As a subscription brand, finding innovative ways to attract new customers and retain existing ones is crucial for sustained growth. One powerful strategy that can help achieve these goals is cross-promotion. By partnering with other brands you can tap into new audiences, enhance your value proposition, and gain valuable insights into your market. If you incorporate a “bundle” type feature into your subscription cross-promotion strategy you can also improve your LTV by 20% or more.

Who should subscription brands enter cross-promotions with? The answer is broader than you might think. Because consumers are viewing their subscription portfolio as one, living, breathing, evolving, entity, there are potential revenue optimizing partnerships available across industries, niches and genres. Let's dive into the types of brands that can help you create powerful and profitable cross-promotional strategies.

Cross-Promoting with Similar Brands: Offering optional DIY “bundles”

Cross-promoting with brands that offer similar products or services can lead to compelling bundling opportunities. These partnerships allow you to create optionally bundled offers that enhance the value for your subscribers, encouraging them to stay longer and engage more with your services. Offering consumers the ability to stack and save via these promotions is an ideal way for all parties to generate revenue from the same consumer base, allowing them to choose their favorite service first, but add in additional options at exclusive, promotional rates, as they wish right at purchase.

Example: If you run a streaming service, partnering with another streaming platform or platforms can be a win-win. Your subscribers get access to a broader range of entertainment options, and both /all brands benefit from increased subscribers, engagement, conversion, and retention.

Cross-Promoting with Complementary Brands: Creating a More Enticing Total Package

Pairing your subscription service with complementary brands can create a more holistic and attractive package for consumers. These partnerships are about combining forces to offer something greater than the sum of its parts.

Example: A fitness app could partner with a healthy meal delivery service. Subscribers get not only workout plans but also nutritional support, making their fitness journey more comprehensive and appealing.

Cross-Promoting with Cross-Over Brands: Reaching New Audiences

Sometimes, the best partnerships are with brands that don't have a direct product symmetry but share a similar audience. These cross-over brands allow you to reach new customers who are likely to be interested in your service, even if your products aren't directly related. With the abundance of subscription brands out there, cross-over audiences can be found just about everywhere.

Example: A language learning app could partner with a travel booking platform. While the services are different, both brands target people who are interested in exploring new cultures and experiences.

Mixing and Matching Cross-Promotions: Understanding Your Audience

Experimenting with different types of cross-promotions can provide valuable insights into your audience, pricing, marketing, and revenue strategies. By mixing and matching various partnerships, you can better understand what resonates with your subscribers and what drives the most value.

Example: Rotate partnerships every quarter or so—use a mix of similar, complimentary, and cross-over brands. Track engagement, retention, and conversion metrics to determine the most effective strategies and partnerships, keeping those that work and adding new ones to improve your methods.

Pricing Strategies for Cross-Promotions

When running cross-promotions, it's essential to develop pricing strategies that provide value to customers while maximizing profits. Consider offering tiered pricing options, where customers can choose from different levels of bundled services. Additionally, limited-time promotions and exclusive discounts can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to take advantage of the offer.

Finding the Right Partners

To maximize the benefits of cross-promotions, it’s crucial to find the right partners. Here are some tips:

1. 1. Align Goals: Ensure your potential partner shares similar objectives and values.
2. 2. Evaluate Audience Overlap: Review the demographic and psychographic profiles of both customer bases.
3. 3. Assess Brand Compatibility: Consider the brand image and reputation of your potential partner.
4. 4. Pilot Programs: Start with small, pilot promotions to test the partnership before fully committing.
5. 5. Leverage Existing Tech: Use specialized third party platforms to find, create, and execute cross-promotions.

 

Pricing Strategies for Cross-Promotions

When running cross-promotions, it's essential to develop pricing strategies that provide value to customers while maximizing profits. To keep things simple, all parties should be responsible for choosing the sale price of their services, without the complexity of bundling and revenue share. The price paid is the price earned. This also allows you to create the best value for consumers as well, as prices become stack and save, optional DIY bundles where they can add more services at greater value.

Keep the partnership flexible, so all parties can adjust pricing as needed and quickly learn and iterate to find the pricing sweet spots across different partners.

Marketing Cross-Promotions Effectively

Effective marketing is key to the success of any cross-promotion. Utilize various channels, such as social media, email campaigns, and influencer partnerships, to spread the word about your collaboration. Highlight the unique benefits of the cross-promotion and use compelling visuals and messaging to capture your audience's attention.

Measuring Success and Adjusting Strategies

Finally, it's important to measure the success of your cross-promotions and adjust your strategies accordingly. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer acquisition, retention rates, and revenue growth. Use this data to refine your approach and identify new opportunities for future collaborations.

Third party tools can help recommend partners, find cross-over audiences, execute your promotions, track your data and analytics and even help market, promote and manage your cross-promotions while delivering a seamless user experience.

Conclusion

Cross-promotion strategies offer subscription brands a powerful way to expand their reach, enhance their value proposition, boost profits, share marketing, and gain valuable market insights. By carefully selecting partners and crafting mutually beneficial promotions, you can accelerate growth, improve customer retention, and stay ahead in the competitive subscription market.

Remember to track the performance of your cross-promotions closely and be prepared to iterate and refine your approach based on the results. With the right partnerships and strategies, cross-promotions can become a key driver of success for your subscription brand.