Starting a subscription business can be tough. There are a number of boxes to check off before you can get the ball rolling, but it is certainly doable and can be well worth your while. The subscription service model is quite popular nowadays, you could even say we’re in the ‘boom’ of it. It’s not difficult to see why it’s so sought after — there is a lot of upside:

• Simplicity in receiving payments
• Reliable financial forecasting
• Scalability
• Lower barriers of entry for customers

Launching a subscription service can open up new opportunities that would otherwise not be possible. Here, we’ll cover 4 key steps for launching your subscription business the right way.

1. Identify Goals

As with any effort, you need baseline goals to measure off of. This will guide the process of creating your subscription service and will make it easier to decide what is, and isn’t important. Figure out your desired revenue, number of subscribers needed to reach it, the costs to start up and continue running your business, along with many other goals specific to you. Generally speaking, subscription models often rely on gaining volume over high price items, so seek the balance that you think is right.

2. Analyze Product Market Fit

This is a big one. Product market fit can make or break the viability of your service and whether it can survive in a subscription model.

Does your business make sense to follow a subscription model? Is there an appetite for what you offer in the market? What are people willing to pay?

You can also see if different tiers or levels make sense. You can aim to provide different levels of service with your subscription; e.g. Basic, Premium and Expert. With this, you also want to evaluate your startup costs for a subscription business. Creating everything from scratch requires time, resources, and capital.

But, there are platforms available that allow you to build a business without pouring money into startup costs, letting you launch without custom development, manage payments, fulfillment, etc. For example, LaunchPass can help you get your subscription business launched without having to develop any software to manage subscribers and payments. It’s simple, intuitive and has successfully managed over 1 million memberships.

3. Invest in Branding

Before you launch, be sure to have a grounded value proposition. This will set the foundation for how attractive your subscription service will be and how it will stand out. Does your value proposition align with your platform? What about your audience? The derived value from your service will mostly be determined by your customers. Consistent, strong branding will be better recognized and act as a unique personality for your business.

This doesn’t mean you have to break the bank establishing a brand. But you can offer a consistent experience across your properties with relatively little investment, driving consistency with visuals, messaging, and more. This could be as simple as creating a high-converting landing page with your custom branding, for example.

4. Think About Retention

What happens after subscribers join? Gaining customers is only half of the battle — equally important is keeping them engaged. Simply put, what do you have that will keep subscribers? And what measures are in place to keep track of those that leave? How you do this is, for the most part, up to you. Some starting ideas are consistent updates in content, loyalty programs and rewards, or deals and win-back offers for those at risk of cancelling.

Putting Your Plan into Action

Once you have all the boxes checked off, you can get started on turning your vision into a legitimate business. There are multiple avenues you can take depending on how you’ve approached the four launch steps above. Maybe you’ve decided that you need to make the investment to build your subscription service completely custom from the ground up. Or maybe it makes more sense to use an existing platform that lets you take advantage of tools to help you manage subscribers, payments and more.

If you want to keep startup costs lean and are considering a platform to launch your subscription business quickly, check us out and see why LaunchPass has become the preferred subscription service platform for so many creators and business owners. Start your free trial here.