get the most from your product or service.

The more you engage your customers, the more likely you are to create super users who are loyal to your brand and less likely to switch to a competitor.

3- Go above and beyond

Many subscription users choose not to renew subscriptions when expectations haven’t been met - making customer service a key component for subscription user base retention.

The number one most important thing modern consumers expect is a fast response. In a recent study conducted by Edison Research it was cited that 42% of consumers who attempt to contact a brand via social media expect a response within 60 minutes.

You can use social to exceed customer expectations and build strong and lasting relationships with your customers by automating your customer service with social chatbots.

Using a chatbot provides customers with an intelligent assistant that will converse with them almost like a human consultant would and your brand can utilise this technology to increase customer happiness and reduce churn.

4- Win back lost customers

Many subscription brands experience a weekly drop out rate from their customers and tend to focus their efforts on acquiring new customers.

It is vital to understand why your customers are leaving, and you can use social to target survey campaigns to customers who left and run campaigns focused on winning them back.

To do this, remove the email addresses of your lost customers from your contact list and create a seperate list with their details which can be used to create a custom audience on your social platforms.

This custom audience list can be used to launch social campaigns focused on winning lost customers back. Simply set up and launch an ad campaign which serves content tailored towards your lost audience with incentivised free gifts, a free months membership or products and services which are less expensive or offer a different variation of products.

Serving ads with offers which are more suited to their needs is a great way to bring them back full circle.

Final words

Whilst attracting new customers may be an important part of the subscription marketing model, it's not the only key to success. Retention is equally important and social can play a crucial role in helping your brand increase value and maintain loyalty from your customers.

To find out how Adglow's social advertising services could be the ideal solution to help you retain your subscriber base, download our subscription services white paper here

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