For a lot of business’s at least.
And for the eager beaver reply guys itching to respond:
I know I say this as someone who sells not just one but multiple subscription offers.
Thus why I said “a lot of” businesses, and launching something new.
I say this due to everyone and their mother suddenly offering a new subscription offer thanks to sites like substack and, more recently, Twitter, that makes offering subscriptions easier than ever. Not to mention every big name brand from entertainment to clothing to car companies, to mobile apps to restaurants to even doctors selling subscriptions — where people are starting to cancel frivolous cheapy subscriptions like it’s a sport for their own sanity.
All of which is why:
1. I told Troy Broussard I didn’t want to sell our Subscription Biz offer this year
2. I am debating whether or not to even sell my elBenbo Press book later this year
It’s much better for a lot of businesses I’ve seen to sell in bulk instead.
Supplement marketers with solid direct response game figured this out years ago. Bulk is way more profitable than subscriptions due to lack of consumption, which causes churn. In other words, sell 6 months of a product up front, when average customer cancels in 3 months, and the hardcore users will keep buying bulk repeatedly when they run out anyway.
Selling bulk often means you get more profits with less work.
Plus, doing it with a fraction of the competition since everyone’s selling subscription offers.
Of course, it’s one thing with supplements.
But what about with information and other types of offers?
The answer:
1. Sell your product, then upsell more of that product
2. Or sell product with as many high quality 1-click upsells as you can
This is why I’ve been adding more 1-click upsells to my books lately.
For example:
My Email Client Horde book has 6 upsells.
And, yes, people take many of them, and sometimes even ALL of them.
(When I last offered that book, a customer took all 6 — and got a $2,500 charge on their credit card, after which his American Express contacted my merchant account to tell me to gather the info needed to validate the purchase, if that tells you something…)
I’d have to sell over 25 new Email Players subscriptions to match that.
And that is why, if launching a new offer, I’d sell bulk right now, not a subscription.
In my opinion the time to launch a subscription offer was 5-10 years ago, not now.
Those of us who already have the loyal subscriber base in place, logistics nailed down, and back end humming need only wait out the horde of normies flooding the subscription offer space as they start dropping like flies over the next several months.
I predict the market will “reset” like this after 2024.
Until then?
When asked I recommend selling bulk and not launching subscriptions.
Then, when conditions are ripe for subscriptions again, launch a subscription if you want.
When everyone zigs, zag, Chuckles.
That’s the ticket…
Ben Settle
