In app Subscriptions or Memberships - What is trending?

Leading app publishers say that they are confident about their business prospects, but are worried about the wider scope of other mobile apps. 

Reuter’s institute has surveyed 230 CEOs, editors, and digital leaders from 32 different countries. Here are the key findings from their annual report on the state of the app industry:

Half (50%) of them bet strongly on subscriptions, while around a third (35%) said both advertising and subscriptions, and only one in seven (14%) pinned their hopes on advertising alone. 

Pivot-to-paid is one of the key current trends in digital publishing and shows no signs of slowing. 

Today, organizations are creating revenue by adopting this very strategy. Even if they want to convert their website into a mobile app, they are adding a subscription strategy to their marketing plan. 

Advertising once dominated the industry, but now subscriptions have seen a renaissance.

App builders in the app industry are emerging and taking their stake on the opportunities and challenges of the new landscape. As of now, they are reflecting different methods to develop an engaging subscriber base and loyal following and also to grow revenue.

In this post, we are going to look at two different revenue models and how they work alone. Also, over time, they can be combined or deployed to create value for your target audience.

While this especially applies to news publishers, and niche content blogs, but can also be harnessed with other industry apps. Read on:

Subscriptions

The subscription revenue model reminds the era of print newspapers and magazines. However, today, it has been upgraded to the digital world of mixed media, mobile apps and websites, podcasts, webinars, and streaming content.

In-app subscriptions are the most trending monetization strategy that is currently in demand. 

What is a subscription model?

A subscription model compels your target audience to pay to access your content, whether on the website or the mobile app. 

With this subscription model in place, The New York Times and the Financial Times are two persuasive examples of digital publishers.

Why are subscriptions necessary?

With a subscription revenue model, you can succeed in retaining your existing readers (or customers). Therefore, the revenue you gain will rapidly begin to stack and allow you to invest in more content to drive user’s engagement. 

Mobile app builders producing apps with in-app subscriptions are also moving away from advertising to get more user visibility.

In addition to the in-app subscriptions, high-quality content is what matters. No one is going to subscribe to something they do not value. Therefore, your content on the app should be promising enough and urge your users to pay to access further. 

There is no surprise that compelling content inspires users to pull out their credit cards to subscribe to your app. The key is differentiation. It means what you are offering to your audience; nobody else does. Therefore, if you want to develop this kind of offer, you need to keep testing and validating ideas, and gathering as much feedback as possible from your audience.

The Information, a niche tech media company, for example, has 4,000 subscribers paying $399 per year, which is about $1.6 million in gross annual revenue.

Whatever your revenue model is, you can convert your WordPress website to a native Android & iOS app to achieve it rapidly. You can also use AppMySite WordPress mobile app plug in to incorporate in-app subscriptions (or advertising) and provide a cross-platform experience to your users.

What are the benefits of using a subscription revenue model?

- Give you a significant number of loyal users and a stable cash flow.

- With in-app subscriptions, you can reduce friction for your users to visit a website while making it easy to manage with just a few taps on their mobile devices.

- Offer users a free trial to read a sample content before subscribing. 

The market for in-app subscriptions is only growing. Moreover, Apple and Google both support in-app subscription purchases and incentivize them by lowering their revenue.

Building a strong community is the key here.

If you are looking for a subscription revenue model, not just focus on acquisition, but on retention as well, and make your audience happy.

Memberships

The membership revenue model is adjacent to the subscription model. In this model, individuals need to pay a recurring fee to access the value an organization creates.

What is a membership model?

Unlike a subscription model, a membership model promotes more user engagement. This model means there will be a two-way communication between the content publisher and their target audience.

A membership revenue model is inclusive of different membership levels, revenue sources, marketing activities, events and conferences, and finances. 

The Guardian, for example, is a publication that uses a membership model to encourage dialogue between their journalists and readers.

The difference between subscriptions and memberships can be indistinct. However, the key difference is - the subscription revenue model can be reduced to transactional value exchange, whereas the membership model implies more active participation and a more profound connection between publisher and audience.

Another element of the membership model is to provide access to a wider variety of products and services to members. It is more of a give and takes between the user and the provider. 

Amazon Prime, for example, uses the membership revenue model with a variety of benefits ranging from free shipping to streaming content and more.

Similar to the subscription model, you can turn your website into an app with AppMySite to incorporate in-app membership and grow your revenue.

Why are memberships necessary?

Introducing a membership revenue model can be a powerful thing.

Explicitly, for news apps, you can incorporate membership tiers. These tiers can be combined with subscriptions and donations to give your users increased access to interact with the organization.

Besides a simple subscription, users can purchase membership if they have a longing for better engagement. They want to be a part of an authentic relationship because these members crave for something more than passive engagement.

Wrapping up

If you are considering building a WordPress native app, it is valuable to examine your approach to revenue. Whether you want to go for in-app subscriptions or memberships, your users play a pivotal role in your app’s growth. 

Even when your users are giving value to the existing content on the app, the above models (subscription and membership revenue model) both can be combined to grow your organisation’s revenue effectively, and support its growth. This way, you can quickly build an engaged audience belt, who is happy to pay for your specialized content.

AppMySite app builder can create your app within a few clicks, and add a legitimate feature of in-app subscriptions that make your app sustainable, lucrative, and valuable for your users.

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Created on Jan 21st 2020 05:57. Viewed 937 times.

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