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March 22, 2022 | Authored by: Jesus Luzardo

New normal = new uncertainties? What subscription businesses need right now to grow

Raise your hand if you are tired of hearing about the “new normal.”

The past couple of years have taught us just how uncertain things can be. And people are feeling it, big time. According to a recent Harris poll, consumers in 2022 are anxious and stressed out. Between the Great Resignation, rising prices, and managing a “hybrid” lifestyle, the new normal is really just a pile of new uncertainties.

For businesses, this is incredibly challenging. Brands have had to learn to adapt quickly on shifting ground at very short notice. Never an easy thing. But there is a huge opportunity here too. For businesses selling subscription-based products and services, there has never been a better time to offer consumers the sense of safety, convenience, and connection of great subscription experiences.

What does a brand need to take hold of this opportunity in an uncertain marketplace and succeed with subscriptions? Let’s look closer.

Agility

Everyone talks about the new normal, but throughout the various waves of the pandemic, consumers have had to constantly acclimate to last minute cancellations, changing plans, and jumping between regular life and hybrid mode. To win customers and satisfy them, businesses must be adaptive to this abnormal state of affairs. They need to move nimbly in the face of change. The way to enable that level of agility is via a subscription management SaaS solution that can integrate rapidly with the business, at any scale.

Small businesses, like a yoga studio, for example, can maintain and optimize the customer journey very quickly via SaaS-based subscription tech, helping to assure a steady stream of revenue even when faced with cancellations of in-person interactions. For large enterprises, SaaS provides the necessary agility and stability for their subscription-based operations, even if they have thousands or even millions of subscribers across the globe.

Clarity via data

We are living in very strange times. What can help businesses make sense of this ever-changing weirdness? Data. Having access to data about your business means you can make decisions that are smarter and logical, based on what’s happening now in terms of subscriber behavior, preferences, and needs. Particularly in the new hybrid mode, with more businesses moving their activities online, there is now a pool of online subscriber data just waiting to be tracked and analyzed, so you can get a better vision of where you are and how to get to where you want to be.

Leveraging a state-of-the-art subscription SaaS platform, as discussed above, businesses can view a wealth of subscription data and insights, and use it to reduce churn, recover lost revenue, improve the subscriber experience, drive user engagement, and optimize the subscriber journey towards growth KPIs.

Growth via retention

During times of uncertainty, acquiring new customers is harder than it already is. Retaining existing customers is a better way to generate more and consistent revenue. For subscription-based businesses, take it a step further and consider it this way: retention can be your growth engine in uncertain times.

If you have already done the work of building a solid backbone of subscribers, the next step is to start taking retention very seriously and engage those subscribers and increase their lifetime value (LTV). How? By keeping them connected to the products and services they love, and creating amazing subscription experiences that will be a comfort for them during times of unease.

There are lots of ways that advanced subscription tech can help you do this, from recovering lost revenue as a result of credit card errors or passive churn, to building personalized renewal offers and user journeys that tempt subscribers to engage more deeply with your brand. And you can do all this with Vindicia.

All this is Vindicia

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the air. In our discussions with clients, there is a sense that things are moving in a particular direction, yet no one is exactly sure how to make the right business decisions in real time.

And it’s not just while the pandemic lingers on. The fact is that consumer behavior and habits have changed, probably permanently, and it is unclear what that means for the future.

At Vindicia, we’ve got nearly two decades of subscription data behind us, so we’ve been watching subscription user patterns for a long time. We know that subscription businesses want agility, clarity, and growth, and we know the way to get there is via a state-of-the-art SaaS subscription platform, access to subscription data and insights, and advanced, creative approaches to retention, like personalization, zero-friction subscriptions, and proactive churn prevention strategies.

We’ve bundled all of that into one Vindicia platform, with the capability to accommodate businesses in a range of verticals and sizes, but who all share the same goal to scale, grow and maximize recurring revenue via smarter subscriptions and amazing subscription experiences.

About Author

Jesus Luzardo

Jesus Luzardo

Jesus Luzardo is VP, Global Head of Sales at Vindicia. As an international technology industry veteran, Jesus brings over 30 years of experience in commercial, marketing, strategy, operations and technology roles. Prior to Vindicia, Jesus was Head of Marketing for Amdocs in the Caribbean and Latin America region, driving marketing to significantly expand Amdocs’ sales pipeline. Before Amdocs, he was Head of Sales for Utiba (acquired by Amdocs in 2014), focusing on mobile financial services. His experience includes two years as Head of Corporate/B2B and CCO at Cable & Wireless, and 15 years with Motorola. He lives by Vince Lombardi’s motto: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Jesus holds an MBA from Universidad del Zulia (Venezuela), a B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Universidad Rafael Urdaneta (Venezuela), and Advanced Management certifications from Kellogg Institute of Management and IESE (Universidad de Navarra, Spain).