Winning in The Subscription Economy

March 25, 2016 by

Winning in The Subscription Economy

“In order to draw meaning from an example it doesn’t have to be from your world.” – Malcom Gladwell

Mind Blowing Facts

Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple have a combined market cap (total market value of outstanding shares) of approximately $1.72 trillion US Dollars.

This equates to the GDP of Canada, thereby making them collectively equivalent to the 10th largest country in the world. Think about that for a moment.

These companies have one thing in common: Their business models are designed to capitalize on subscription relationships.

The good news is you can learn from their respective business models how to make your small business a winner in the subscription economy.

Amazon: A Retail Buying Subscription

Thanks to its Prime subscription product, Amazon controls 43% of all eCommerce worldwide. The roughly 10 billion US Dollars Amazon generates with Prime subscriptions pales in comparison to the revenue it generates from buyers with a subscription discount mindset.

Facebook: A Social Subscription Community

Everything Facebook does as a  free membership community is designed to learn as much about our behaviors as possible. Then it monetizes that data with advertising. The reason this community remains free is the users are the product advertisers are paying to reach.

Google: A Subscription Identity Service

YouTube, Contacts and Docs (Drive) are just a few of the many free Google subscription services that collectively establish your online identity. Paradoxically, the more Google knows about you the better it can serve you with these services, while also better serving the advertisers willing to pay to reach you and people with similar identities.

Apple: A Subscription Experience

We think of Apple as a company that sells innovative products, and it does that exceptionally well because it is intensely focused on guiding your subscription experience with its products and services. This is why there are just a few product choices available from selected retail outlets, and why Apple now offers economic incentives to rent rather than own your next iPhone.

Your Digital Subscription Communities

One of the reasons blogging is not what it used to be is that when Google killed Google Reader many people stopped using RSS to subscribe to blogs. Smart businesses took notice and shifted to email subscriptions to deliver their content and marketing messages.

Start thinking in terms of digital subscription communities. You will realize that email newsletters, podcasts and membership sites are opportunities for capitalizing on the subscription economy. I’ll be using all three and more at Landscape Digital Institute.

That brings us to how you can monetize your digital subscription communities. This could be with advertising like the big dogs, or more likely the sale of your products and services.

Personally, I like all three for different reasons. We’ll discuss this further in a future episode of This Old New Business Podcast.

Are you a lawn or landscape or related green industry professional?

Consider joining our free Landscape Digital Institute community to discover relevant resources, tools and training on all aspects of digital business, selling and marketing

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subscription economy. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

The Power of Engagement in An Automated World

August 28, 2015 by

The Power of Engagement in An Automated World

Did you know that if you have consistently low engagement on Facebook the bar for achieving it the next time is raised even higher? That’s how the algorithims work.

While this may seem unfair, the truth is all of the networks favor people and businesses that already have a proven audience. To make room for them, much of everything and everyone else gets ignored.
In our media saturated world this makes complete sense. These channels are vying for people’s attention, so they want to deliver media that is most in demand.

Here’s basically how it works on Facebook. One, two, three strikes and you are out! If you publish three consecutive duds on your Facebook page, the algorithm reasons you are not ready for the big leagues and sends you to the minors.

You need to get some hits, and that means stepping back to assess what works well on the respective channels, while concurrently encouraging engagement with it.

To Earn More Engagement Start Engaging

The engagement metrics the respective social networks use to validate your authority include likes, comments, shares and retweets (or the equivalent). If your content is not earning these signals, especially shares, then you need a new plan.

Apply a similar analysis to other media channels, such as your blog and digital newsletters. If you are not receiving engagement, then either the content is missing the mark or you simply need to open the door to feedback.

I encourage and receive a responses to my newsletter every week. They are greatly appreciated because they help to make it better.

How about you?

The simplest way to enhance your engagement is developing a system for doing so. Here are a few ideas.

#1 – Ask influentials to share your content. You have to ask nicely and carefully choose before inquiring or you may close some doors forever. Of course, be sure the content is useful and relevant to their interests, and clearly communicate that.

#2 – Freshen your lists of subscribers and followers. Most of us have email lists of hundreds to thousands, but we only occasionally engage with a few. Consider personally emailing 5­-10 subscribers every week to connect and warm up your relationship with them. Apply similar tactics to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on.

#3 – Seek sustainable impact. The surest way to sustain personal and professional relevance on all of your media channels is to test and analyze what earns engagement and publish more of it. Commit to making everything you publish a winner, because one­ hit wonders are soon forgotten.

That’s the goal. People like to engage with winners, and true winners graciously create opportunities for personal, one­-to-­one engagement.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

Facebook Marketing: How to Target the Right People Every Time

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Pinterest Marketing: How to Build Sustainable Website Traffic

December 5, 2014 by

This is Episode 20 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. If you have been ignoring Pinterest for growing your business, you may be surprised to learn that it often drives more traffic than sites such LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit … combined! Do I have your attention now? I thought so. Many of us […]

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Inhabit One Social Media Channel

November 20, 2014 by

Unless your company is a big brand, it’s unlikely your customers are scattered across multiple social media channels. Why not simplify your life and improve your marketing efforts by choosing just one? Consolidate Your Resources As social media continues to evolve, it is increasingly important to evaluate the respective channels and the allocation of your […]

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Google+ Communities: Amplify Your Content In Search

September 12, 2014 by

This is Episode 8 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. Earlier this year Social Media Examiner released an extensive social media marketing industry report that revealed learning Google+ was a top priority for businesses. One of the reasons for this is they intuitively understand Google+ impacts Google search results. However, there is a […]

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Facebook Marketing: Attracting Your Ideal Audience

September 5, 2014 by

This is Episode 7 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. I have to be honest. I have not been a big fan of Facebook for marketing my business. However, this conversation with Mike Gingerich changed my thinking, and it just may do the same for you. Mike genuinely likes to help people, so listen […]

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Modern Chamber Marketing: How to Successfully Build a Digital Community

August 12, 2014 by

This is Episode 4 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan. Join me and Frank Kenny as we discuss how to succeed these days with digital marketing. Frank will share how he facilitates a vibrant Facebook group to build community that keeps its global membership actively engaged. You will find this interview especially interesting […]

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LinkedIn: A Global Economic Platform

July 28, 2014 by

It’s not necessary to understand how the social networks function to derive utility from them. However, that knowledge will not only give your business more clarity for making better decisions, it will help it identify and adapt to emerging trends long before the competition. The magic that enables the various digital networks to do what […]

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State of The Social Marketing Industry

May 27, 2014 by

We’re almost at the midpoint for this year, making this an ideal time to assess your social marketing efforts and reallocate resources as necessary. To give you some benchmarks, I’ll be sharing research results from the 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and our friends at Social Media Examiner. This is […]

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