After 10+ years growing subscriptions at companies like WWE and Nickelodeon, I’ve learned something important: getting new customers is the easy part. Just spend more on ads and you’ll get more signups. The hard part? Keeping those customers around.

Here’s what happened at one company I led growth at. We were great at getting tons of new subscribers, but too many were leaving. When we looked into why, we found something interesting: people weren’t leaving because of price or competitors. They were leaving because we weren’t giving them what they really wanted.

This led us to completely change how we did things. Instead of sending the same messages to everyone, we started paying attention to how people used our service. We then sent them information about things they actually cared about. When we did this, we saw a huge jump in people engaging with our product, and more remained subscribed.

Our biggest win came when we stopped thinking of subscribers as just customers and started treating them like community members. We gave them special behind-the-scenes content and members-only events. Turns out people were interested in “how the sausage was made”. More people stayed subscribed because they felt like they were part of something special.

At another company, we had a different challenge: how do you make millions of subscribers feel special? We built a system that celebrated their milestones and responded to their feedback. Even though we had millions of subscribers, each person felt heard and valued.

Here’s another important lesson: what got someone to sign up usually isn’t enough to keep them around. You need to keep adding new benefits based on what your subscribers actually use and what they tell you they want.

The first 24 hours, the first week, and the first month is crucial. If you can show people the value of your service as quickly as possible and make it part of their routine, they’re much more likely to stay. When we got this right at WWE Network, far fewer people cancelled.

Want to keep more of your subscribers? Start by finding out when and why most people leave. Create ways to help see the value you provide before they get to that point – show them the value early and often.

Listen to their feedback. But most importantly, remember that keeping subscribers isn’t just about stopping them from leaving – it’s about making them love your service so much that they want to remain subscribed, and tell others about it.

In subscription businesses, that’s where real growth comes from.

SubscriptionGrowth #CustomerRetention #GrowthStrategy #SaaS

I help subscription/SaaS businesses with growth strategy and execution so they can grow in a predictable, repeatable way. I have 20+ years of experience leading growth at startups like Curiosity, mid-sized companies like WWE, and large companies like Viacom/Nickelodeon.

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