The Art of Acquisition 08: Subscription Packages, How To Move People To Subscribe to Your App

Cherry
6 min readApr 5, 2022

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In our previous articles, we’ve introduced Subscription 101, explained why it’s a thriving model, and detailed users’ journey to subscription. In this article, we will introduce you to trial and intro packages, how to maintain a good strategy for them, and have more users who will be subscribing to your app.

Subscription marketing is another name for customer lifecycle marketing, which provides a long-lasting and sustainable customer relationship and is a key component of any successful mobile app. Creating subscription packages that will generate more users and revenue, is one of the most important steps you should take for generating the maximum results from your app.

As an app developer, you may want to make more money from your work and in this article, you can find some good strategies to do that.

Before we begin, you should know four ways that mobile apps generate revenue.

1- Paid Apps

Mobile apps that have a one-time fee to download are called Paid Apps.

2- In-app Purchases

In-app purchasing refers to the buying of goods and services from inside an application on a mobile device.*

3- Ad Revenue

Ad revenue is the revenue generated from in-app advertising.*

4- Subscription

Subscription-based apps are the kinds of apps that sell repeatedly accessed services.*

a) Auto-Renewal Subscription

Auto-renewable subscriptions provide access to content, services, or premium features in your app on an ongoing basis. They automatically renew at the end of their duration until the user chooses to cancel.*

b) Trial

Subscription apps can offer a trial to their users which allows them to understand and discover the services mobile apps offer before they subscribe to them.

In the trial section of your app, it’s important to showcase the service you offer clearly and make sure you give enough details about your app. Depending on your app’s specialty and your strategy, the trial period of an app can change. For example, Spotify offers a free trial of its premium services for two months. This way, potential users will be able to have the experience of the app for a good amount of time. They can understand why it’s beneficial, the sound quality, and the music and podcast library the app offers, and make a decision. Free trials can last three days, a week, two weeks, a month, two months, and up to 6 months.

c) Subscription Packages

For the apps that are working with the auto-renewal subscription method, the trial should be applied in an efficient way that will help convince potential users and give enough details, so that they can understand what kind of services they may access, and choose their preferred subscription plan. For this efficiency, the duration of the trial is an important factor.

Autorenewal periods are determined simultaneously as you create your subscription packages. The duration of auto-renewals can be weekly, monthly, also can be two, three, six months, or can even last a year. While you’re determining the duration, as well as creating your subscription packages, it’s crucial to understand your different types of users. For example, imagine a fitness app. Let’s separate the users of the app into two different groups.

The first group of users may be the ones that are using the fitness apps heavily, almost every day, and need to access all of the video exercises. The second group of users may use the app most of the time, but less heavily, and want to access some of the video exercises.

For each group of users, you can create different subscription packages and trial durations based on their needs. For example, the first group of users would like to access all of the exercises, and advanced tools of the app. The access to advanced tools can be limited or specialized for each group of users since each of them will have different demands from the app.

d) Optimum Packages

Optimum packages are some kind of ideal packages that are created differently for each country and user target.

To create optimum packages in the best way, marketers should make a user segmentation first. The user segmentation should be based on three elements,

1- Their country

2- The amount of money they’re willing to pay

3- Their auto-renewal choice

User segmentation should be made for each country, with an aim to segment users based on their willingness to pay.

You should group users in the segmentation you’ve made based on their demands, and display different paywalls for each group of users.

Each mobile app has different user profiles, and each user profile demands separate subscription packages. Each group of users also has a different payment level they’re willing to pay. You can conduct tests to determine them or analyze the metrics of your app with a professional team. For example, in some countries, users may be likely to pay less while in other countries, users may be willing to pay more for your app.

Another factor you should pay attention to is the duration of packages. Subscription packages may need to be created differently in terms of their duration. You can determine which countries you can display subscription packages for weekly, monthly, three months, or six months and so on. For example, users in the United States may demand three-month-long subscription packages, while users in Sweden may not be likely to subscribe to this plan and demand longer subscription periods from your app. Each user profile has different demands, subscription, and auto-renewal duration.

You can also find when your users leave your app. If your users in the three-month packages leave your app during the payment time, this result may show you that they’re not likely to make renewals in a short period. Test and analyze results can show you when your churn rate peaks, and you can develop different insights from this outcome.

It’s possible to reflect and gain different perspectives from your test results and find the best strategy. You should try for each country and user profile.

In this way, you can find the optimum package you should use and reach the best outcome and revenue for your mobile app.

Demand Curve

The demand curve is a graphical illustration of the quantity of a good or service demanded at any given price. It illustrates a basic economic theory that as price goes up, the demand for a good or service will decrease.

For mobile apps, most of the operation on subscription packages and trials is to twist (this curve) and in this way, you can meet the demand without having to change your current pricing. There are different strategies that can twist your demand curve. This is where the intro packages come into play.

For the first step, you can create your trial and subscription packages based on the research about your competitors and market. But it’s best if you can conduct an A/B test and strengthen your subscription packages by creating them based on real metrics.

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With the most appropriate subscription plans paired with well-executed trial periods, you can encourage your users to try out the app and subscribe to the service. Having an app with a subscription model, it is important to identify what kind of packages you want to offer and how much value they can provide to your users. This way you can have more subscribed users and generate more profits. But if you have a limited budget and time, you can always get help from professionals. Cherry can help you set the right amount of trial and introductory packages for your users to come back and subscribe to your app.

So, if you are interested and would like to know more, please drop us an email:

hello@getcherry.app

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Cherry

App Publishing Company. | Unlock the full potential of your app. Submit your app now: https://getcherry.app